The Transformation of the Essential Object Is Called the Object with a Basis.

Question: After a single tathāgatagarbha contacts an object-aspect's essential realm and forms an image, can the resulting image still be called an essential realm? Can the material body formed by a single tathāgatagarbha be called an essential realm? When the information discerned by the six consciousnesses is to be transmitted to the manas, is the mode of transmission that the eighth consciousness forms mental objects (dharma-viṣaya), which the manas then discerns and thereby learns of?

Answer: The image-aspect formed after the tathāgatagarbha contacts any essential realm belongs to the realm with essence (bīja-āśraya-viṣaya), and is no longer an essential realm. The essential realm is the sense-object realm initially formed by the tathāgatagarbha; when the tathāgatagarbha further manifests a sense-object realm using this as its substrate, its nature has changed, and it is called the realm with essence, which the manas can contact and discern. Every material body is an essential realm produced by the tathāgatagarbha, and only the tathāgatagarbha can contact and discern it; when the tathāgatagarbha subsequently forms a material body that is a realm with essence, the manas can contact and discern it; after it reaches the supreme faculty (indriya), it forms a real-object realm (bhūta-viṣaya) which the five consciousnesses can discern, and it forms a subjectively imagined realm which the mind consciousness can discern. The information transmitted by the six consciousnesses after discerning belongs to the mental objects (dharma-viṣaya) of the subjectively imagined realm, formless and without mark, distinct from the mental objects manifested upon the five sense objects.

These dharmas—the realm with essence, the real-object realm, and the subjectively imagined realm—belong to the seed-wisdom (bīja-jñāna) of Yogācāra, which is cultivated and realized by bodhisattvas who have attained the bhūmis. I have not yet fully understood it myself; what use is it for you ordinary beings to study it every day? First, it is not wrong to go through all the dharmas once, to have a general idea in mind, and to clarify the concepts and names-and-marks a bit; each person handles their own affairs and grasps them personally. As for propriety and the allocation of time and energy, you must manage them well yourself. If you feel that cultivating the four foundations of mindfulness is beneficial, you may also begin it at the same time; meditative concentration (samādhi) must definitely be cultivated.

During the stage of studying the Dharma, in essence one is not learning knowledge; studying the Dharma is not the accumulation of knowledge. Those who truly know how to study do not look at the finger pointing at the moon, but at the bright moon that the finger points to. What is the bright moon? It is emptiness, it is emptiness/voidness (śūnyatā). If, while studying the Dharma, one exclaims: "This dharma is truly wonderful!" and considers this dharma interesting, profound, and mysterious, without seeing that this dharma is revealing the emptiness and selflessness of worldly phenomena, then such study and cultivation will only increase the mind of pride and increase the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and self-grasping; studying the Dharma this way is of no benefit, yet consumes a great deal of time. At present, this is exactly the state of those in the Buddhist community who study the Mahāyāna Dharma: after decades of study, they are of no benefit to sentient beings or to Buddhism, and there is even a certain degree of harm, damaging the root and foundation of Buddhism.

If you wish to cultivate and study responsibly toward yourself, then on the basis of a preliminary understanding of both the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna, you should begin actual practice from the foundational Hīnayāna Dharma. In actual practice, do not skip steps, do not aim too high; be down-to-earth and steadfast, and only then will there be hope in this life of attaining initial liberation. Otherwise, merely engaging in research is a futile waste of life, gaining nothing. You must introspect and ask yourself: what am I really studying the Dharma for? Is it for interest and hobby, for collecting knowledge, or for the liberation of the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna, to achieve some accomplishment?