Cultivation means relying on the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, to eliminate the ignorance and defilement of the seventh consciousness.

Apart from the tathāgatagarbha itself, everything is a false dharma, including studying Buddhism and cultivating practice, including doing good deeds and delivering sentient beings, including even the dharma of attaining buddhahood—all the Buddhadharma is likewise false dharma, produced by the tathāgatagarbha, constantly arising and ceasing. Only the tathāgatagarbha is unborn and unceasing. Nirvāṇa is also a false dharma; the perfected-realized nature (pariniṣpanna) of the eighth consciousness is also a false dharma; the tathatā nature of the eighth consciousness is also a false dharma—all of these can only manifest by relying on the tathāgatagarbha. The five aggregates of body and mind are even more false and illusory. How, then, should we treat these false dharmas?

We should rely on the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, to cultivate the deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses, removing the ignorance and defilement of the seven consciousnesses. When ignorance is exhausted, the transformation of consciousness into wisdom is brought to completion. It is not a matter of cultivating the true, because the tathāgatagarbha does not need our cultivation: He is inherently endowed with the Tathāgata's wisdom and virtuous marks, perfectly complete in precepts, samādhi, and wisdom, without ignorance, endowed with all wholesome dharmas and merits; His mind-essence is unconditioned, intrinsically pure. Therefore He has no afflictions, no birth and death, no saṃsāra; He is originally unfettered, intrinsically liberated. The tathāgatagarbha Himself does not cultivate, and we need not cultivate Him either; we only need the seven consciousnesses to become as pure as the tathāgatagarbha, no longer subject to birth and death, and then we are liberated and at ease. Therefore, the seven consciousnesses must realize the tathāgatagarbha in order to have something to rely upon.