How the Sixth Consciousness Realizes the Tathāgatagarbha (V)

The operation of the tathāgatagarbha in conjunction with the five aggregates is extremely subtle and fine, all being continuous moment by moment. Each person's degree of realizing the operation of the tathāgatagarbha differs, and thus their degree of wisdom differs. Because the depth of the sixth consciousness's wisdom before enlightenment differs, the degree and depth to which one realizes the tathāgatagarbha and captures its operation also differ. Some people, when investigating, have a very refined mind and sufficient meditative concentration; their scope of investigation is relatively broad, and the points they investigate are relatively deep and detailed, so their awakening may be more thorough.

Conversely, if meditative concentration is insufficient and the mind is rather coarse, the awakening will be very shallow, and one's wisdom may not have been developed at all. This is especially true for those who have been almost explicitly told the answer: they merely know that the tathāgatagarbha has performed some function, but know nothing else, and cannot observe at all how the tathāgatagarbha operates. Strictly speaking, this cannot count as true enlightenment. A person who has genuinely awakened may at first be unable to observe how the tathāgatagarbha and the five aggregates, the seven consciousnesses, operate together in harmony, but he will immediately begin to contemplate and sort it out. Especially when guided by a predecessor of deep and subtle wisdom, he will be able to observe how the tathāgatagarbha operates in harmony with the five aggregates and the seven consciousnesses, coming to know some of the details of the tathāgatagarbha's operation; thereafter, his power of observational wisdom will quickly become complete.

Some people, after awakening, may reach the stage of the "heavy barrier" (laoguan), or even pass through all three barriers—such people are extremely rare and hard to encounter. Some people awaken only at the stage of the seventh abode, having awakened to just a small facet, a small fragment, unable to connect the tathāgatagarbha's operations together at all. Those with deeper wisdom can connect all the functions performed by the tathāgatagarbha, knowing—through all six faculties (not just the eye and ear faculties)—how the tathāgatagarbha operates, and how each simple event is specifically accomplished.

Later on, one comes to know the continuous functions of the tathāgatagarbha upon the five aggregates and the twelve sense bases, knowing their details in considerable depth as well. In the end, one progresses from knowing only the tathāgatagarbha's shallow, initial functions to being able to observe the deeper and subtler functions it performs. Finally, when wisdom is deep enough and one has passed the heavy barrier, one can observe the operation of the mental factors (caittas) of the tathāgatagarbha mind. Before that, this cannot be observed at all, because it belongs to a realm of relatively deep and subtle wisdom. When you have awakened and become able to observe the operation of the mental factors of the tathāgatagarbha mind, you have already become a bhūmi-level bodhisattva. The contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) wisdom regarding the tathāgatagarbha varies in depth and breadth; the degree of wisdom realizing the tathāgatagarbha differs, and thus the Mahāyāna fruits attained differ.