How the Tathāgatagarbha Records Karmic Actions and Outputs Karmic Seeds (8)

The seeds of consciousness, from being output to being drawn back, are like a circulating water pump. The entire process by which the tathāgatagarbha records karmic seeds, stores karmic seeds, and outputs karmic seeds is a process of the tathāgatagarbha operating spontaneously; He has no mental activity, no subjectivity, and is completely unconditioned. Though it may be called conditioned, on the surface the tathāgatagarbha is constantly functioning, constantly generating all dharmas, yet in reality He operates spontaneously, without subjective initiative, without any capacity to make decisions—His mental activity is entirely unconditioned in nature. Because He has no mental activity, no choice, He does not discern good and evil, nor does He select between good and evil; whether wholesome or unwholesome karma, He stores it all. Nor does He store karmic seeds actively; rather, after the seeds of consciousness are sent out, discern the six sense objects, and carry out bodily, verbal, and mental actions, the seeds of consciousness naturally bring back the content of what was discerned and enacted, bringing back the entire karmic activity of bodily, verbal, and mental actions.

The mental activity within—including mental activity of greed, hatred, and delusion as well as mental activity of purity—is all brought back, and it is stored naturally and intrinsically so. It is not that the tathāgatagarbha actively stores or actively collects; rather, it is naturally so, spontaneously, a process that is originally thus, with every bit stored without the slightest omission. What does "without the slightest omission" mean? The content discerned by every seed of consciousness is brought back, without even a tiny bit of omission—this is called "without the slightest omission." It is not that the tathāgatagarbha itself insists on not missing anything, or intentionally lets a little slip; neither is the case. Rather, the seeds of consciousness naturally bring it back, and He has no way to make any kind of choice, nor would He make a choice. Once the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses have been carried out, the tathāgatagarbha has no selectivity whatsoever—there is no choice of whether to store or not to store, no choice of what to store and what not to store; there is simply none at all.

Therefore, we must be extremely careful and cautious in the enactment of our bodily, verbal, and mental actions. Whether wholesome or unwholesome, even the tiniest bit of good or the tiniest bit of evil is stored as a seed, and there will come a day when those seeds are output and we receive the karmic retribution. Because the seeds of consciousness will return, returning into the tathāgatagarbha, and the mental activity will be brought faithfully into the tathāgatagarbha. It is just like a stream of water: whatever places it passes along the way, whatever it washes over, it brings those things back—it is naturally just so. The tathāgatagarbha makes no choice either; He simply stores it all naturally, and then the water pump naturally collects and stores whatever has been brought back—whether vajra sand or ordinary sand and soil—and then sends it out again.