How Does Tathagatagarbha Generate the Five Skandhas and Eighteen Dhatus?

The eighteen elements are born from the Tathāgatagarbha and possess a relationship of neither identity nor difference with it. The Tathāgatagarbha emits the four great seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind, which form the aggregate of form comprising the five sense faculties of sentient beings, as well as the six sense objects: form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and form included in the mental sphere. This includes the universe, the receptacle world where sentient beings dwell, and all their living environments. The Tathāgatagarbha emits the consciousness seeds of the mental faculty (manas), sustaining its existence and functioning, and then emits the seeds of the six consciousnesses, giving rise to the six consciousnesses. In this way, the five aggregates and eighteen elements of sentient beings are formed. Observing our own five-aggregate body and mind, we know they are all born after birth, formed postnatally. Whatever is born after birth is subject to birth and cessation; it is by no means the true self. The true self cannot be that which is born and ceases, subject to such constraints. The true self must certainly be that which exists autonomously, free from suffering.