The Adhimokṣa Power of Tathāgatagarbha

Meditative concentration (samādhi), wisdom, and understanding are mental factors (caittas) of the conscious mind; they are functions of the conscious mind, belonging to the five object-specific mental factors (kuśala-mahābhūmika aside, the five viṣaya-niyata-caittas). For the seventh consciousness, they arise one at a time, not operating at every moment; what operates at every moment are the five universal mental factors (sarvatraga-caittas). However, the seventh consciousness of all Buddhas possesses meditative concentration and wisdom at every moment and in every place—not arising one at a time, but operating at every moment. The meditative concentration, wisdom, and determination (adhimokṣa) of the tathāgatagarbha, however, operate at every moment, in every instant, and in every place—even within nirvāṇa without remainder (Anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa), it is just so.

If, when the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to the ear faculty, gives rise to the five-aggregate body, and gives rise to all dharmas, its power of meditative concentration were suddenly insufficient, its power of wisdom also insufficient, and it did not know what the karmic seeds were like, what would the result be? The result would be that the tathāgatagarbha, through a moment's carelessness, might deliver too small a quantity of the seeds of the four great elements, get the proportional structure wrong, or transmit the seeds incorrectly; then the dharmas that arise would be mismatched—Zhang's hat placed on Li's head—and all dharmas would become unrecognizable, and the world would descend into chaos. If the tathāgatagarbha lacked extremely strong power of determination (adhimokṣa) and could not understand the intentions of the manas, what would the result be? All dharmas would not appear in a reasonable way, would not appear as wished; the vows made by sentient beings would be useless, all thoughts would be useless, and the five-aggregate world would no longer function normally.