The True Meaning of Perfuming and Seed Retention

Some say the sixth consciousness cannot perfume the seventh consciousness, but can only perfume tathāgatagarbha. Is this statement correct? The key lies in understanding the relationship between the sixth consciousness, the seventh consciousness, and tathāgatagarbha, the purpose of the sixth consciousness's perfuming, and whether tathāgatagarbha can be perfumed. For example, when the sixth consciousness encounters the Buddha Dharma, it feels the Dharma is excellent, capable of eliminating ignorance and attaining liberation. Thus, it diligently studies and practices, single-mindedly seeking liberation. During this practice, is tathāgatagarbha being perfumed, or is the seventh consciousness being perfumed? It is certainly the seventh consciousness that is perfumed; it is the seventh consciousness that undergoes change. Tathāgatagarbha is neither perfumed nor altered. However, after the seventh consciousness is perfumed, the karmic seeds are stored within tathāgatagarbha. Thus, tathāgatagarbha contains the wholesome karmic seeds of studying and practicing the Buddha Dharma. It is conventionally said that tathāgatagarbha is perfumed, but in essence, tathāgatagarbha is not perfumed, because it remains unmoving and unperturbed in the face of all phenomena, neither wholesome nor unwholesome, and thus cannot be perfumed.

When the sixth consciousness studies and practices the Buddha Dharma, it cannot perfume tathāgatagarbha. Tathāgatagarbha will never study or practice the Buddha Dharma, so the sixth consciousness cannot perfume it. The sixth consciousness has ignorance and wishes to eliminate it. Can it perfume tathāgatagarbha to eliminate ignorance? Obviously not. Because tathāgatagarbha is free from ignorance; since it has no ignorance, there is no need to eliminate it. Therefore, the sixth consciousness cannot perfume tathāgatagarbha; it can only perfume the seventh consciousness. Tathāgatagarbha is like one without weapons, deaf, mute, and blind. It cannot study or practice the Buddha Dharma, cannot eliminate afflictions, or abandon the unwholesome for the wholesome. Moreover, it has no afflictions to eliminate and no ignorance to remove.

The sixth consciousness wishes to become a Buddha, to attain liberation, to enter Nirvana. No matter how much it perfumes, tathāgatagarbha has none of these mental activities or thoughts; otherwise, it would fall into worldly mental activities. Therefore, the sixth consciousness can only perfume the seventh consciousness to generate these thoughts and aspirations. Tathāgatagarbha itself is the Tathāgata, liberated and free, inherently abiding in the state of Nirvana—unborn and unceasing, unmoving and unstill, uncoming and ungoing—utterly unmoving. Thus, it has no thought of becoming a Buddha or entering Nirvana. Asking tathāgatagarbha to cultivate the Thirty-Seven Aids to Enlightenment is pointless: first, it cannot comprehend them, and second, it is unnecessary. Asking it to cultivate precepts, concentration, and wisdom is redundant, as it inherently possesses them without needing instruction. Asking it to eliminate afflictions is impossible, as it has no afflictions whatsoever. Those who wish to perfume tathāgatagarbha fundamentally fail to understand what tathāgatagarbha is, what perfuming means, or its significance and result. They merely engage in various sentimentalities, various delusions, adding a head on top of a head, drawing legs on a snake—struggling for decades, yet still not understanding what studying the Buddha Dharma is about.

Since beginningless time, the mental faculty (manas) has been accompanied by ignorance, entangled by it. After giving birth to the six consciousnesses, the mental faculty transmits ignorance to them, perfuming the sixth consciousness. After studying the Buddha Dharma, when the sixth consciousness awakens, it influences the mental faculty to awaken together, perfuming the mental faculty to gradually eliminate ignorance bit by bit, gradually illuminating it. In this process, as the mental faculty is perfumed, seeds are formed and stored within tathāgatagarbha for future use.

How are they used in the future? When the conditions for the seeds ripen, they again perfume the sixth consciousness. After the sixth consciousness awakens, it studies and practices the Buddha Dharma, perfuming the mental faculty anew, forming fresh seeds stored within tathāgatagarbha. This process is like rolling a snowball: the seeds perfuming the mental faculty become more numerous and larger, ignorance becomes thinner, and finally, all ignorance is completely eradicated, and sentient beings become Buddhas. Tathāgatagarbha, continuously storing and outputting the perfumed seeds, plays an indispensable role in this process. Without tathāgatagarbha storing and outputting seeds, spiritual practice would be merely a game—practiced in vain, leaving nothing behind, with no merit available for future lives. The process of tathāgatagarbha storing seeds is called "receiving perfuming and holding seeds" (受熏持种).

Ancient texts are not something everyone can parse and deeply comprehend. Profound Buddha Dharma is not something everyone can accurately conjecture with their brains. No one should presume to think they know it all. To achieve such understanding is extremely difficult, requiring immense roots of goodness, merit, and wisdom. There are also those who say one can attain Buddhahood without tathāgatagarbha. One wonders what they could possibly use to become a Buddha. Failing to recognize one's own master, one's benefactor throughout countless eons—truly, such a mind should awaken to reality.