The Source of All Dharmas Can Be Inferred from the Law of Dependent Origination

In worldly affairs there is a saying: the growth of all things cannot be separated from the sun. If all things can exist only by relying on the sun, then upon what does the sun itself rely? Reasoning from one thing to another, pushing further and further, there will always come a point where one can push no further; at that point one can infer a most ultimate thing—something that exists by itself without depending on other conditions or other dharmas. This thing need not be born and never perishes, and therefore it is the most reliable and most dependable of all.

When the pratyekabuddhas reasoned through the dharma of causes and conditions, they pushed their analysis all the way to the ālayavijñāna and could push no further, and so they arrived at a conclusion: consciousness conditions name-and-form, and name-and-form condition consciousness. In this way the source of all dharmas was traced out, and that is the ālayavijñāna. The five aggregates—name-and-form—are directly produced by the ālayavijñāna, while all other dharmas serve as contributing conditions for the arising of this dharma; the arising of all things is likewise so. We who study Buddhism and cultivate the path must also learn to reason in this way; if we do, many dharmas can be realized by ourselves without needing others to teach them, and seeing one's true mind and realizing the tathāgatagarbha is not really so difficult.

The Śūraṅgama Sūtra says that sunlight does not come from the sun but comes directly from within the tathāgatagarbha. By the same token, the growth of all things does not depend on the sun but on the tathāgatagarbha: it is the tathāgatagarbha that delivers the seeds of the four great elements, causing all things to grow. If the tathāgatagarbha did not deliver the seeds of the four great elements, then no matter how the sunlight shone, all things could not grow—on the contrary, they would die. Moreover, sunlight itself is formed by the tathāgatagarbha outputting the seeds of the four great elements, and not for a single instant has it ever departed from the tathāgatagarbha.

Study the Śūraṅgama Sūtra well, and your thinking will become broad and clear; you will know that the generation, existence, and operation of all dharmas are the nature of the tathāgatagarbha, and not anything else. For one thing to give rise to another thing is impossible, because this thing is without self-nature, is subject to arising and ceasing, and does not endure forever—how could it give rise to another thing? All things are directly produced from within the tathāgatagarbha; other things are merely contributing conditions. A thing cannot produce other things: things do not produce things; all dharmas are created by mind alone. When all dharmas are traced to the very end, to the point where no further tracing is possible, there is nothing left to return to; and that which cannot be returned to is the tathāgatagarbha.