The Tathāgatagarbha's Afflicted Contact and Its Mark

Original text of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume Three:复次阿难。云何六入。本如来藏。妙真如性。阿难。即彼目睛。瞪发劳者。兼目与劳。同是菩提。瞪发劳相。因于明暗。二种妄尘。发见居中。吸此尘象。名为见性。此见离彼。明暗二尘。毕竟无体。

Explanation: Furthermore, Ānanda, why are the six sense bases (ṣaḍāyatana) originally the wondrous true suchness nature of the tathāgatagarbha? Ānanda, it is the activity-mark, the mark of strain, the mark of operation that arises when your eyes stare fixedly at objects; the eye is the eye faculty, and the mark of strain is the aggregate of volitional formations; both are marks of strained contact manifested and revealed through the operation of wondrous bodhi. The tathāgatagarbha, by means of the two kinds of false sense-objects—light and darkness—generates a seeing within them; this seeing nature absorbs these sense-object images, thereby manifesting the sense-objects, and this phenomenon is called the seeing nature. Apart from the two false sense-objects of light and darkness, this seeing nature fundamentally has no body of its own.

The meaning of this passage is that the tathāgatagarbha, by means of the two kinds of sense-object images of light and darkness, forcibly generates a seeing of the eye consciousness between the eye faculty and the contacted sense-object, and thus there is seeing of the sense-objects and there is a seeing nature. Although this seeing nature is the seeing of the eye consciousness, it is generated by the tathāgatagarbha, and in reality it is still the seeing nature of the tathāgatagarbha. Therefore, the eye base is the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. By the same reasoning, the ear base, nose base, tongue base, body base, and mind base are all the nature of the tathāgatagarbha: it is the tathāgatagarbha that, at the places where the six faculties and six sense-objects make contact, forcibly generates the seeing of the six consciousnesses, and thus the six consciousnesses have a seeing nature; then the essence of the seeing nature of the six consciousnesses is the seeing nature of the tathāgatagarbha.

In the discussion of the falsity of the six sense bases, the mark of strain arising from staring is spoken of in terms of bodhi: at the place where the faculty and strained contact occur, the seeing nature of the six consciousnesses arises. This seeing nature, apart from the sense-objects, has no body; it has no self-nature and no autonomy. The seeing nature of the six consciousnesses at the six faculties is the second moon; it is the mark of strain arising from the staring of the bodhi of the tathāgatagarbha. It does not come from anywhere else; it comes directly from within the bodhi of the tathāgatagarbha, from the seed of consciousness among the seven great seeds of the tathāgatagarbha.

The mark of strain arising from the staring of the tathāgatagarbha is like pressing the eyes with the hand: when the eyes become sore, weary, and strained, one sees objects with double images—one real and one false. The false one is the second moon, which comes from the real; without the real there would be no false. If you call it false, yet it is real; if you call it real, yet it is false. For that false one, saying it is false is not right, and saying it is real is also not right—it is neither real nor false, yet both real and false; and the image formed by pressing the eye is also not a mere shadow. These marks of strain of the tathāgatagarbha are brought about by the manas. If the manas could become tranquil, the tathāgatagarbha would not strain, and then all the marks of strain—the seeing nature—would disappear and be seen no more.

This mark of strained contact of the tathāgatagarbha is caused by the manas; the tathāgatagarbha's own substance does not have strained contact or marks of strained contact, because it has no mind toward the dharmas of the three realms. The tathāgatagarbha, whose mind-nature is quiescent and extinguished, following the ceaseless grasping of the manas, ceaselessly gives rise to various dharmas, and has no choice but to use the eye to see forms, the ear to hear sounds, the nose to smell scents, the tongue to know tastes, the body to feel tangibles, and the mind consciousness to know dharmas. Thus the marks of strained contact at the six sense bases appear.

If the manas does not grasp at the various dharmas, the tathāgatagarbha abides in quiescence and extinction, does not give rise to the various dharmas, and does not produce these functions and operations of the six sense bases. When false dharmas do not arise, the tathāgatagarbha abides in the real, unmoving, wondrously profound and tranquil. Originally the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to no dharma whatsoever and is unmoving with respect to all dharmas; but when karmic seeds ripen, due to conditions there is false movement, and the various dharmas must inevitably be born. As soon as the various dharmas are born, it is strained contact, being forced by the manas; yet the tathāgatagarbha has no thought or notion of being forced, and does not even know it is being forced—it merely acts in accordance with conditions, spontaneously, without entertaining any other thought.