Tathāgatagarbha Can Reveal the Information of All Dharmas

Who is it that lets out and reveals all the secrets concerning oneself to be known by others? When we come into contact and interact with people, we can immediately understand some general information about the other person—how does that person's information get revealed? When looking at a photograph, there is no real person present, and there is no need for the other person's tathāgatagarbha to transmit information. Yet one can still discern the other person's character, age, temperament, disposition, and life background—how is this known? For someone who died several hundred or even a thousand years ago, as long as a small relic remains, such as hair or teeth, a person with supernatural powers can, based on these relics, learn where that person is now, what identity they have, and what condition their five-aggregate body is in—on what basis is this known? In particular, the Buddha possesses infinite recollection of past lives (pūrvanivāsānusmṛti); everything, great and small, from beginningless kalpas ago about every person is fully known to the Buddha, down to the most minute details—how does the Buddha come to know all this?

Even when asleep, in a coma, or without mind consciousness, the information of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) can still be revealed. Even a single photograph can reveal all the information about a sentient being. A photograph is jointly held and sustained by many tathāgatagarbhas; it is not something one person's tathāgatagarbha alone can sustain. A photograph, like written text, does not involve the other person's tathāgatagarbha or five aggregates; it is one's own tathāgatagarbha that transforms the photograph and text into inner material sense-objects. When the mind consciousness has wisdom, it can deliberate upon, analyze, and process the hidden meanings within the photograph and text; without wisdom, it deliberates and analyzes erroneously and draws incorrect conclusions.

Relics carry information left behind by their owner. The tathāgatagarbha can follow the trail to find that person's tathāgatagarbha, and from the other's tathāgatagarbha learn all the information. When the mind consciousness wants to know, it relies either on supernatural powers, or on the manas alerting it to certain important, relevant information. For example, suppose a person stays in a room and then leaves; several hours or half a day later, a snake enters that room and can know that just before, a person or some living being was dwelling there, because part of that person's information still remains in the room—such as temperature, scent, and so on. The snake can discern this information and then, following it, track down that person. The tathāgatagarbha is like that snake—extremely sensitive and omniscient. It all depends on how much wisdom the mind consciousness has, and whether it can dig out the information from the manas and the tathāgatagarbha.

All tathāgatagarbhas are within the internet, broadcasting at all times and places all the information of their own five-aggregate bodies, without holding anything back; at the same time, they can also obtain all information from other tathāgatagarbhas. The tathāgatagarbhas exchange with one another what they have and lack—there are no secrets. They have no mind to conceal anything, nor do they deliberately reveal anything; His mind is completely open. Each sentient being's manas, relying on its own tathāgatagarbha, can also know the relevant information in the other's tathāgatagarbha; the manas can thus know the other person, and so people with karmic affinity have a certain resonance with each other.

The tathāgatagarbha can, at any time and place, take in all information from outside the five-aggregate body, and the manas can likewise, at any time and place, be mindful of the external six sense-objects. For important information useful to oneself, the manas must alert the mind consciousness to know it; for unimportant information, the manas handles it itself—either ignoring it, or storing it in the tathāgatagarbha as a record on file. In this world, one does not know whether there is any secret that cannot be leaked, nor whether secrets even exist. The matters in each person's mind are not known only to oneself; there are even more thoughts and ideas that oneself does not know, but which others have long since come to know. Are there any secrets in this world? A person with recollection of past lives (pūrvanivāsānusmṛti) can, like consulting archives, rapidly retrieve every bit of each person's experiences from beginningless kalpas, omitting not even the smallest matter—but all of this is retrieved through the tathāgatagarbha, and all secrets are likewise leaked out by the tathāgatagarbha.