The Issue of Successful Transformation of the Basis (āśraya-parāvṛtti) after Enlightenment

Regarding the question of enlightenment and the accomplishment of the transformation of the basis (āśraya-parāvṛtti), the one who has truly and thoroughly accomplished the transformation of the basis as tathāgatagarbha, with its pure and unconditioned nature, is the World-Honored Buddha, whose mind has already been completely and utterly purified without remainder, with ignorance exhausted and defilements ended. Through cultivation spanning three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas, after the World-Honored Buddha awakened to the true mind, He continuously observed, in the workings of His own and others' five aggregates of body and mind, the purity and selflessness of the tathāgatagarbha as it engages in the creation of worldly conditioned dharmas. Little by little, the sixth and seventh consciousnesses were influenced and shaken by this, gradually following and learning from it, gradually transforming their defiled nature into a pure nature, becoming ever more selfless. First He eliminated the grasping of self, and later He eliminated the grasping of dharmas. His mind became increasingly empty, increasingly unconditioned, increasingly resembling the tathāgatagarbha, with the transformation of the basis deepening ever further, until He was utterly without self and had exhausted all ignorance—only then was the transformation of the basis ultimately accomplished.

As for all other bodhisattvas, it is only after truly awakening to the true mind that their sixth and seventh consciousnesses begin, little by little, to transform the basis toward the pure nature of the tathāgatagarbha. As a portion of the basis is transformed, a portion of defilement is eliminated and a portion of purity is added; as the bodhisattva's wisdom grows by a portion, their fruition leaps forward by one stage, all the way until buddhahood.

If there has been no true awakening, but only intellectual understanding or false enlightenment—merely learning of a hidden meaning, knowing an outcome, without the process of actual practice in between—then the matter of transforming the basis as tathāgatagarbha cannot even be touched, and one has nothing to do with the transformation of the basis as tathāgatagarbha. Because one has not realized the tathāgatagarbha, one cannot directly observe its functioning, and does not know how the tathāgatagarbha is pure. When the sixth and seventh consciousnesses have found no model to emulate, they cannot follow and learn from it, and their mind will not become pure.

The power of a model is boundless. As the saying goes, one who stays near vermilion gets stained red, and one who stays near ink gets stained black; one who stays near the tathāgatagarbha will inevitably become selfless and pure like the tathāgatagarbha, with a mind that is unconditioned amid the conditioned. Without truly realizing the tathāgatagarbha, one is close to the five aggregates and close to afflictions, and one's mind cannot become pure, cannot become unconditioned, and lacks the unconditioned nature.

Why is the notion of "regression" so prevalent in Buddhism today? It is because many people lack genuine practice and realization, lack the process of investigation in between, and even more lack the process of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) to eliminate self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi); thus none of them have actual practice and realization. Moreover, most people have insufficient meditative concentration (samādhi) and poor meditative power, and are unable to engage in contemplative practice and reflection, unable to investigate. What they awaken to is not genuine—they merely know an outcome, which is either heard from others or guessed at. None of these are true awakening, and hence there is the notion of regression. In fact, they have not cultivated their way to the tathāgatagarbha at all, so the question of regression does not even arise, nor does the question of transforming the basis as tathāgatagarbha. If one must insist that only the successful accomplishment of the transformation of the basis as tathāgatagarbha counts as enlightenment, then before the transformation of the basis is accomplished, one has at most an intellectual understanding, not a direct realization.