The True Meaning of Being Perfumed and Retaining Seeds

Some people say that the sixth consciousness cannot perfuse and taint the seventh consciousness, but can only perfuse the tathāgatagarbha. Is this statement correct? The key is to look at the relationship among the sixth consciousness, the seventh consciousness, and the tathāgatagarbha, what the purpose of the sixth consciousness's perfusion is, and whether the tathāgatagarbha can be perfused. For example, when the sixth consciousness encounters the Buddha-dharma and feels that the Buddha-dharma is so wonderful, able to eradicate ignorance and attain liberation, it then diligently studies and practices, single-mindedly seeking liberation. In this process of study and practice, is it the tathāgatagarbha that is perfused, or the seventh consciousness? Of course it is the seventh consciousness that is perfused; it is the seventh consciousness that undergoes change, while the tathāgatagarbha is neither perfused nor changed. But after the seventh consciousness is perfused, the karmic seeds will be stored in the tathāgatagarbha, and thus the tathāgatagarbha comes to contain wholesome karmic seeds of studying and practicing Buddhism—conventionally speaking, this is described as the tathāgatagarbha being perfused, but in essence the tathāgatagarbha is not perfused or tainted, because He remains suchness immovable (tathatā-acalita) in the face of all dharmas, neither unwholesome nor wholesome, and therefore is not perfused.

When the sixth consciousness studies and practices Buddhism, it cannot perfuse the tathāgatagarbha; the tathāgatagarbha will never study and practice Buddhism, so the sixth consciousness cannot perfuse the tathāgatagarbha. The sixth consciousness has ignorance and wants to eradicate ignorance—can it perfuse the tathāgatagarbha to also eradicate ignorance? Obviously not. Because the tathāgatagarbha has no ignorance, and since there is no ignorance, there is no need to eradicate ignorance; therefore the sixth consciousness cannot perfuse the tathāgatagarbha and can only perfuse the seventh consciousness. The tathāgatagarbha is unarmed, deaf, mute, and blind; He cannot study and practice Buddhism, cannot eradicate afflictions, or abandon evil and turn to good; moreover, He has no afflictions to eradicate and no ignorance to remove.

The sixth consciousness wants to become a Buddha, wants liberation, wants nirvāṇa—no matter how it is perfused, the tathāgatagarbha has none of these mental activities and thoughts; otherwise He would fall into worldly mental activities. Therefore the sixth consciousness can only perfuse the seventh consciousness to produce these thoughts, vows, and practices. The tathāgatagarbha is Himself the Tathāgata, liberated and at ease, Himself abiding in the nirvāṇa state of neither arising nor ceasing, neither moving nor still, neither coming nor going, suchness immovable (tathatā-acalita), so He will not have thoughts of becoming a Buddha or attaining nirvāṇa. To have the tathāgatagarbha cultivate the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment—first, He cannot understand them; second, it is unnecessary. To have Him cultivate precepts, meditation (samādhi), and wisdom—He inherently possesses precepts, samādhi, and wisdom, without needing instruction. To have Him eradicate afflictions—yet He has no afflictions at all. Those who want to perfuse the tathāgatagarbha simply do not understand what the tathāgatagarbha is, do not know what perfusion is, or what the meaning and result of perfusion are. It is merely all sorts of fretting, all sorts of delusive thinking, putting a head on top of a head, drawing legs on a snake; after decades of fussing about, they still do not know why they study Buddhism.

Since beginningless kalpas, the manas has always been together with ignorance, entangled by ignorance. After the six consciousnesses are born, the manas transmits ignorance to the six consciousnesses, perfusing the sixth consciousness. After studying Buddhism, when the sixth consciousness awakens, it will lead the manas to awaken together, perfusing the manas to gradually cultivate away ignorance, bit by bit becoming bright. In this process, the manas is perfused and thus has seeds, which are stored in the tathāgatagarbha for preservation, to be used in future lives.

How are they used in future lives? When the seeds' conditions ripen, they perfuse the sixth consciousness again; after the sixth consciousness awakens, it studies and practices Buddhism again, perfusing the manas, forming new seeds that are stored in the tathāgatagarbha. In this way, like a rolling snowball, the seeds perfusing the manas become more and more numerous and larger and larger, and ignorance becomes thinner and thinner, until finally all ignorance is eradicated and sentient beings become Buddhas. The tathāgatagarbha, throughout this process, continuously stores and outputs the perfused seeds—His merit is indispensable. If there were no tathāgatagarbha to store seeds and output seeds, practice would be merely a game; practicing would be the same as not practicing at all, with nothing retained, and no merit available for use in future lives. The process of the tathāgatagarbha storing seeds is called receiving perfusion and holding seeds (受熏持种).

Classical texts cannot be dissected and deeply understood by everyone. The profound Buddha-dharma also cannot be accurately speculated by everyone with their brains; no one should be self-righteous, thinking themselves to be this or that. Wanting to be this or that is not at all easy; it requires immense roots of goodness, merit, and wisdom. There are also people who say that one can cultivate and become a Buddha without the tathāgatagarbha—who knows what they could use to become a Buddha. Not even recognizing one's own master, one's benefactor of countless kalpas—such minds truly need to be opened up.