Should Ordinary Beings Cling to Tathāgatagarbha?

Question: If one deeply believes that there is a tathāgatagarbha, does this count as a subtle attachment to dharmas? That is, one acknowledges that the Tathāgata is formless and imageless, yet still clings to this formlessness and imagelessness. Some might say: I only have to use such a term for the sake of expression; in fact, there is no name, nor is there "an imageless notion without a name."

Answer: Regarding the question of attachment to self and attachment to dharmas, for now there is no need to consider either. Attachment to self can only be eradicated by an arhat of the fourth fruit; ordinary beings are still very far from the fourth fruit—even eradicating the view of self is already very difficult, let alone eradicating attachment to self. As for attachment to dharmas, that is something only bodhisattvas who have attained the bhūmis can gradually eradicate. Without seeing the mind and realizing the fruits, one simply cannot eradicate attachment to dharmas. The distance between ordinary beings and bodhisattvas who have attained the bhūmis is almost an incalculable eon, so talking about eradicating attachment to dharmas this early is of no help at all.

Before passing through the final barrier (lao guan), clinging to the tathāgatagarbha is normal and appropriate. After all, clinging to the tathāgatagarbha is far purer than clinging to the five aggregates, so one might as well cling to the tathāgatagarbha. Only after realizing the tathāgatagarbha can one gradually stop clinging to it. Right now, since the tathāgatagarbha has not yet been realized, there is no question of clinging to it—as long as one can acknowledge that the tathāgatagarbha is real, that is already excellent. The tathāgatagarbha itself has no self-nature, but the sixth and seventh consciousnesses take the tathāgatagarbha to be the true self. Before passing through the final barrier, this is a good phenomenon—normal and appropriate.