No Dharma Can Be Beyond Tathagatagarbha

The Tathagatagarbha gives rise to all dharmas; every single dharma is born from the Tathagatagarbha. Not only all dharmas, but even billions upon billions of dharmas, immeasurable dharmas, are all born from the Tathagatagarbha. Apart from the Tathagatagarbha, everything else belongs to the realm of these billions upon billions of dharmas. Whether it is empty space, air, or the Buddha-lands of the ten directions, not a single dharma can exist outside the Tathagatagarbha. The eighth consciousness, the Tathagatagarbha, is called the One True Dharma Realm; there is not a single dharma that can transcend this One True Dharma Realm. The billions upon billions of dharmas are like the Monkey King, while the Tathagatagarbha is like the Tathagata Buddha. If one asks where the Tathagatagarbha comes from, the Heart Sutra and the Prajna Sutras instruct us that the Tathagatagarbha neither comes nor goes, is neither born nor perishes; it inherently exists, eternally present, the way it naturally is.

Since it is inherently so, even the Buddhas of the ten directions cannot tell us why the Tathagatagarbha has always existed inherently. This is because it is not a dharma invented or created by the Buddhas; rather, it is a truth that the Buddha discovered and realized through cultivation over three great immeasurable kalpas, and then expounded for the sake of sentient beings.

The Buddha also stated in the Shurangama Sutra that the empty space of the ten directions arises within your mind, like a speck of cloud in the vast clear sky. This clearly tells us that empty space is born from the mind, and the space it occupies within the mind is exceedingly minute. Therefore, it is said that the mind of Tathagatagarbha, though empty of any single dharma, is vast beyond measure, boundless without limit, encompassing all phenomena, leaving not a single dharma behind. No matter how great one's abilities may be, none can leap outside the Tathagatagarbha.