The Prajñā Wisdom of the Tathāgatagarbha

As long as the Buddha has not defined and delimited the mental factors (caittas) of the manas and the tathāgatagarbha, then the mental factors of these two consciousness-minds, as well as the mental factors of all consciousnesses, remain to be observed and realized, and then revealed.

The tathāgatagarbha is also called prajñā, and prajñā means great wisdom. What kind of prajñā wisdom does the tathāgatagarbha possess? Can this wisdom be measured? The tathāgatagarbha manifests its own five-aggregate body—this is great wisdom; it manifests the universe, the material world (bhājana-loka)—this is great wisdom. What dharmas can the seven consciousnesses manifest? Speaking directly, the seven consciousnesses cannot manifest any dharma at all; at most they can drive the tathāgatagarbha to manifest things for them. The tathāgatagarbha can discern the five-aggregate body and the material world, adjusting the five-aggregate body and the world at all times and places—this great wisdom is unimaginable; its discernment in coordination with the manas is an unimaginable great wisdom; its discernment of karmic seeds and delivery of seeds is an unimaginable great wisdom. Those functions of the tathāgatagarbha that are not easily known by people—its upādāna (grasping and sustaining) functions, all its functions that cannot presently be known, and its great wisdom in upholding all dharmas—are all unimaginable.

If the tathāgatagarbha has the nature of discernment, it must have wisdom; if it can produce all dharmas, it must have wisdom. Without wisdom, that discerning nature would serve no purpose—discerning yet not knowing what it has discerned. If that were the case, then after discerning, how it should proceed further would be unknown, and the next dharma would not appear. Observe just how great the wisdom of the tathāgatagarbha actually is. First of all, the tathāgatagarbha has no ignorance (avidyā); it is entirely illumination, and it does not create any ignorant karma such as greed, hatred, or delusion. Therefore it is not subject to any bondage and has not the slightest karma of birth and death; it is a great liberated one, a greatly self-sovereign one. Viewed from this point, the tathāgatagarbha is exceedingly worthy of offerings, of taking refuge in, and of praise—the great treasure of both the mundane and supramundane, the light and guiding head of all sentient beings.

The discerning wisdom of the tathāgatagarbha is swift and powerful. After discerning all dharmas, it can in an instant give rise to and change all dharmas in accordance with dharma, with conditions, with karma, and with the wishes of the seven consciousnesses. After discerning the mental factors of the manas, if the tathāgatagarbha lacked discriminating wisdom, how could it coordinate with the manas to give rise to all dharmas? The tathāgatagarbha discerns karmic seeds; if it had no wisdom to discern what kind of karmic seed it is, and did not know whether the karmic seed has ripened, then how could the tathāgatagarbha give rise to the five-aggregate body and mind and the material universe in accordance with karmic seeds? The principle of the body's self-healing, which sentient beings either know or do not know, is precisely the manifestation of the tathāgatagarbha's great wisdom—it is the tathāgatagarbha that repairs the bodies of sentient beings. This wisdom is beyond our capacity to fathom.

Although the tathāgatagarbha has the mental factor of wisdom (prajñā-caitta), it differs from the wisdom of the seven consciousnesses and is extremely powerful. The wisdom of the seven consciousnesses is used to discriminate the dharmas of the mundane world, whereas the wisdom of the tathāgatagarbha discriminates what is not of the mundane world. Precisely because the tathāgatagarbha can discriminate the dharmas that are not of the mundane world, the seven consciousnesses are able to discriminate the dharmas of the mundane world with ease and without interruption, and thereby survive in the mundane world life after life.