The Mechanisms Behind Life and Natural Phenomena

Many people marvel at the wonder and profundity of life and nature, to the extent that scientists across various fields dedicate their entire lives to exploring the mysteries of life and the natural world, seeking to uncover the operating mechanisms behind all phenomena. Due to our profound ignorance, limited wisdom, narrow perspective, insufficient knowledge, and weak observational abilities, we cannot clearly discern the true operating mechanisms behind these phenomena. We lack sufficient understanding of many natural occurrences, unaware of their essential nature and intrinsic mechanisms. Consequently, life activities seem profoundly mysterious to us. If we could see the mechanisms behind all bodily activities and the phenomena of arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing in nature with perfect clarity, these things would lose their mystery for us. We would then perceive the life activities of the physical body as simply being thus, and the universe and worldly realm as inherently such, with nothing particularly wondrous about them.

Are all the natural activities within the universe and worldly realm—such as the wind blowing, grass swaying, lightning flashing, thunder roaring, heavy rain, gentle breezes, the warmth of spring, the departure of autumn, and the cycle of the four seasons—naturally occurring phenomena, or are they formed by the convergence of causes and conditions? Superficially, they all appear to be formed by causes and conditions, including the karmic conditions of sentient beings sharing collective karma, manifested through their shared karmic force. However, the environments inhabited by beings with different karma exist in another state, devoid of phenomena like birth, aging, sickness, and death, and without the cycle of the four seasons. Their living environments are always comfortable and perfect, a result induced by the pure karma of those sentient beings. In contrast, the Saha world exhibits countless changing phenomena, such as birth, aging, sickness, death, arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing—all induced by the mixed, defiled karma of sentient beings, combining both good and evil.

So how do these life and natural phenomena occur? What is the underlying operating mechanism? To say that these phenomena are all dharmas born from causes and conditions is only a superficial answer. In reality, it is the Tathagatagarbha that directs all these dharmas from behind the scenes. Based on the collective and individual karma created by sentient beings, the Tathagatagarbha manifests karmic conditions, and then, according to these conditions, generates all dharmas. The reason the Tathagatagarbha can create all these dharmas is because it possesses the seven fundamental seeds. Different combinations of these seven seeds constitute the diverse and colorful world. Among them, material dharmas are formed by the five great seeds (earth, water, fire, wind, and space), while mental dharmas are formed by consciousness seeds and perception seeds. The combination of material and mental dharmas can manifest non-material, non-mental dharmas. In this way, all dharmas of the world are complete, and the world of sentient beings is established. Differences in karma seeds and karmic conditions lead the Tathagatagarbha to allocate different seeds, resulting in the generation of distinct dharmas. It is precisely because of these differences that the functions of dharmas become complete, allowing the world to be diverse.

The differences in all dharmas are caused by karma seeds. Different karma seeds lead to different results and different phenomena. However, these are merely differences in appearance; in essence, they are the same—all are functions of the Tathagatagarbha. The Tathagatagarbha manipulates its inherent seeds, causing them to gather, disperse, combine, and separate, thereby transforming them into the myriad phenomena of the world's arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing. When karma seeds and karmic conditions change, the phenomenal world changes accordingly. Therefore, the underlying operating mechanism behind life and natural phenomena is the principle by which the Tathagatagarbha generates all dharmas. By mastering the functional roles of the Tathagatagarbha's seeds, one will gradually uncover the secrets behind these phenomena and no longer feel the mystery of the natural world.