How the Sixth Consciousness Can Be Said to Have Realized the Tathāgatagarbha (I)

The sixth consciousness has a perceiving-aspect, which is the knowing nature and awareness nature of the sixth consciousness. The perceiving-aspect can perceive all dharmas and cognize all dharmas, and these dharmas include both material form and mental dharmas. The object-aspect of the sixth consciousness is the object that the sixth consciousness can know and can be aware of; any dharma that can be perceived and observed by the sixth consciousness is an object-aspect of the sixth consciousness. The objects of the sixth consciousness's knowing and awareness include the six sense objects—form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas—as well as the mental dharmas and mental factors of the seven consciousnesses. Beyond this, the sixth consciousness can also become aware of the tathāgatagarbha and its mental factors, but this must be after the sixth consciousness has found and realized the tathāgatagarbha; realizing the tathāgatagarbha is precisely seeing one's true mind and awakening to the true mind.

When the sixth consciousness possesses prajñā wisdom, it can realize the tathāgatagarbha, awaken to the tathāgatagarbha, find the tathāgatagarbha, attain realization of the tathāgatagarbha, and observe the tathāgatagarbha; then the tathāgatagarbha can serve as an object-aspect of the sixth consciousness. However, the tathāgatagarbha itself has no shape or form, nor any color, for the eye consciousness, ear consciousness, or nose consciousness to perceive. It can only be through the sixth consciousness that one becomes aware of and awakens to the operating characteristics of the tathāgatagarbha, attaining realization of the tathāgatagarbha on the basis of the dharma-marks of its operation.

Although the operating dharma-marks of the tathāgatagarbha are also formless and without characteristics, the sixth consciousness can become aware of them and comprehend them. There are many prerequisites for the sixth consciousness to detect the tathāgatagarbha and its functioning; if these conditions are not fulfilled, the sixth consciousness cannot perceive the tathāgatagarbha and cannot become aware of its operation. So, once those bodhisattvas have fulfilled the necessary conditions, how does the sixth consciousness become aware of the operation of the tathāgatagarbha? And what counts as attaining realization of and finding the tathāgatagarbha?

Attaining realization of and finding the tathāgatagarbha is not a matter of the eye consciousness seeing its colors or visible forms, nor of the ear consciousness hearing sounds of the tathāgatagarbha, because the tathāgatagarbha has no color, no shape or form, and no sound. Yet the tathāgatagarbha still has its operating principles; it has been operating ceaselessly since beginningless kalpas, and therefore it has characteristics that can be discerned by the conscious mind—even formless, characteristicless dharma-marks can be recognized. That is to say, the tathāgatagarbha has the operating characteristics of its functioning, the dharma-marks of its operation.