Are the Seven Great Seeds Real?

Only the substance of truth that truly exists possesses a generative function, enabling it to give rise to other dharmas. The Tathāgatagarbha is the true substance of truth, capable of producing all dharmas. However, the Tathāgatagarbha must utilize the Seven Great Seeds to create all dharmas. Thus, the Seven Great Seeds must be truly existent within the Tathāgatagarbha, real and substantial, so that the Tathāgatagarbha can employ them to constitute all dharmas. If they lacked substance and were not truly existent, they would be unable to create other dharmas. Illusory things cannot structure other dharmas because they do not exist and lack substance.

To determine whether a dharma is absolutely real, one must examine whether it exists eternally, whether it requires no birth, and whether it remains immutable forever. "Eternally" includes the state of complete nirvana. The Tathāgatagarbha and the Seven Great Seeds perpetually exist; even within complete nirvana, they endure forever without needing to be born. There is no dharma that gives birth to these two; conversely, all dharmas are born from them.