How Is the Sixth Consciousness Considered to Have Realized Tathāgatagarbha? (5)

The operation of the tathāgatagarbha in coordination with the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) 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 (samādhi); their scope of investigation is relatively broad, and the places they investigate are relatively deep and meticulous, so their enlightenment may be more thorough.

Conversely, if one's meditative concentration is insufficient and the mind is relatively coarse, one's enlightenment 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 performs a certain function, but know nothing else, and cannot observe at all how the tathāgatagarbha operates. Strictly speaking, this cannot be counted as true enlightenment. A person who has genuinely awakened may initially be unable to observe how the tathāgatagarbha works together with the five aggregates and the seven consciousnesses, but he will immediately engage in deliberation (manasikāra/manana) and sorting out; especially if guided by a predecessor with deep and subtle wisdom, he will be able to observe how the tathāgatagarbha works in harmony with the five aggregates and the seven consciousnesses, coming to know some details of the tathāgatagarbha's operation, and thereafter his power of introspection (pratyavekṣā-bala) will quickly become complete.

Some people, after enlightenment, may reach the state of the final barrier (laoguan), or even pass through all three barriers—such people are extremely rare and hard to encounter. Some people, upon awakening, are only at the seventh abode stage (bhūmi-stage of the fifty-two positions), having realized only a small facet, a small fragment, and cannot connect the operations of the tathāgatagarbha at all. Those with deeper wisdom can connect all the functions performed by the tathāgatagarbha; in regard to the six faculties (not merely the eye faculty and ear faculty), they can know how the tathāgatagarbha functions in each case, and how each simple event is specifically accomplished.

Later on, one can know the continuous functions of the tathāgatagarbha upon the five aggregates and the twelve sense bases (ṣaḍāyatana), and come to know their details in greater depth. In the end, one progresses from knowing only the shallow, initial functions of the tathāgatagarbha to being able to observe the deeper and subtler functions it performs. Finally, when one's wisdom is relatively deep and one has passed the final barrier, one can observe the operation of the mental factors (caittas) of the tathāgatagarbha mind. Before this, one cannot observe them at all, because this belongs to a relatively deep and subtle realm of wisdom; when you awaken and become able to observe the operation of the mental factors of the tathāgatagarbha mind, you have already become a bhūmi bodhisattva. The contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) wisdom regarding the tathāgatagarbha varies in depth and breadth; according to the differing degrees of wisdom realized regarding the tathāgatagarbha, the Mahāyāna fruits attained also differ.