The Immovability of the Tathāgatagarbha

What remains unmoved in the tathāgatagarbha is its mental activity and thoughts; its mind does not stir or turn in accordance with the coming and going of sense objects, and it does not grasp at the marks of any sense object. Yet even while its mind is unmoved, it still moment by moment gives rise to the myriad dharmas and sustains them. All dharmas are brought forth by Him; His work is extremely numerous, but however numerous it may be, His mind-ground remains pure and non-active (wu-wei), without stirring thoughts or deliberations, and He does not feel busy. No matter what karmic actions the five aggregates and the seven consciousnesses perform, the tathāgatagarbha does not stir its thoughts in response, and has no notions whatsoever; no matter what karmic seeds manifest, the tathāgatagarbha has no emotions or feelings, yet it can continuously manifest all dharmas in accordance with those karmic seeds—while remaining unrelated to all dharmas. Let the winds blow from east, west, south, or north, He remains serene and unmoved, like Mount Sumeru. He is unchanging yet accords with conditions, accords with conditions yet is unchanging; He is not defiled, does not lose His self-nature by following the vulgar stream, does not merge into the flow of the myriad dharmas, and does not take the myriad dharmas as His companions—all of this describes the intrinsic nature of the tathāgatagarbha.