How to Understand That Every Dharma Is Suchness

Question: How should we understand that every dharma is true suchness (tathatā)? Is it because all the dharmas that are established are, at the very moment of their establishment, illusorily manifested, and the very essence of the illusory is true suchness?

Answer: Since all dharmas are illusory, who illusorily manifested them? How were they illusorily manifested? Once this is understood clearly, one can comprehend why it is said that every dharma is true suchness. All dharmas—every single dharma—are illusorily manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; they are illusorily manifested by the tathāgatagarbha using the seeds of the seven great elements. And the tathāgatagarbha and its seeds do not move or turn along with dharmas; they are real and unchanging—this is called true suchness (tathatā). All the dharmas that are generated are, in essence, of the nature of the tathāgatagarbha, and therefore they are also true suchness. This is the meaning of "every dharma is true suchness."