Tathāgatagarbha Manifests and Upholds All Dharmas

Answer: Every dharma is tathatā. There is no dharma that is not transformed by suchness, not conditioned by suchness, not upheld by suchness; their essential substance is entirely suchness. Therefore, the inner material sense-objects and the inner six sense-objects are all born and manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; their essential substance is also the tathāgatagarbha, and the tathāgatagarbha does condition them—moreover, conditioning them directly and solely by Himself. As for the outer six sense-objects, they are born jointly by the tathāgatagarbhas of all sentient beings who have the requisite conditions, and are conditioned jointly. Thus there is a difference in the manner in which an individual tathāgatagarbha conditions the outer six sense-objects versus the inner six sense-objects.

The outer six sense-objects arise after all tathāgatagarbhas output the seeds of the four great elements, forming the four great elements, which all tathāgatagarbhas jointly manifest and uphold together; their arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing proceed extremely slowly. For example, the arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing of the Saha world takes one great kalpa, while other buddha-lands require even longer eons; the arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing of the various kinds of material form used by sentient beings may take anywhere from a few days to years, decades, or centuries.

The material form solely upheld by a sentient being's tathāgatagarbha has a comparatively shorter cycle of arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing; the time for the arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing of the material body ranges from a few minutes to years, decades, centuries, or millennia. As for the inner six sense-objects within the supreme faculties, since the states of the realms contacted by the six faculties are constantly shifting, the inner six sense-objects that the tathāgatagarbha transmits into the supreme faculties must also be constantly shifting, and their time of arising and ceasing is comparatively even shorter. This shows that the tathāgatagarbha must constantly switch the realms of the six sense-objects, constantly letting the inner six sense-objects arise, abide, change, and cease. From this we can know that the dharmas manifested solely by the tathāgatagarbha, being subject to relatively few constraints and limitations, arise and transform with considerable flexibility, arising, ceasing, and changing rapidly.