The Relationship Between Tathāgatagarbha and Memory (III)

Everything we now obtain and enjoy—all dharmas—are taken out of the storehouse of the tathāgatagarbha, and everything in that storehouse is what we ourselves deposited there in the past. That is to say, only what we deposit can we use; if we do not deposit it, there is nothing. If we wish to become a Buddha, we must deposit many wholesome karmic seeds; only after the seeds are deposited can we enjoy their fruits in the future. If we wish to obtain blessings and rewards, we must deposit seeds of cultivating merit. If we have not deposited seeds of cultivating merit, it is impossible to obtain blessings and rewards. Whatever we wish to obtain, we must deposit; what we deposit is what we receive. Therefore, we must choose our bodily, verbal, and mental actions well, and understand how to act so that we can obtain the greatest and most genuine benefit for ourselves, without harming or going against our own interests. We must act carefully and selectively, striving to perform only pure karmic conduct.

Our five aggregates (pañcaskandha) also come from the seeds in the storehouse of the tathāgatagarbha. Because of the ignorance of the manas, the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses are continually produced, and the seeds of these bodily, verbal, and mental actions must be continually deposited into the tathāgatagarbha mind-substance. At the end of life, when conditions are met, the tathāgatagarbha outputs the karmic seeds, conceiving in the womb within the six realms of rebirth, and a body of the five aggregates is born to undergo the retribution of karma. Thus the body of the five aggregates comes entirely from the seeds in the storehouse of the tathāgatagarbha; therefore, the five aggregates as a whole are the tathāgatagarbha.

It is like the white clouds in the sky, which can manifest the shapes of cats and dogs. Those clouds transformed into cats and dogs look white, plump, and very adorable. Some people become attached to the appearance of these cats and dogs, completely forgetting that they are all formed from puffs of white clouds. The white clouds are a metaphor for the tathāgatagarbha, and the forms of the cats and dogs are like our body of the five aggregates. Observing the cats and dogs, we find that there is not a single spot in them that is not white cloud; every tiny dot is composed of white clouds. The entire cat or dog is entirely white cloud, and every aspect of it comes from the white clouds. In the same way, our five aggregates, in every aspect, at every time and place, come from the tathāgatagarbha. Every appearance and every function comes entirely from the storehouse of the tathāgatagarbha. All the materials of the body of the five aggregates come from the storehouse, and everything the five aggregates enjoy and everything they do comes entirely from the tathāgatagarbha, the storehouse.

If one wishes to find the entrance to the storehouse of the tathāgatagarbha and attain enlightenment to become a Buddha, it is actually not difficult. Where does the difficulty lie? The difficulty lies in our insufficient merit, insufficient power of meditative concentration (samādhi), insufficient power of wisdom (prajñā-bala), unfulfilled conditions of the bodhisattva's six perfections, and insufficient power of aspiration. This is what makes it hard for ourselves. If all these conditions were fulfilled, there would be nothing difficult in the world. The difficulty is that we have not deposited enough seeds of wholesome karma. When the seeds are insufficient, we cannot draw enough resources from the storehouse, and seeing one's true mind and awakening to one's nature appears very difficult; likewise, eliminating the self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) is also very difficult. To enjoy sufficient resources and blessings, and to realize the intrinsically pure mind, one must deposit many seeds of wholesome karma. The seeds of cultivating precepts, samādhi, and wisdom, the seeds of cultivating the bodhisattva's six perfections, the seeds of the bodhisattva's great merit, and so on—we must deposit more of them, until these seeds are sufficient; only then can we realize the fruits of the path of both the greater and the lesser vehicles.