The Middle Way Nature of the Tathāgatagarbha

Saying that the tathāgatagarbha compassionately extends loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity toward sentient beings is merely a metaphor. The tathāgatagarbha has no mind; it is neither kind nor compassionate, neither joyful nor giving; it does not engage with the six sense objects, does not know that sentient beings exist, and does not know the suffering of sentient beings. The tathāgatagarbha has no partiality, yet neither is it impartial; it has no fear, yet neither is it fearless. Such is the level of ultimate reality. The tathāgatagarbha is replete with the ten thousand practices, yet in actuality He does not practice a single dharma and does nothing at all.

The meaning of "faculty and sense object sharing the same source" is that the faculties and sense objects both originate equally from the tathāgatagarbha. Apart from the manas, the faculties and sense objects are all composed of the seeds of the four great elements, all manifested and produced by the tathāgatagarbha, as His gift. He makes no distinction among sense objects—He pays no heed to whether they are wholesome or unwholesome, true or false, good or bad—He simply delivers seeds in accordance with karmic seeds to give rise to and manifest them, and disregards everything else.