The Unconditioned Dharmas in the Hundred Dharmas' Bright Gate

The Hundred Dharmas Bright Gate introduces six kinds of unconditioned dharmas, among which there is the inherent unconditionedness of the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, as well as the unconditionedness cultivated later by the deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses; both the true and the deluded are included therein. "Unconditioned like space" (ākāśaṃ-asaṃskṛta) refers to the fact that when the tathāgatagarbha, in its own substance, operates all dharmas, it remains suchness-immovable, just like empty space—this is the nature of unconditionedness. The tathāgatagarbha is forever suchness-immovable; no matter what states it encounters, it never stirs a thought, and its mind-nature is unconditioned. "Suchness unconditioned" (tathatā-asaṃskṛta) refers to the unconditionedness of the tathāgatagarbha; "unconditioned through non-elimination" (apratisaṃkhyā-nirodha) also refers to the unconditionedness of the tathāgatagarbha; "unconditioned immovability" (āniñjya-asaskṛta) refers to when the seven consciousnesses are cultivated to the fourth dhyāna, where the mind does not stir thoughts and is thus unconditioned, and the body has no breath, pulse, or heartbeat, and is likewise unconditioned and unmoving—when both body and mind are unconditioned, this is called unconditioned immovability. "Unconditioned through elimination" (pratisaṃkhyā-nirodha) and "cessation of perception and feeling" (saṃjñā-veditā-nirodha) both refer to the unconditionedness of the seven consciousnesses. When the manas is in the cessation attainment (nirodha-samāpatti), perception and feeling are absent, with only mental engagement (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), and volition (cetanā) remaining, so most of its mental activities have become unconditioned.

In fact, the tathāgatagarbha is inherently an unconditioned dharma; its mind-nature is unconditioned, yet this does not hinder its conditioned nature of serving sentient beings and the five aggregates. Within the conditioned, its mind-nature is absolutely unconditioned. Is there any dharma that surpasses the unconditioned mind-nature of the tathāgatagarbha? No, there is not. The seven consciousnesses can never be more unconditioned than the tathāgatagarbha, and the five aggregates can never be more unconditioned than the tathāgatagarbha; there is no dharma more unconditioned than the tathāgatagarbha. Only when the seven consciousnesses are cultivated to a considerable degree can they gradually become unconditioned, and the unconditionedness cultivated later, acquired after birth, is a dharma subject to arising and ceasing.