The Nature of Tathāgatagarbha Is Apart from Seeing, Hearing, Sensation, and Cognition

Where there is seeing, there is also non-seeing; dwelling in the realm of seeing and hearing, yet beyond the reach of seeing and hearing; dwelling in the realm of thought and deliberation, yet beyond the reach of thought and deliberation. These three sentences all state that the tathāgatagarbha is apart from the nature of seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, and that the seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing of our six consciousnesses also do not touch the tathāgatagarbha, which precisely accords with the emptiness (śūnyatā) nature of the tathāgatagarbha as taught in the Heart Sutra.

The first sentence: Where there is seeing, there is also non-seeing. At the place where our eye faculty contacts material sense-objects, when the eye consciousness sees a material sense-object, there is a tathāgatagarbha that does not see the material sense-object existing there; our eyes cannot see the tathāgatagarbha, and the tathāgatagarbha, having no eyes, does not see material sense-objects either.

The second sentence: Dwelling in the realm of seeing and hearing, yet beyond the reach of seeing and hearing. When our six consciousnesses discriminate the realms of the six sense-objects in seeing forms and hearing sounds, there is a tathāgatagarbha that we cannot see or hear, cannot discriminate, because the tathāgatagarbha has no marks of the six sense-objects; the eye consciousness cannot see it, and the ear consciousness cannot hear it.

The third sentence: Dwelling in the realm of thought and deliberation, yet beyond the reach of thought and deliberation. When we think, recall, and imagine various realms and mental sense-objects, there is a tathāgatagarbha that our six consciousnesses cannot think about or imagine, because the tathāgatagarbha is inconceivable and cannot be guessed at or imagined through sentimental thinking and intellectual understanding; only by investigating in accordance with the Dharma and reason, following certain principles, and diligently searching with careful attention can one realize the tathāgatagarbha.