The Wearied Contact and the Mark of Wearied Contact of the Tathāgatagarbha

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 originally the wondrous true-suchness nature of the tathāgatagarbha? Ānanda, it is precisely the activity-sign, fatigue-sign, and operation-sign that appear when your eyes stare fixedly at objects. The eye is the eye faculty, and the sign of fatigue is the aggregate of formations; both are signs of fatigued contact manifested and brought forth by the wondrous bodhi. Relying on the two kinds of delusive sense-objects—light and darkness—the tathāgatagarbha generates a seeing within them. This seeing-nature absorbs these sense-object images, thereby manifesting the sense-objects; this phenomenon is called the seeing-nature. Apart from the two delusive sense-objects of light and darkness, this seeing fundamentally has no body of its own.

The meaning of this passage is that the tathāgatagarbha, relying on the two sense-object images of light and darkness, forcibly generates the 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; in actuality it is still the seeing-nature of the tathāgatagarbha. Therefore, the eye base is the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. By the same token, the ear base, nose base, tongue base, body base, and mind base are all the nature of the tathāgatagarbha: at the places where the six faculties and six sense-objects make contact, the tathāgatagarbha forcibly generates the seeing of the six consciousnesses, and thus the six consciousnesses have a seeing-nature. The essence of the six consciousnesses' seeing-nature is in fact the seeing-nature of the tathāgatagarbha.

In the discussion of the delusiveness of the six sense bases, the sign of fatigue from bodhi's staring is mentioned: at the place of contact between the faculties and the fatigued contact, the seeing-nature of the six consciousnesses arises. This seeing-nature has no body apart from the sense-objects; it has no self-existing body and no autonomy. The seeing-nature of the six consciousnesses at the six faculties is the second moon, the sign of fatigue from the staring of the tathāgatagarbha's bodhi. It does not come from anywhere else; it comes directly from the bodhi of the tathāgatagarbha, from the seeds of consciousness among the seven intrinsically existing great seeds of the tathāgatagarbha.

The sign of fatigue from the tathāgatagarbha's staring is like pressing the eyes with the hand: when the eyes become sore and weary from fatigue, 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. To call it false, yet it is real; to call it real, yet it is false. For the 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; the image formed by pressing the eyes is also not a mere shadow. These signs of fatigue of the tathāgatagarbha are brought about by the manas. If the manas could become quiet, the tathāgatagarbha would not labor, and then all the signs of fatigue—the seeing-natures—would vanish and be seen no more.

This sign of fatigued contact of the tathāgatagarbha is caused by the manas. The tathāgatagarbha's own substance does not have fatigued contact or signs of fatigued contact, because it has no mind toward the dharmas of the three realms. The tathāgatagarbha, whose mind-nature is quiescent and extinguished, continually gives rise to various dharmas following the manas's unceasing grasping: it must use the eyes to see forms, the ears to hear sounds, the nose to smell scents, the tongue to know tastes, the body to feel tangibles, and the mind consciousness to discern dharmas. Thus the signs of fatigued contact at the six sense bases appear.

If the manas does not grasp at dharmas, the tathāgatagarbha abides in quiescence and does not give rise to dharmas, and the functions and roles of the six sense bases would not be produced. When delusive dharmas do not arise, the tathāgatagarbha abides in the real, unmoving, wondrously profound and serene. Originally the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to no dharma at all and is unmoving with respect to all dharmas; but when karmic seeds ripen, through conditions it stirs delusively, and dharmas must inevitably be born. As soon as dharmas are born, it is fatigued contact—compelled by the manas. Yet the tathāgatagarbha has no thought or notion of being compelled, nor does it know it is being compelled; it simply acts in accord with conditions, spontaneously, without any other thought.