Discovering the Functioning of Tathāgatagarbha through the Activities of the Five Aggregates and Seven Consciousnesses

The physical body of sentient beings is produced and sustained by the individual tathāgatagarbha alone: the seeds of the four great elements form the material substance of the body (material form), while the seeds of consciousness form the seven consciousnesses. On the one hand, the individual tathāgatagarbha continuously outputs the seeds of the four great elements to maintain the functioning of the physical body; on the other hand, the tathāgatagarbha must also output the seeds of consciousness, constantly cooperating with the manas' mental factor of deliberation (manasikāra), giving rise to the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses. In this way, the body of the five aggregates exists and operates moment by moment.

Insentient things are manifested from the seeds of the four great elements, and are the result of the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings with shared karma jointly holding them. The seeds of flowers, grass, and trees are likewise generated from the seeds of the four great elements within the tathāgatagarbha; all dharmas are produced and sustained by the tathāgatagarbha. The seeds of flowers, grass, and trees do not possess the aspect of generative capacity; the surface phenomenon seems to be that the actual physical seeds of flowers, grass, and trees produce them, but in essence they are generated by the seeds of the four great elements within the tathāgatagarbha, and therefore are all functions and operations of the tathāgatagarbha. The physical bodies of sentient beings are likewise born from the seeds of the four great elements, which are the same as the seeds of the four great elements that constitute flowers, grass, and trees; they too are all functions and operations of the tathāgatagarbha.

Insentient things are composed only of the seeds of the four great elements; they lack the seeds of consciousness, and thus have no seven consciousnesses or minds. Moreover, it is the tathāgatagarbhas of many sentient beings that jointly output the seeds of the four great elements to maintain the existence of insentient things. Without the seven consciousnesses, insentient things have no activity of the five aggregates; the tathāgatagarbha cannot cooperate with insentient things to have mental activity, nor can it cooperate with insentient things to have activity of the five aggregates. Furthermore, insentient things are jointly held by so many tathāgatagarbhas—which tathāgatagarbha, then, would output the seeds of consciousness to cooperate with the activity of the seven consciousnesses? If the seeds of consciousness were output jointly, insentient things would surely fall into great chaos, and cooperation would be impossible, even if there were seven consciousnesses. Therefore, on insentient things, even the Buddha cannot find how the tathāgatagarbha cooperates with insentient things in their operation; but within the five-aggregate body of sentient beings, the tathāgatagarbha can be found—through the activity of the five aggregates and the activity of the seven consciousnesses, one can discover the traces of the tathāgatagarbha's operation. This is called seeing the mind and realizing enlightenment.

In discovering the operation of the tathāgatagarbha, the more specific the better; the most specific and most evident operation is the tathāgatagarbha's cooperation with the operation of the manas. The operation of the tathāgatagarbha outputting the seeds of the four great elements in the physical body cannot be observed by anyone—perhaps no one except the Buddha could possibly do so. On insentient things, the operation of many tathāgatagarbhas outputting the seeds of the four great elements is even more impossible to observe. Therefore, on insentient things one cannot realize one's own tathāgatagarbha, nor can one realize the tathāgatagarbha of an individual sentient being; that would make enlightenment impossible.