What is meant by "neither natural nor conditioned by causes and conditions"?

In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Buddha says that all dharmas do not exist naturally on their own, nor do they appear through the conjunction of causes and conditions; rather, they are manifested by the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. For example, take the trees on a mountain: if they existed naturally, they would also perish naturally, and after perishing, would they grow back? They would not. Moreover, many trees are planted by human hands, and even those that are not planted by humans did not come into existence naturally—they appeared gradually along with the emergence of the Earth.

Then, do trees exist through the conjunction of causes and conditions? Neither is that so. On the surface, the appearance of trees seems to result from the conjunction of causes and conditions such as human planting, watering and irrigation, fertilizing, and sunlight, whereby they grow. In reality, it is not so. These conditioned dharmas are all illusory, subject to arising, ceasing, and change, and have no real function. The real function belongs to the tathāgatagarbha: it is the tathāgatagarbha that aggregates the five great seeds to form them. Without the five great seeds, there would be no trees, and not even the cellular particles of a tree would appear. Even these external conditioned dharmas are themselves aggregated from the seven great seeds of the tathāgatagarbha; there are no real conditioned dharmas. Therefore, trees possess the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. When sentient beings see trees, it is the wondrous function of the tathāgatagarbha's seeing nature, the Buddha-nature—it is the wondrous nature of true suchness.

The universe, the material world (bhājana-loka), is one part among all dharmas. When the material world of the universe first arose, what causes and conditions, or supporting conditions, prompted its appearance? There were none; no dharma can be found that could assist the arising of the material world. Take, for instance, the gradual formation of the Earth: before its formation, no dharma existed that could serve as a supporting condition for forming the Earth, and during the process of the Earth's formation, likewise no dharma existed that could serve as a supporting condition for its formation. Therefore, the appearance of the Earth is not of the nature of causes and conditions, and the formation of the universe's material world is likewise not of the nature of causes and conditions.

Then, is the formation of the universe's material world of a natural nature? We must consider what the concept and definition of "natural nature" is. So-called natural nature should mean existing spontaneously and naturally, unaffected by external factors, constantly existing and ever-present, without arising or ceasing. For example, the existence of the Earth should be spontaneous and natural; it should not be that it did not exist before and then gradually formed within a certain period of time—something formed after the fact is no longer natural. And after existing for a period of time, if it slowly degenerates, disappears, and vanishes, that is equally unnatural. Likewise, the material world of the universe has a beginning and an end, has arising and ceasing, has coming and going—thus it is not of a natural nature.

In summary, the material world of the universe is neither of the nature of causes and conditions nor of a natural nature. Then what nature is it? It is all the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. The arising and ceasing of the material world, as well as its arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing, are all brought about by the tathāgatagarbha; all are formed by the tathāgatagarbha's seven great seeds operating within it. Arising is the tathāgatagarbha's arising; abiding is the tathāgatagarbha's upholding; change is the tathāgatagarbha's transforming; ceasing is the retraction of the tathāgatagarbha's seeds. Therefore, the material world of the universe, and indeed all dharmas, possess the characteristics of the tathāgatagarbha.

Some may say that the dharma of causes and conditions and the dharma of dependent origination were also taught by all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and are therefore correct. But correct as they are, that correctness holds within a certain scope—it is correct at the initial stage of cultivation. Beyond that scope, once past the initial stage of cultivation, it is no longer appropriate to cling to them as true and ultimate. This is because the dharma of causes and conditions and the dharma of dependent origination belong to conventional truth (saṃvṛti-satya), which is not yet ultimate; upon investigation, they still count as provisional dharmas, empty dharmas, and expedient dharmas. The ultimate dharma is the Mahāyāna definitive dharma (Mahāyāna-nītārtha-dharma), which is the dharma of prajñā and Consciousness-Only; the most definitive and most ultimate is the dharma of Consciousness-Only—Consciousness-Only is the dharma that reaches home. The positioning of the dharma of causes and conditions should follow the Mahāyāna Śūraṅgama Sūtra as the standard, not the dharmas of the Small Vehicle or the Middle Vehicle. If the Small Vehicle and the Mahāyāna are in dispute, one should take complete refuge in the Mahāyāna, taking refuge in the ultimate gate of dharma and its meaning. The Small Vehicle and the Middle Vehicle are阶段性 dharmas—staged dharmas, transitional dharmas, not the dharma that reaches home; they should be used, realized, and then discarded, and must not be clung to as ultimate. Even the most ultimate dharma that reaches home, Consciousness-Only, should also be discarded once directly realized—one cannot carry it on one's back after reaching the shore. As long as a single dharma remains in the mind, emptiness is not exhausted; if the mind is not emptied to the end, one cannot reach the shore and attain true liberation.