How the Tathāgatagarbha Records Karmic Actions and Emits Karmic Seeds (III)

The seeds of consciousness originally exist within the tathāgatagarbha and are neither arising nor ceasing. There is no dharma that gives birth to the seeds of consciousness; the seeds of consciousness simply exist within the tathāgatagarbha in accordance with suchness (dharmatā). Although their number is extremely, extremely large, the total quantity is fixed. Since the quantity is fixed, then after the seeds of consciousness emerge and cease, where do they go when they cease? After ceasing, they return to the tathāgatagarbha. In this way, the number of seeds of consciousness within the tathāgatagarbha is fixed—continuously emerging and returning, being sent out and coming back, being sent out and coming back—so the quantity remains unchanged.

The tathāgatagarbha always uses this fixed number of seeds to produce the seven consciousnesses. When the seeds of consciousness are sent out, they form the mental activities (citta-caitta) of the seven consciousnesses. Once the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses arise, they divide into defiled, pure, and neutral (avyākṛta) kinds. If the mental factors (caittas) are defiled, the seven consciousnesses create defiled karmic actions; if the mental factors are pure, the seven consciousnesses create pure karmic actions. And as soon as the seeds of consciousness return to the tathāgatagarbha, they carry back into it all of the mental activities created by the seven consciousnesses as well as the contents they discerned. This is called the tathāgatagarbha's recording in accordance with suchness—naturally storing sentient beings' bodily, verbal, and mental actions, and in the future naturally sending out karmic seeds, naturally actualizing sentient beings' causes, conditions, and karmic retribution.

Yet none of this is the tathāgatagarbha actively recording, actively storing, or actively intending to send out karmic seeds. The tathāgatagarbha has no such mental activities; He is an unconditioned dharma (asaṃskṛta-dharma). The mental activity of an unconditioned mind does not actively or deliberately create anything; it is all His functional nature in accordance with suchness—this is simply His original mode of operation, and His existing function is precisely this. It is not that He has some mental activity such as "I must record sentient beings' karmic actions, and moreover distinguish good from evil"—He has no such mental activity. That is to say, He naturally sends out seeds in accordance with suchness; the seeds of consciousness are sent out, and after discerning and creating karmic actions, the seeds of consciousness return. When they return to the tathāgatagarbha, they immediately bring back with them the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses, the contents discerned, and the actions performed, storing them as seeds.

In this way, the tathāgatagarbha also stores the contents discerned by the seven consciousnesses and their mental activities. If the mental activity is wholesome, it is stored in the tathāgatagarbha as a wholesome seed; if the mental activity is unwholesome, the bodily, verbal, and mental actions are stored in the tathāgatagarbha as seeds of unwholesome karma; if the mental activity is neither wholesome nor unwholesome, the bodily, verbal, and mental actions are stored in the tathāgatagarbha as neutral (avyākṛta) karma. This is the tathāgatagarbha's recording and storing, in accordance with suchness, of the operations of the seven consciousnesses—this is how sentient beings' bodily, verbal, and mental actions are recorded.

At the same time as bodily, verbal, and mental actions are being performed, they are being recorded bit by bit and stored bit by bit. These seeds are output continuously and return to the tathāgatagarbha continuously, so the recorded and stored contents come to form an event. When this event is completed, it is collected and stored as one whole karmic seed. The tathāgatagarbha records bit by bit by bit, collects and stores bit by bit by bit, and finally a complete karmic action and karmic seed is formed. In this process, not even the tiniest bit of mental activity is ever lost; even the subtlest mental activities are never omitted by the tathāgatagarbha. Why? Because all the seeds of consciousness return to the tathāgatagarbha continuously, one by one; the seven consciousnesses discern a little and a little is stored, discern a little and a little is stored, and finally, the discerned contents, strung together, constitute the entire event.

This entire event—whether wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral—is stored as seeds. The tathāgatagarbha will not alter or change these mental activities and karmic actions in the slightest. Nor does the tathāgatagarbha make any choices, deciding to record this karmic action but not that one; He has no selectivity. The seeds all return, and all that return are collected into the storehouse. After the output seeds of consciousness come back, they bring back the discerned contents and the contents of the actions performed, and all are stored as seeds in this storehouse.

After being stored in the storehouse, when conditions are encountered in the future, the tathāgatagarbha will again send these seeds of consciousness out from the storehouse. When these seeds of consciousness are sent out, they also carry out the previously stored karmic seeds whose conditions have ripened. Thus the performance of bodily, verbal, and mental actions carries with it the nature of greed, aversion, and delusion, or else purity, or else defilement. Because the seeds originally stored were of that kind, when He sends them out again at this time, they manifest as pure or defiled just as they were originally.