Why is it said that the material form seen by the seven consciousnesses is not true?

Material form is composed of the seeds of the five great elements. Within the tathāgatagarbha, the seeds of the five great elements are formless and colorless; to the seven consciousnesses, they are empty and invisible. Countless seeds of the five great elements emerge from the tathāgatagarbha and, according to certain rules and proportions, constitute what is called material form. In essence, these material forms should still be empty and invisible—just as air is invisible, and when masses of air gather together, it is still invisible; or just as empty space is invisible, and when empty space overlaps and gathers together, it is still empty and invisible. Yet the mind of the seven consciousnesses stubbornly perceives material form with shape and appearance upon the empty, invisible material form—not seeing the emptiness, but seeing only worldly marks. This is mistaken perception.

The tathāgatagarbha, however, does not see material form with shape, appearance, or marks; it does not see worldly marks, but sees only emptiness, corresponding to the essential nature of material form. Therefore the tathāgatagarbha possesses great wisdom, is not inverted, will not give rise to those afflictions of the worldly realm, and cannot be defiled by worldly dharmas—because what it perceives is different, defilement cannot touch it. So if the seven consciousnesses wish to remove defilement and exhaust afflictions, they should invert themselves back again, restore what is perceived—see the mark of emptiness, see the true reality—and then afflictions and ignorance will completely fall away, and becoming a Buddha will be inevitable.

Therefore, cultivation means finding a way to see true reality—not seeing it through the mind consciousness, but even more through the manas; primarily it is the manas that must see. To whatever extent the manas sees true reality, and to whatever degree it sees it, to that extent will afflictions and ignorance be eradicated, gradually according with the Buddha of one's own mind. When one sees all of true reality, when one sees true reality completely and thoroughly, ignorance is fully exhausted, and one completely accords with the Buddha of one's own mind—that, of course, is a Buddha. As for what some people say about becoming a Buddha without eradicating afflictions, that is becoming a fake Buddha. More and more people like to counterfeit, because they lack the strength to cultivate genuinely.