Unconditioned Dharmas in the Hundred Dharmas Gate of Understanding

The Hundred Dharmas Gate of Brightness (百法明门) introduces six kinds of unconditioned dharmas (asaṃskṛta-dharma), among which there is the inherent unconditionedness of the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, as well as the unconditionedness cultivated later by the deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses; both the true and the false are included therein. Unconditionedness like empty space (ākāśa-asaṃskṛta) refers to the fact that when the tathāgatagarbha, in its fundamental substance, operates all dharmas, it remains suchness-immovable, just like empty space—this is the nature of unconditionedness. The tathāgatagarbha is forever suchness-immovable; no matter what states it encounters, it never stirs its thoughts, and its mind-nature is unconditioned. Suchness unconditionedness (tathatā-asaṃskṛta) refers to the unconditionedness of the tathāgatagarbha; non-selective cessation unconditionedness (apratisaṃkhyā-nirodha-asaṃskṛta) also refers to the unconditionedness of the tathāgatagarbha; immovable unconditionedness (āniñjya-asaṃskṛta) refers to when the seven consciousnesses are cultivated to the fourth dhyāna, the mind does not stir thoughts, and thus is unconditioned; the body has no breathing, pulse, or heartbeat, and is also unconditioned and unmoving—when both body and mind are unconditioned, it is called immovable unconditionedness. Selective cessation unconditionedness (pratisaṃkhyā-nirodha-asaṃskṛta) and cessation of perception and feeling unconditionedness (saṃjñā-veditā-nirodha-asaṃskṛta) both refer to the unconditionedness of the seven consciousnesses. In the cessation attainment (nirodha-samāpatti), the manas no longer has perception and feeling, only attention (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), and volition (cetanā); most of its mental activities have become unconditioned.

In fact, the tathāgatagarbha is inherently an unconditioned dharma; its mind-nature is unconditioned, yet this does not prevent its conditioned nature of serving sentient beings and the five aggregates; amid the conditioned, its mind-nature is absolutely unconditioned. Is there any dharma that surpasses the unconditioned mind-nature of the tathāgatagarbha? No, there is not. The seven consciousnesses can never be more unconditioned than the tathāgatagarbha, and the five aggregates can never be more unconditioned than the tathāgatagarbha; there is no dharma more unconditioned than the tathāgatagarbha. Only when the seven consciousnesses are cultivated to a considerable degree can they gradually become unconditioned, whereas the unconditionedness cultivated later, after birth, is a dharma subject to arising and ceasing.