Tathagatagarbha Is Both Myself and Not Myself

The Tathāgatagarbha is both the self and not the self—this principle is profound and profound. The five aggregates are non-self, and all dharmas born from the Tathāgatagarbha are non-self, for they are all characterized by arising and ceasing, emptiness, impermanence, suffering, being unattainable, incapable of being grasped, and impossible to retain. Yet the Tathāgatagarbha of sentient beings is not characterized by suffering, emptiness, impermanence, or change; within it, there is no notion of self, no recognition of the existence of self, no self-nature capable of agency, and its mental essence still contains the defiled karmic seeds that arise, cease, and change. Only at the stage of Buddhahood, when the defiled karmic seeds are extinguished within the Buddha's Tathāgatagarbha—the immaculate consciousness—and the seeds no longer arise, cease, or change, does true self-nature manifest, making it the true self.