All Dharmas Are Like Illusions

The tathāgatagarbha illusorily manifests certain mental sense-objects (dharma-viṣaya), which are what is called the subjectively imagined realm; it then illusorily manifests the mind consciousness, which is the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta). The mind consciousness manifests the function of discernment, and thereby knows the mental sense-objects. During this process, the mental sense-objects did not come, and the mind consciousness did not go, yet the appearances of the objects were known—this shows that all dharmas neither come nor go. The arising and ceasing of all dharmas is also an illusory appearance; therefore all dharmas neither arise nor cease.

Understanding the principle of the tathāgatagarbha's illusory manifestation will increase wisdom. The more wisdom one has, the more one will discover how heavy one's ignorance (avidyā) was in the past—constantly, without reason and without awareness, grasping at all dharmas. Things of the past, however precious they seemed at the time, now appear hardly worth mentioning; people and matters that seem so important now will likewise seem insignificant when one's wisdom grows in the future.