The seeing of the tathāgatagarbha is different from the seeing of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses.

When the six consciousnesses do not exist, does the tathāgatagarbha still perceive dharmas? When the six consciousnesses do not exist, the other dharmas also do not cease. As long as dharmas exist, the tathāgatagarbha will perceive them, because the tathāgatagarbha has never been apart from all dharmas; where there are dharmas, there is the tathāgatagarbha's function of upholding them. Is the seventh consciousness, the manas, the perceiving-aspect (darśana-bhāga) of the tathāgatagarbha? The manas is not the perceiving-aspect of the tathāgatagarbha. When the manas does not exist, the tathāgatagarbha can still perceive the karmic seeds. The dharmas perceived by the tathāgatagarbha are more numerous than those perceived by the manas; the dharmas that the manas does not perceive, the tathāgatagarbha still perceives on its own. In Nirvāṇa without remainder, the tathāgatagarbha can still perceive dharmas and perceive seeds, and the five universal mental factors continue to operate as usual. The "eyes" of the manas and those of the tathāgatagarbha are different, and therefore the marks they perceive are different: one perceives worldly dharma-marks, while the other perceives non-worldly dharma-marks.

The six consciousnesses are not the perceiving-aspect of the tathāgatagarbha; the tathāgatagarbha does not perceive all dharmas through the six consciousnesses. The tathāgatagarbha has the perceiving-aspect of its own substance, which is the five universal mental factors: attention (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), and volition (cetanā). After the tathāgatagarbha generates attention toward a dharma, it makes contact with the dharma; after contact, it can receive and accept it; afterward it discerns, and after discerning, it knows the dharma. This is the perceiving-aspect of the tathāgatagarbha, the manner in which the tathāgatagarbha perceives dharmas.

However, the content and substance of what the tathāgatagarbha perceives are completely different from what the six consciousnesses perceive. The dharmas perceived by the six consciousnesses all fall within the appearances of the six sense objects; what is grasped are the appearances of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas—these are worldly dharmas. The dharmas perceived by the tathāgatagarbha do not fall within the appearances of worldly dharmas; they are not form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas. The mind consciousness cannot understand what the tathāgatagarbha perceives; therefore, the perceiving-aspect of the tathāgatagarbha is not the five consciousnesses or the six consciousnesses. Yet after the six consciousnesses perceive dharmas, they have a certain effect on the operation of the tathāgatagarbha. This effect is manifested in how the perceiving of the six consciousnesses can influence the manas; when the manas is influenced, it will generate the corresponding decision, and the tathāgatagarbha must then operate the next dharma in accordance with the manas's decision, and new dharmas will thereby come into being.