What is Seeing One's True Nature?

Seeing-nature is the wondrous meritorious quality of the tathāgatagarbha seeing dharmas; it is formed from the tathāgatagarbha's seed of the great element of seeing. Only after the tathāgatagarbha sees dharmas can the seven consciousnesses have seeing and perceive the dharmas corresponding to each of them. Seeing-nature is also called buddha-nature, also called tathāgatagarbha-nature; it is the wondrous function of the tathāgatagarbha. Without buddha-nature, no dharma could function or arise. Therefore the Buddha said that all dharmas are the nature of the tathāgatagarbha, all are the functions and operations of the tathāgatagarbha.

Buddha-nature, or seeing-nature, is also called the nature of awakening; it is the tathāgatagarbha's nature of cognizing all dharmas. The tathāgatagarbha's nature of awakening has no arising or ceasing, yet the manifestation of this nature of awakening is conditional: the conditions are the existence of conditioned, arising-and-ceasing dharmas such as brightness and darkness, form and emptiness, penetration and blockage, as taught in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra. If these conditioned dharmas and dharmas of dependent origination did not exist, the nature of awakening could not manifest and operate. Only after the tathāgatagarbha cognizes and apprehends all dharmas can the seven consciousnesses have awareness and cognition, be able to apprehend dharmas, know and perceive dharmas, and experience dharmas. Therefore the Buddha said that the tathāgatagarbha's nature of awakening is the wondrous true suchness nature, and that all dharmas are the wondrous true suchness nature; without the wondrous true suchness nature, no dharma could manifest or be born. This buddha-nature, this wondrous true suchness nature, is of such importance that, in combination with the tathāgatagarbha's five universally present mental factors, it perfectly presents all dharmas, and only thus is the world of the five aggregates so resplendent, colorful, and varied.

The tathāgatagarbha is like an electric lamp, and buddha-nature is like the lamplight. When the electric lamp shines, illuminating all dharmas, only then can the tathāgatagarbha operate the dharmas, with the mental factors arising and functioning alongside during its operation. After buddha-nature manifests its wondrous function, all dharmas appear, the seven consciousnesses perceive dharmas, and the eight consciousnesses operate in harmonious conjunction. Seeing-nature and buddha-nature can only function depending on the tathāgatagarbha as the underlying essence, but they are not identical to the tathāgatagarbha essence, nor can they function unconditionally forever; here lies a hidden phenomenon of arising and ceasing. However, one must not confuse the arising and ceasing of buddha-nature with the arising and ceasing of the worldly dharmas of the five aggregates, for the two are essentially different: worldly dharmas go from nonexistence to existence, arising out of nothing, whereas buddha-nature exists from the beginning and does not need to be born.