Should Ordinary Beings Grasp the Tathāgatagarbha?

Question: If one deeply believes that there is a tathāgatagarbha, does this count as a subtle attachment to dharmas? That is, one acknowledges that the Tathāgata is formless and without marks, yet one is still attached to this formlessness and marklessness. Someone might say: I only use such a term out of the need for expression; in fact there is no name, nor is there "an image of something nameless."

Answer: As for the question of attachment to self and attachment to dharmas, there is no need to consider either of them for now. Attachment to self can only be eliminated by an arhat (the fourth fruit), and ordinary beings are still very far from the fourth fruit. Even breaking self-view is already difficult—how could one speak of eliminating attachment to self? Attachment to dharmas especially can only be gradually eliminated by bodhisattvas who have attained the bhūmis. Without seeing one's true mind and realizing the fruits, attachment to dharmas simply cannot be broken at all. The distance between ordinary beings and bodhisattvas on the bhūmis is almost an incalculable kalpa, so raising the question of breaking attachment to dharmas this early is of no help whatsoever.

Deeply believing that there is a tathāgatagarbha is not attachment to dharmas; ceaselessly grasping at the tathāgatagarbha is what constitutes attachment to dharmas. Before breaking through the final barrier (laoguan), being attached to the tathāgatagarbha is normal and also appropriate—after all, being attached to the tathāgatagarbha is far purer than being attached to the five aggregates, so one might as well be attached to the tathāgatagarbha. Only after realizing the tathāgatagarbha can one gradually cease to be attached to it. Right now, since the tathāgatagarbha has not yet been realized, attachment to it cannot even be spoken of; as long as one can recognize the tathāgatagarbha as true, that is already excellent. The tathāgatagarbha itself has no nature of self, but the sixth and seventh consciousnesses take the tathāgatagarbha to be the true self. Before breaking through the final barrier, this is a good phenomenon—normal and appropriate.