There Are No Seeds of Mental Factors (caitasika) Within the Tathāgatagarbha

Mental factors (caittas) are the assisting companions of consciousness; wherever there is consciousness, there are the five universally present mental factors. As for some mental factors, when the six consciousnesses arise and operate, those mental factors do not necessarily manifest and operate; then they are not called universally present mental factors—they may be the five object-specific mental factors, or afflictive mental factors, or possibly wholesome mental factors. These mental factors do not manifest at all times. "Universally present" means that wherever there is consciousness, there are such mental factors; the mental factors accompany consciousness inseparably, and that is why they are called universally present mental factors. The five universally present mental factors differ from the "pervasiveness" of the tathāgatagarbha. The five kinds of pervasiveness of the tathāgatagarbha refer to the tathāgatagarbha's essence pervading its operation through all times, places, locations, realms, and dharmas; the operation of the tathāgatagarbha's essence is also accompanied by its own five universally present mental factors.

Consciousnesses all operate in the form of mental factors. Mental factors have no seeds and are not generated from seeds; as soon as a certain consciousness manifests, that consciousness operates in the form of mental factors. Mental factors operate in accompaniment with consciousness and are its assisting companions. Mental factors have no seeds; the eighth consciousness does not store seeds of mental factors, nor do the other consciousnesses store seeds of mental factors. Mental factors have no seeds, just as ignorance has no seed, and just as formations dissociated from mind (citta-viprayukta-saṃskāra) also have no seeds.