The Magician's Simile

A magician manifests countless heavenly flowers in the air, brilliantly colorful, and also manifests heavenly cats and heavenly dogs. Question: Does this magician himself truly exist? Or is he a fictitious person spoken of expediently, with no such person actually existing? If the magician truly exists while the tathāgatagarbha does not truly exist, then how do all dharmas appear—are they not manifested by the magician, the tathāgatagarbha? For the tathāgatagarbha not to truly exist, yet be able to manifest all dharmas, is impossible. It is as if the person does not exist, yet this person is eating—that defies logic; or the storehouse does not exist, yet it can hold limitless things—that also defies logic.

The meaning of the character "real" in "substantial entity" is that "real" means truly existing, existing, not empty or false; it differs from, and is fundamentally distinct from, the "real" that has form and appearance and can be seen and touched. The "real" that can be seen and touched is a provisional reality, not truly existent; it is an illusory false appearance, conjured forth by the mind of ultimate reality (dharmatā-citta), which cannot be seen or touched. The "real" of the mind of ultimate reality, the tathāgatagarbha, cannot be seen or touched, has no appearance or features, yet its mind-substance exists without being void, has genuine functions, and truly exists. In both the mundane and supramundane worlds, only this one is real; everything else is empty and false.

In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, what the World-Honored One said, "犹非真非真", means that the Ālayavijñāna of sentient beings is not yet the true self, not yet completely real, because the mind-substance still contains the arising-and-ceasing seeds created by the seven consciousnesses; the seeds still have the nature of arising and ceasing, so it is not yet the self that is permanent, blissful, self, and pure, nor is it completely permanent and unchanging. Only up to the attainment of buddhahood, when it becomes the undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna), is it the true self, the complete and utter truth, with no more arising, ceasing, or mutation of seeds, having become that which is permanent, blissful, self, and pure.