The Classification of Worldly Dharmas

Mental factors (caittas), as the name implies, are dharmas that belong to the mind. Emotions, attitudes, opinions, suggestions, anxiety, agitation, jealousy, sadness, and so on—all are dharmas that arise on the mind and belong to the mind, so they are all called mental factors. Dharmas that arise on the body, dharmas that belong to the body, as the name implies, are called dharmas belonging to the body. Dharmas belonging to the material body—for example, falling ill, changes in body weight, the occurrence of various mishaps, producing some things, or losing some things, and so on—all the arising, ceasing, and changes that occur on the body are dharmas of the body. The material body is divided into the inner body and the outer body: the inner body is the physical body, and the outer body is the six sense objects of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharma; taken together, they all constitute the body of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha). The physical body is material form, and the dharmas that arise on the body are also material form, so whatever belongs to material form is also material form. All dharmas that belong to the body are also dharmas that belong to the mind—which mind does this refer to?

All worldly dharmas are divided into material form (rūpa) and mind (citta), as well as what is neither material form nor mind; in terms of their ownership, they are divided into dharmas belonging to the mind, dharmas belonging to the body, and dharmas belonging to neither body nor mind. All these dharmas are subsumed under the ownership of the tathāgatagarbha. Once all dharmas are attributed to the tathāgatagarbha, there is nothing left—so what are we still greedily attached to now? It is all empty, all false appearance. Unfortunately, the habit of greedy attachment is too deeply rooted and too hard to change. The root cause is still that the real nature of the dharmadhātu has not been understood, has not been seen clearly. This matter takes three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas to thoroughly clarify, and by then, cultivation is also complete.