The Clinging of the Manas to All Dharmas in the Three Realms

The functioning of the five aggregates and the eighteen realms are all the functional operations of the seven great seeds transmitted by the tathāgatagarbha. The operations of the seven great seeds upon the six faculties and six sense objects—the operations of earth, water, fire, wind, and space upon the material body, and the operations of the consciousness seeds upon the conscious mind—are all manifested in the functioning of the five aggregates. When the consciousness seeds, the four great-element seeds, the space-element seed, and the seeing-element seed operate together, the five aggregates come into being. When the tathāgatagarbha transmits the seeds outward, the functional operations of the seeds are formed; the functional operations of the seeds are also the functional operations of the tathāgatagarbha, yet they differ from the tathāgatagarbha itself—the two are neither the same nor different. The seeds inherently possessed by the tathāgatagarbha conjure up all dharmas; the seeds and all dharmas belong to the tathāgatagarbha, and the tathāgatagarbha can both gather and release them, so all dharmas belong to the tathāgatagarbha.

However, the tathāgatagarbha does not have the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses; it is completely devoid of self-nature, does not cling to any dharma, and its mind-ground is intrinsically pure. The manas, on the other hand, grasps all the dharmas conjured up by the tathāgatagarbha as "I," "mine," and "belonging to me," and clings to the functional operations of the six consciousnesses as "I" and "mine," not knowing that they are all produced by the tathāgatagarbha and belong to the tathāgatagarbha. It clings to the dharmas conjured up by the tathāgatagarbha, yet does not know of the tathāgatagarbha's existence and its conjuring function. The tathāgatagarbha gives birth to the five aggregates and the eighteen realms in accordance with karmic seeds and karmic conditions; there is not a single dharma that is not brought forth by its operation, yet the manas believes they all belong to itself and thus develops craving and attachment. Because of its craving and clinging nature, it is entangled and wrapped up within the three realms, unable to escape and attain liberation. What is entangled and wrapped up is the manas, not the six consciousnesses, because it is the manas that grasps the myriad dharmas and refuses to let go.