All things and phenomena are the tathāgatagarbha

The tathāgatagarbha only allows all things to arise and cease and change ceaselessly, while Itself does not change. If the tathāgatagarbha were also subject to change, then it would be a dharma subject to arising, abiding, alteration, and cessation, and this would entail an enormous fault. If that were the case, then a problem would arise: when was the tathāgatagarbha born, and how was it brought forth? Before He existed, all things and all dharmas would not exist—not even empty space. What kind of state would that be? Where would the karmic seeds of sentient beings be stored? Where would the manas reside? If the tathāgatagarbha could cease, how would He cease, and from what cause would He cease? After ceasing, what would become of the seeds of all dharmas? Would the retributive results of sentient beings still exist?

The tathāgatagarbha abides nowhere, and of course does not abide within all things; otherwise, after all things are destroyed, would the tathāgatagarbha be destroyed along with them? If one divided all things apart bit by bit, would one then be able to find the tathāgatagarbha? This is fundamentally impossible. The growth of all things until their destruction is a process of the combined operation of the four great element seeds, and is the result of the tathāgatagarbha mobilizing and upholding them.

In all dharmas, one can find the traces of the tathāgatagarbha's operation; His traces and marks are the mental dharmas and material forms formed by the seven great seeds, all of which are raw materials within the tathāgatagarbha itself. Therefore, upon seeing dharmas one should see the tathāgatagarbha. The mountains filling the eyes are no other dharma; the whole is just one true dharmadhātu—the tathāgatagarbha, which neither arises nor ceases. Not even a hair's breadth or a speck of dust is permitted to stand outside the tathāgatagarbha; all are dharmas within the mind of the tathāgatagarbha, and all are the essence, marks, and functions of the tathāgatagarbha. Sentient beings live within the tathāgatagarbha; in reality there are no sentient beings—everything is the tathāgatagarbha. Which dharma is not the tathāgatagarbha? Which dharma could exist independently, transcending the tathāgatagarbha? None can.