The Tathāgatagarbha Neither Exits Nor Enters

A dharma that has entering and exiting is a dharma of arising, ceasing, and change, not an everlasting dharma. Therefore, the tathāgatagarbha neither enters Nirvāṇa without remainder nor exits Nirvāṇa without remainder. The tathāgatagarbha is not inside Nirvāṇa without remainder, nor is it outside Nirvāṇa without remainder; Nirvāṇa has no inside and no outside.

The tathāgatagarbha is a dharma abandoned by the mundane world; it does not keep company with any mundane dharma. After all the mundane dharmas—the five aggregates and the eighteen realms—have ceased, the tathāgatagarbha does not cease along with them but abides independently and at ease; this is precisely why there is Nirvāṇa without remainder. Otherwise, there would not even be Nirvāṇa without remainder. If, after the five aggregates and the eighteen realms ceased, everything ended once and for all and nothing existed at all, then there would be no future lives and no lives after those future lives either. After the five aggregates and the eighteen realms arise, the tathāgatagarbha does not arise along with them, because the tathāgatagarbha originally exists, fully present and ready-made, needing no arising.