The Role of Tathāgatagarbha in the Apprehension and Transmission of External Object-Aspects

All the six sense-object marks that sentient beings can come into contact with are inner object-aspects; they cannot come into contact with external object-aspects. The true aspect of external object-aspects can only be contacted by the tathāgatagarbha, but the tathāgatagarbha does not discriminate the specific six sense-objects of the external object-aspects, so it also does not know what specific characteristics the external object-aspects have. External object-aspects are material form jointly manifested by the tathāgatagarbhas of all sentient beings with karmic connections, which jointly output the seeds of the four great elements; they are also jointly held and sustained by the tathāgatagarbhas of all sentient beings sharing common karma. These material forms contain the four great elements, and an individual's tathāgatagarbha also contains the four great elements; being in correspondence with the material forms, it can come into contact with the external object-aspects of material form, and can take in the particles of the four great elements within the external object-aspects and transmit them. These particles also arise and cease moment by moment: one particle arises and ceases, then another particle arises and ceases, and in this way the particles composed of the four great elements are continuously transmitted to the supreme faculty (indriya), becoming the subtle inner object-aspects of the four great elements that the seven consciousnesses can take as object, resembling the external object-aspects. What the seven consciousnesses discriminate is precisely this inner object-aspect, not the true external essential material form. If a sentient being leaves this world, the portion of the seeds of the four great elements of the external object-aspects belonging to that being must be withdrawn back into the tathāgatagarbha; then the external object-aspects of the external world will no longer be the same as before, yet sentient beings cannot perceive this. If sentient beings of evil karma all leave this world, some evil external object-aspects will cease, and then our world will become somewhat more beautiful. If some sages are further added, whose power of wholesome karma is great and who participate in manifesting the external object-aspects, this world will greatly change in appearance.