If an arhat could still emerge from Nirvāṇa without remainder, it must be that some karmic seed has matured, and the tathāgatagarbha, operating in accordance with that karmic seed, gives rise to the manas; then the manas together with the tathāgatagarbha enters the womb and gives birth to the five aggregates and eighteen realms. When a karmic seed matures, the tathāgatagarbha must be able to know it; when a karmic seed has not matured, the tathāgatagarbha should also be able to know it. So what is this knowing of the tathāgatagarbha?
When the tathāgatagarbha operates in accordance with karmic seeds, it is the activity of the mental factor of volition (cetanā). Before the mental factor of volition runs, there is the operation of the mental factor of perception (saṃjñā); the mental factor of perception is discerning and grasping marks—discerning the karmic seeds and grasping the mark of whether the karmic seeds have matured or not. Before the mental factor of perception is the mental factor of feeling (vedanā), receiving and accepting the karmic seeds. Before the mental factor of feeling is the mental factor of contact (sparśa) making contact with the karmic seeds, and before contact there must be attention (manaskāra) directed toward the karmic seeds. Within Nirvāṇa without remainder, the tathāgatagarbha has no other affairs; there is only this one thing to do.
And for the tathāgatagarbha to carry out this one thing, it must also have its own existence and continuous operation to ensure that this thing proceeds. The tathāgatagarbha's own existence and continuous operation rely on the ceaseless flowing forth of the tathāgatagarbha's own consciousness-seeds, forming a continuous and unbroken stream of tathāgatagarbha consciousness. The five universally present mental factors accompany the tathāgatagarbha's unceasing operation—this is what is meant by the tathāgatagarbha being continuous and unbroken, neither arising nor ceasing.
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