What Exactly Is the Second Moon?

The second moon: when the eye sees the first moon, due to pressing the eye, another moon illusorily appears within it, identical to or resembling the first moon. The first moon always remains before the eyes, suchness immovable (tathatā-acalita), while the second moon moves as soon as the hand moves; the mark it displays is not stable, arising, ceasing, and changing. From this characteristic one can judge which is the true moon and which is the false moon, and who depends on whom for existence and manifestation. The second moon comes from within the first moon; without the first moon, one could not press out a second moon, nor would there be a hand to press with. The first moon is a metaphor for the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha; the second moon is a metaphor for the five aggregates and worldly dharmas transformed and manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; the hand pressing the eye is a metaphor for the manas. In the very beginning, there were only the manas and the tathāgatagarbha, without the five aggregates and the world. It was because the manas, in ignorance, stirred falsely and reached outward, grasping and seeking, that the tathāgatagarbha, in accordance with the manas and the manas's ignorance, manifested the universe of the material world, and then transformed and manifested the body of the five aggregates. After the second moon appeared, the world became chaotic and mixed, ceaselessly arising, ceasing, and changing, with the true and the false intermingled, and right and wrong indistinguishable.

The manas then sees all these dharmas as itself, as all belonging to itself, and thus grasps at them without cease. Birth and death therefore never cease, and life thereby transmigrates through the six realms, beset by suffering and distress, losing the original tranquility (praśama). Because the manas had ignorance in its mind at the very beginning—muddled and confused, in a chaotic haze—it refused to remain settled in tranquility. The ignorance gushed outward, wanting to discern something, and thus the world came into being, never again able to return to that original muddled state.

These worldly dharmas manifested by the tathāgatagarbha all come from the tathāgatagarbha; they are all shadows of the tathāgatagarbha, and are all a second tathāgatagarbha. You cannot say these dharmas are the tathāgatagarbha, nor can you say these dharmas are not the tathāgatagarbha—they are and yet are not, they are not and yet are; the relationship is subtle. When the obstructions of ignorance in the mind are all eliminated, you will see clearly the true substance of these dharmas; whether they are or are not the tathāgatagarbha, you yourself will know clearly and distinctly, without needing others to speak of right and wrong—your own mind will make the determination. If the eye had no cataract, how could one see a circular shadow in the lamplight? If the mind had no ignorance and false thoughts, why would the hand press the eye, falsely manifesting and falsely seeing the second moon of the five-aggregate world, the moon's shadow, the shadow moon?

In the very beginning, it appeared as if the manas were tranquil and unmoving, with no states arising, but in fact it was not as calm as still water with settled waves; in reality, ignorance had been surging beneath the surface all along. When the surging force grew great, it broke through the surface tranquility, and the vast universe of a thousand worlds suddenly manifested. The causes and conditions for the birth, death, and transmigration of sentient beings were finally complete, and the life-bodies of sentient beings were born. Where do all worldly dharmas come from? They are all constituted by the seeds of the seven great elements, coming from the tathāgatagarbha. The seeds of the seven great elements are the tathāgatagarbha's wealth; the tathāgatagarbha used its own wealth to create all dharmas. So what, in the end, are all those dharmas? This should now be very clear.