The Principle of the Tathāgatagarbha Archive

The seeds of consciousness within the tathāgatagarbha are transmitted outward and form the seven consciousnesses, and as soon as the seven consciousnesses become active and begin to operate, they function in the form of mental factors (caittas). First are the five universal mental factors, and then the five particular mental factors follow along at irregular times; wholesome and unwholesome mental factors also follow along at irregular times. The seven consciousnesses are sometimes wholesome and sometimes unwholesome, and sometimes neither wholesome nor unwholesome mental factors manifest, but the five universal mental factors invariably accompany the seven consciousnesses, operating present before them at every moment. Yet these mental factors have no seeds: among the seven intrinsically existing great seeds there are no seeds of the five universal mental factors, and within the karmic seeds there are likewise no seeds of the mental factors. However, as soon as the seven consciousnesses become active, the five universal factors, the five particular factors, and the wholesome and unwholesome mental factors emerge and operate along with them, and thus the karmic actions of body, speech, and mind are generated.

The seeds of consciousness are like drops of water: drops of water joined continuously form a stream, and this stream is equivalent to the stream of consciousness of the seven consciousnesses. But the seven consciousnesses themselves depend on the mental factors in order to operate; only with the auxiliary operation of the mental factors do the seven consciousnesses have their functions and effects. After the seven consciousnesses are born, they direct attention (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), and deliberation (manana) toward the corresponding dharmas—this is the operating process of the seven consciousnesses, interwoven with other mental factors. The seeds of consciousness themselves are pure, and the stream of consciousness they form is also pure; but when the mental factors participate in the operation, the seven consciousnesses are not necessarily pure, because among the mental factors there are impure ones, defiled ones. Consequently, the karmic seeds formed by the seven consciousnesses carrying mental activities are not necessarily pure. Whatever kind of karmic seeds are stored in the tathāgatagarbha, such is the manifestation of the manas; therefore the manas necessarily corresponds to the karmic seeds.

The tathāgatagarbha makes the seven consciousnesses manifest according to the karmic seeds: if the karmic seeds are defiled, the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses are defiled; if the karmic seeds are pure, the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses are pure. When defiled seeds ripen, the manas will manifest defiled karma, and the defiled karma is again stored in the tathāgatagarbha as seeds, while the seeds of consciousness return to the tathāgatagarbha and remain pure. When the karmic seeds of unwholesome actions created by the seven consciousnesses meet their conditions and ripen, retribution manifests; within that present retribution, unwholesome mental activities again arise, and relying on those unwholesome mental activities, unwholesome karma is again created, and taking this as cause, unwholesome fruits are again produced. Thus karmic cause and effect cycle round and round without end, and sentient beings transmigrate without cease. When the wholesome and unwholesome karmic seeds created by the seven consciousnesses encounter conditions and become active, they are exhausted and the karmic seeds disappear; yet all dharmas and all mental activities, like archives, never vanish. The more sentient beings have experienced throughout beginningless kalpas, the more this tathāgatagarbha stores; everything in the long river of life across the kalpas is archived by the tathāgatagarbha bit by bit. The tathāgatagarbha is formless and without appearance; if it were not formless and without appearance, it could not store so many archives—and likewise, the archives themselves are also formless and without appearance.