Can Manas Implicitly Accommodate Tathāgatagarbha?

Question: The manas silently contains all dharmas, including the Tathāgatagarbha. The Tathāgatagarbha does not assert autonomy over all dharmas; it lacks self-nature and must operate in conjunction with the manas, being inseparable from it. Can it be said that the manas is the primary mind, while the Tathāgatagarbha is the mental factor of the manas?

Answer: Although the manas silently contains all dharmas, these dharmas do not include the Tathāgatagarbha itself. This is because the manas is unaware of the existence of the Tathāgatagarbha and does not understand its specific functions. The manas silently contains the functional manifestations arising from the Tathāgatagarbha, becoming attached to and cherishing these functions, yet it does not recognize that these functions belong to the Tathāgatagarbha. Mistakenly perceiving them as its own functions, it continuously clings to them with greed and affection.

If the manas could silently contain the Tathāgatagarbha, it should be aware of the Tathāgatagarbha's operations and understand that all phenomena of the five aggregates and the worldly dharmas are produced by the Tathāgatagarbha's functioning, leaving no role for itself. In that case, the manas would be able to sever the view of self, eliminate self-attachment and dharma-attachment, and all ignorance within it should be eradicated. However, this is not the case in reality. Therefore, it is said that the manas does not silently contain the Tathāgatagarbha itself, but rather silently contains the functional manifestations arising from it, mistakenly attributing those functions to itself. This is called "internally appropriating the functions of the Tathāgatagarbha as the self." Consequently, the manas gives rise to various afflictions such as egoistic arrogance, self-love, self-attachment, and so forth, remaining deeply entrenched in ignorance.

The Tathāgatagarbha, although lacking autonomous agency and never actively controlling all dharmas, always operates all dharmas in accordance with the manas and cannot function apart from it. However, the Tathāgatagarbha does not belong to the manas; it is not a mental factor of the manas, nor is the manas the primary mind of the Tathāgatagarbha. On the contrary, the Tathāgatagarbha is the primary mind, and the manas is the mental factor. This is because the Tathāgatagarbha determines the existence or non-existence of the manas, providing the seeds for its survival. Therefore, the Tathāgatagarbha is the primary mind of the manas, and the manas is the mental factor of the Tathāgatagarbha. From another perspective, the Tathāgatagarbha does not always comply with the manas. In many instances, the Tathāgatagarbha acts in accordance with karmic seeds. Many of the manas's wishes and desires remain unfulfilled by the Tathāgatagarbha, yet the Tathāgatagarbha perpetually outputs karmic seeds and acts in accordance with them. Consequently, the manas cannot function as the primary mind of the Tathāgatagarbha; the Tathāgatagarbha cannot be a mental factor of the manas and does not belong to it.