Do External Dharmas Truly Exist?

External dharmic objects are like mountains in the external world—their shapes, heights, majestic and magnificent appearances, and so forth are all external dharmic objects. Only after the Tathāgatagarbha comes into contact with them and transmits them into the subtle sense faculties do they become internal dharmic objects, which the six consciousnesses can then discern.

Without external dharmic objects, if the external mountains possessed only colors and nothing else, how could one distinguish this mountain from that mountain? How could one differentiate between mountains, rivers, and the great earth? Wouldn't the entire universe and the vessel world be just a mass of colors?

Person A is an individual, and Person B is an individual. To Person B, Person A is an external object, encompassing the six dusts of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmic objects. Person A's height, build, gender, temperament, age, appearance, and so on are all external dharmic objects. After Person B's Tathāgatagarbha contacts them, it transmits them into Person B's subtle sense faculties, where they become internal dharmic objects. It cannot be said that Person A is merely a mass of color as a form dust, devoid of external dharmic objects like height, build, age, appearance, and so forth, could it? If every person were only a mass of color without dharmic objects, then what distinctions would exist between individuals? Does each person's Tathāgatagarbha create internal dharmic objects using others' Tathāgatagarbhas? Does each person's Tathāgatagarbha arbitrarily fabricate the dharmic appearances of others?