Are the Seven Great Seeds Real?

Only the truly existent noumenon possesses the generative function and can give rise to other dharmas. The Tathāgatagarbha is the true noumenon, capable of producing all dharmas. However, the Tathāgatagarbha must utilize the seven fundamental seeds to create all dharmas. Thus, the seven fundamental seeds must truly and substantially exist within the Tathāgatagarbha for it to utilize them and constitute all dharmas. If they lack substantial reality and do not truly exist, they cannot create other dharmas. Virtual entities cannot construct other dharmas because they do not exist and lack substantiality.

To determine whether a dharma is absolutely real, one must examine whether it eternally exists, whether it requires no birth, and whether it perpetually remains unchanged. Eternality includes the state of Nirvana without residue; the Tathāgatagarbha and the seven fundamental seeds eternally exist, even within Nirvana without residue. They eternally require no birth, as there is no dharma that gives birth to these two. Conversely, all dharmas are born from these two.