What Is the True Realization of the Tathāgatagarbha?

Realizing the tathāgatagarbha through personal realization is just like looking for a person; there is not much difference between the two. Suppose we want to find someone, and after searching and deliberating, we finally determine that this person is at a specific location in a certain area, and we feel very certain about it—but we have not seen this person with our own eyes. Does this count as having found the person? As long as you have not seen this person, have not truly come face to face with him, it does not count as having seen him. Even if you are very certain that he is in that place, since you have not met him, it does not count as seeing him. Because you do not know what the person looks like, what he is truly doing at this moment, how he does it, what his state of mind is, or what his cultivation and character are like—you have no knowledge or understanding of this person. Nor do you know whether the people in that place are the one you want to find, or whether that person is really there at all. What is not seen with the eyes cannot be taken as real; what the mind guesses and imagines cannot count as true seeing.

No matter how certain you are in your heart that the person is at that location, in that room—and in fact the person really is in the room—as long as you have not seen him with your own eyes, it does not count as having seen that person. But once you have found that person, you will see with your own eyes what he is doing and how he does it; this is called seeing with one's own eyes. No matter how much you believe that the person is in the room, if you do not know what that person is specifically doing at this moment and how he does it, no wisdom will arise. Guessing what the person is specifically doing in the room and how he does it—even if the guess is correct—does not count as a witness of wisdom.

Another example: your leader tells you to find a certain person, Mr. A, and see what he is doing. You roughly know that Mr. A is far away from you, and that going to find him would be arduous. After going out and making a round, you do not want to go there, but you still must complete the task assigned by your leader. So you inquire everywhere, and finally you find out that Mr. A is on the eleventh floor of such-and-such a place, and you roughly guess that he might be sleeping. So you come back and tell your leader: Mr. A is on the eleventh floor; as for what he is doing, it is probably the same things he does on ordinary days—nothing out of the ordinary.

Does this count as having found Mr. A? This is speculation—guessing what Mr. A is doing. Even if the guess is correct, even if the inquiry is accurate, and in fact Mr. A really is doing that thing, it is still not seeing with one's own eyes. Only by seeing Mr. A in person can you observe him face to face, can wisdom that recognizes and discerns him continuously arise, and can you learn from him. What is imagined and guessed will never give rise to such wisdom. Many people have been "enlightened" for many years yet still remain stuck in place, with not a bit of increase in wisdom. Why exactly? Because there was no personal realization—it was merely intellectual understanding. Just think: when you are hungry, if instead of bringing the food to your face and eating it into your stomach, you imagine that there is a bowl of rice in front of you, what can you accomplish afterward? Can you pick up the bowl, eat, and fill your stomach this way? Of course not, so you can only remain hungry.

Quite a few people speculate about the realm of realization of an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva, and some of their guesses are indeed correct. But no matter how correct and accurate the speculation is, it is not personally realized, and they must still continue as ordinary beings. The Goldbach conjecture is applied too widely and too deeply in the Buddha-dharma. Why do such phenomena occur? Because realization of the Buddha-dharma is far, far too difficult, so people have no choice but to resort to such inferior methods.

Then, after truly realizing the tathāgatagarbha, can one still regress? For example, if I tell you that Mr. A is in the room, at that moment you believe it very much, are very sure, very certain. But it is not something seen with your own eyes—what will happen afterward? You will surely become unsure and uncertain, and doubt will arise in your mind. But what you have personally verified through painstaking effort, what you have seen with your own eyes, will not give rise to doubt or regression. Seeing is believing; what is heard is unreliable. What others tell you, no matter how much you believe it, is not fact for yourself. If you have never seen an apple with your own eyes, never tasted an apple with your own mouth, then no matter how others describe it, no matter how you imagine and understand it, it is all useless—you still do not know the true condition of the apple, and you cannot absorb the apple's nourishment.

So if I held a large assembly of ten thousand people and explained the operation of the tathāgatagarbha in great detail and specificity, so that the assembly could all accept and believe in the tathāgatagarbha dharma gate, and at the same time understood and comprehended the specific operation of the tathāgatagarbha, then many people would excitedly say: "I am enlightened! So this is how the tathāgatagarbha operates—this is the tathāgatagarbha." Then how should I respond to so many people claiming they have awakened? Should I certify that what these people say is correct, and even issue them certificates of enlightenment or the like? This so-called seeing of the true mind is not actually seeing the operation of the tathāgatagarbha with one's own eyes—it is all based on what I said, followed by conjecture and speculation, with people feeling that they have indeed realized the tathāgatagarbha. So what will happen to these people afterward? What will happen to them after death?

As for the claim that regression can still occur after so-called awakening to the true mind and seeing one's nature—that is precisely because there was no true awakening to the true mind and seeing of one's nature, no process of personal investigation; it was merely heard and deduced through speculation and analysis. Naturally, it is possible that one will no longer believe such speculation and analysis, and then one will regress. Without going through a process of arduous cultivation, something obtained for free is like looking at flowers through the fog—seen unclearly, and easily denied and rejected. Speculating a tathāgatagarbha into existence, one cannot truly accomplish the transformation of the basis as tathāgatagarbha, nor will any subsequent merit and benefit arise.

For example, just now I was thirsty, so I peeled an apple and ate it. If any of you found me and watched me face to face as I peeled and ate the apple, you could follow along and learn, and you would also know how to peel an apple and how to eat an apple. Then, after seeing that after I peeled the apple, I left the peel for the mice to eat, you would know my compassionate mind and follow along in learning, likewise coming to possess a compassionate nature. Then, observing that during the process of eating the apple my mind does not give rise to greed, you would then also learn how to keep the mind from giving rise to the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, and thus the mind becomes pure. This is the benefit of seeing me face to face—you can learn from me. Then, following me at all times, observing how I conduct myself with others, what my moral cultivation is like, and how I specifically handle various matters, you will learn a great deal, and your mental conduct, character, cultivation, and so forth will all undergo change. This is the benefit of finding me and following me, or what is called merit and benefit.

By personally realizing the tathāgatagarbha—not by hearsay, not by word of mouth—one can observe directly, in the present, the operation of the tathāgatagarbha in various dharmas, and one will learn many dharmas, and one's mental nature will come ever closer to that of the tathāgatagarbha. But those who rely on speculation will forever lack such merit and benefit, because they cannot observe it directly in the present.