When the true and the false cannot be distinguished, one cannot attain enlightenment.

Investigating the huatou: Who is reciting the Buddha's name? Here, who is the one being sought through investigation? Is one seeking the tathāgatagarbha, or seeking the manas, or seeking the sixth consciousness? When reciting the Buddha's name, the sixth, seventh, and eighth consciousnesses all participate, yet there is a distinction between true recitation and false recitation of the Buddha's name. The one who appears to recite the Buddha's name may not actually be able to recite it, while the one who cannot recite it may be the true reciter. When one attains a profound state of meditative concentration (samādhi), the sixth consciousness may cease to give rise to thoughts; without giving rise to thoughts, it no longer recites the Buddha's name, and only the seventh and eighth consciousnesses remain in the samādhi of reciting the Buddha's name. Who is the one that can truly recite the Buddha's name—who is the key to reciting the Buddha's name—this is extremely important. What Chan investigation seeks is precisely this conscious mind. The several conscious minds that can recite the Buddha's name must all possess the mental factor of mindfulness (smṛti); otherwise, they could not recite the Buddha's name. Without giving rise to a thought, how could one recite the Buddha's name? Initially, all three consciousnesses participate in reciting the Buddha's name, so all three must possess the mental factor of mindfulness; without the mental factor of mindfulness, how could they recite the Buddha's name?

The tathāgatagarbha participates in the operation of every single dharma. Some people, based on this characteristic—or one might say this theory—infer that the tathāgatagarbha is present in certain dharmas operating within the five aggregates and eighteen realms, and infer that this is how the tathāgatagarbha operates, roughly playing such a role, and thereupon believe they have become enlightened. In reality, the operation of any dharma within the five aggregates and eighteen realms is produced by the combined operation of all eight consciousnesses; it is not the result of the tathāgatagarbha operating alone. If one claims to have realized the tathāgatagarbha, then in the process of the operation of the five aggregates and eighteen realms, one should be able to find all eight consciousnesses and distinguish them all, clearly pointing out which one is the tathāgatagarbha and how it specifically operates, while at the same time negating the functions and roles of the seven consciousnesses as real, realizing that the five aggregates truly have no self. Only this is genuine enlightenment and seeing the mind; otherwise, it is not even a conceptual understanding (jie wu).

In reality, the vast majority of people cannot deduce or guess it themselves; they inquire everywhere and are hinted at by others. If the hint is correct, that would be fine, but the problem is that the person giving the hint has not clearly distinguished which of the eight consciousnesses within the five aggregates and eighteen realms is which, how each operates, and what role each plays, and yet mixes the carrot and the scallion together, telling people, "This is the function of the tathāgatagarbha; knowing this counts as realization." Yet the distance from this to true realization is immeasurable, and they categorically claim they are enlightened—when in fact they are deluded, the "delusion" of deluding others and deluding themselves. How pitiable. I have encountered some people deluded in this way; such people cannot keep even the basic precepts, lack even the basic Buddhist views and understanding, have not a trace of basic meditative concentration, and are laden with the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion—they may be nothing more than beginner Buddhists.

The dharma-mark of reciting the Buddha's name is produced by the combined operation of all eight consciousnesses. If someone deduces that the one reciting the Buddha's name is the tathāgatagarbha, and based on this deduction believes they have realized the tathāgatagarbha and have seen the mind, then can the tathāgatagarbha actually recite the Buddha's name? If the tathāgatagarbha can recite the Buddha's name, then one could extinguish the six consciousnesses and let the tathāgatagarbha recite the Buddha's name by itself, and extinguish the manas and let the tathāgatagarbha recite the Buddha's name by itself. In that case, in Nirvāṇa without remainder, the tathāgatagarbha could likewise recite the Buddha's name—would Nirvāṇa without remainder still be tranquil and unconditioned? Would it still be a nirvāṇic state? Clearly not. Therefore, the conclusion that the tathāgatagarbha recites the Buddha's name is erroneous; it does not constitute realization and seeing the mind—at most it is conceptual understanding, or perhaps it does not even touch the edge of conceptual understanding. If the tathāgatagarbha could recite the Buddha's name, then at the time of death, no matter how wretched the six consciousnesses and the manas are, no matter how full of greed, hatred, and delusion, no matter how heavy the karmic obstructions, as long as the tathāgatagarbha can recite the Buddha's name, that would suffice—one could resonate with Amitābha Buddha and be received by the Buddha into the land of bliss (sukhāvatī).

By the same reasoning, everyone who considers themselves enlightened and to have realized the tathāgatagarbha does so because they have deduced that the function of some dharma's operation is the function of the tathāgatagarbha. But the actual situation is that no matter which dharma it is, it is never the tathāgatagarbha acting alone; it is always the result of the combined operation of the eight consciousnesses, containing both the true and the false. Without negating the false dharmas, how can one realize the true tathāgatagarbha? If one cannot distinguish the true and false among the eight consciousnesses—which is false and what role it plays, which is true and what role it specifically plays—how can this be realizing true suchness (tathatā)? To take dharmas produced by the joint operation of the true and the false and regard them all as the functions of the tathāgatagarbha—can this count as enlightenment and realization of the tathāgatagarbha?

If this counted as realizing the tathāgatagarbha, then according to the pattern of the tathāgatagarbha's operation, the tathāgatagarbha operates within all dharmas and participates in all dharmas; one need only single out any specific dharma and say that this dharma is the tathāgatagarbha—would that not mean most people could realize the tathāgatagarbha and thereby see the mind and become enlightened? Could everyone in the world who cannot distinguish the true from the false, knowing just a little about the nature of the tathāgatagarbha, become enlightened? Without keeping precepts and cultivating concentration, without profound prajñā wisdom, could they all become enlightened? Without cultivating the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment, without cultivating the bodhisattva's six perfections, without eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), could they all quickly see the mind and become enlightened?

How deep and how murky are the waters of Buddhism, and how many seekers have been submerged in them—who really knows? How should this be dealt with—who really knows?