No Dharma Can Go Beyond the Tathāgatagarbha

The tathāgatagarbha can generate all dharmas; every single dharma is brought forth by the tathāgatagarbha. Not only the myriad dharmas—countless billions of dharmas, immeasurable dharmas—all are born of the tathāgatagarbha. Apart from the tathāgatagarbha, everything belongs to the dharmas among those countless billions. Whether it is empty space, the air, or the Buddha-lands of the ten directions, no dharma can go beyond the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha, the eighth consciousness, is called the one true dharma realm; no dharma can transcend this one true dharma realm. The countless billions of dharmas are like Sun Wukong, while the tathāgatagarbha is like the Tathāgata Buddha. If one asks where the tathāgatagarbha comes from, the Heart Sutra and the Prajñā sūtras point out to us that the tathāgatagarbha neither comes nor goes, neither arises nor ceases; it has always existed, existing in such a way by its very nature (dharmatā).

Since it is so by its very nature, even the Buddhas of the ten directions cannot tell us why the tathāgatagarbha has always existed from the beginning. This is not a dharma invented or created by the Buddhas; rather, the Buddha, through cultivation over three countless great kalpas, discovered and realized this truth, and then proclaimed it to sentient beings.

The Buddha also said in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra: "Empty space is produced within your mind, just as a single cloud appears in the great sky." This clearly tells us that empty space is generated by the mind, and the place it occupies within the mind is extremely tiny. Therefore, although the tathāgatagarbha mind contains not a single dharma, He is vast and ever vaster, boundless and ever more boundless, encompassing all phenomena without omitting a single dharma. No matter how great one's abilities may be, no one can leap beyond the tathāgatagarbha.