If One Can Turn Things, One Is the Same as the Tathāgata

"If one can transform objects, one is the same as the Tathāgata" has two layers of meaning. On one hand, it means that only the Tathāgata can thoroughly transform objects without being transformed by them. Because the Tathāgata has cultivated to the stage of Buddhahood, having eradicated all ignorance and being fully endowed with all merits, He can, within a single thought, manifest immeasurable and boundless five-aggregate (pañca-skandha) physical bodies, and can also, within a single thought, manifest countless trichiliocosms (three-thousand great thousand worlds); all material forms (rūpa-dharma) transform in accordance with the Tathāgata.

On the other hand, it means that only the tathāgatagarbha can transform material forms without being transformed by them. Because the tathāgatagarbha is the most powerful among the three transformative consciousnesses (pariṇāma-vijñāna), containing the seeds of all material forms; it can output the seeds of the four great elements according to the intent of the manas, thereby manifesting and transforming all material forms. The deluded minds of the seven consciousnesses have no seeds and cannot give rise to or transform material forms, but they can mobilize the tathāgatagarbha to manifest and transform material forms. Therefore, the tathāgatagarbha is the master of all material forms, and all material forms belong to the tathāgatagarbha.