Why Is Further Transformation of the Basis Needed to Call the Realization of Tathāgatagarbha Enlightenment?

Seeing the Path is divided into the seeing of the Path of the Great Vehicle and that of the Small Vehicle; it is not only the Great Vehicle that is called seeing the Path. Seeing the Path of the Great Vehicle is the personal realization of the tathāgatagarbha; realizing the tathāgatagarbha means seeing the trace of the Path upon which the study and practice of the Great Vehicle depends. It is not the case that only after realizing the tathāgatagarbha, one must additionally achieve a successful transformation of the basis (āśraya-parāvṛtti) for it to count as enlightenment; the very moment one sees the tathāgatagarbha is itself the realization. As for the transformation of the basis, after enlightenment there is indeed a need for gradual transformation of the basis. When the transformation of the basis succeeds, one's mental disposition draws close to the purity of the tathāgatagarbha, afflictions are eradicated, and in terms of wisdom one possesses the seed-wisdom (bīja-jñāna) of Consciousness-Only. In this way one enters the family of the Tathāgata and becomes a true son of the Buddha.

If a successful transformation of the basis were required for seeing the mind and attaining enlightenment, then realizing the tathāgatagarbha would not be enlightenment. And if it were not enlightenment, then the tathāgatagarbha would not have been realized; rather, one would have merely intellectually deduced that there exists a tathāgatagarbha. A tathāgatagarbha arrived at through intellectual deduction confers no experiential benefit of its merits, and so one would then need to compare one's bodily, verbal, and mental actions against the purity of the tathāgatagarbha, in order to restrain the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the seven consciousnesses. When restrained to a certain degree, such that one no longer creates unwholesome karma out of afflictions, that would count as enlightenment. But such restraint, without genuine enlightenment, cannot possibly succeed, and thus the so-called transformation of the basis would likewise never succeed. For without enlightenment, how could the transformation of the basis succeed? And after enlightenment, why would one need to achieve the transformation of the basis all over again, and then establish that as the enlightenment? Is this not a self-contradictory problem? 

Only after enlightenment can one gradually transform the basis toward the emptiness (śūnyatā) and purity of the tathāgatagarbha. Finally, when the first dhyāna arises and afflictions are eradicated, that is the most initial transformation of the basis. The second successful transformation of the basis occurs at the stage of an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva, and the ultimate successful transformation of the basis occurs at the buddha-stage. Ordinary beings, not having attained enlightenment, do not even touch upon the issue of the transformation of the basis, let alone a successful transformation of the basis—there is simply no such thing. To achieve a successful transformation of the basis, one must at the very least eradicate afflictions, with one's mental disposition and wisdom both drawing near to, and approximating, the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha has not the slightest ignorance or affliction, nor does it even have latent afflictive habits; the sixth and seventh consciousnesses must therefore rely on the tathāgatagarbha to purify their bodily, verbal, and mental actions and their wisdom, diligently cultivating precepts, meditation (samādhi), and wisdom.

For the initial successful transformation of the basis, one must at the very least eradicate afflictions and become a bodhisattva of the third or fourth fruit before it can barely be called a successful transformation of the basis. But at that time latent afflictive habits still remain, and one is still very far from the tathāgatagarbha; roughly two more immeasurable kalpas of practice are needed to reach the stage of being beyond training (aśaikṣa) in the Great Vehicle, at which point one no longer needs to transform the basis toward the mental disposition and wisdom of the tathāgatagarbha. It is evident that the transformation of the basis is not something that ordinary beings who have not attained enlightenment can accomplish—they can only think about it.