An Explanation of a Fragment from the Zongjing Lu by Chan Master Yongming Yanshou

 Original text: 伏以真源湛寂，觉海澄清，绝名相之端，无能所之迹。最初不觉，忽起动心，成业识之由，为觉明之咎。因明起照，见分俄兴，随照立尘，相分安布，如镜现像，顿起根身。

Explanation: "伏以真源湛寂，觉海澄清，绝名相之端，无能所之迹。" This is describing the intrinsic nature of the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha is real, and it is the source of all dharmas. He is pure and quiescent, unmoving and unshaken, and He also has the nature of awareness, being able to be aware of all dharmas; hence He is called the ocean of awakening. The tathāgatagarbha's essence is free of all names and marks: no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind; no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharma; no eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, or mind consciousness; no names or marks of any dharmas of the threefold world. Even His own name is a nominal one—whatever He is called, it is merely a provisional designation established by later people. He neither has the seeing nature of the seven consciousnesses as the perceiver, nor the seen nature of the six sense objects as the perceived; having neither perceiver nor perceived, He is free of the perceiver-perceived duality of the seven consciousnesses.

"最初不觉，忽起动心，成业识之由，为觉明之咎。" Before beginningless kalpas, the manas and the tathāgatagarbha existed together simultaneously. Because of ignorance, the manas was unaware of the true reality of the dharmadhātu; suddenly the mind stirred, giving rise to the intention to greedily seek outward. The tathāgatagarbha complied with this and manifested the sense faculties and the material world, and thus karmic activities appeared, and the seventh consciousness became the karmic consciousness. All the faults and calamities of birth and death arose from this. The fault of this birth and death lies in the manas giving rise to the intention to be clearly aware of the threefold world, failing to abide in the self-nature of its own mind.

因明起照，见分俄兴，随照立尘，相分安布，如镜现像，顿起根身。

Because the manas had the mental thought of wanting to understand clearly, it gave rise to awareness and illumination, wanting to see the world; thus the perceiving-aspect (darśana-bhāga) of the seven consciousnesses suddenly arose. Because the perceiving-aspect wanted to see, there necessarily appeared the object-aspect (nimitta) of the sense-object dusts to be seen; the tathāgatagarbha, complying with the manas, manifested the object-aspects of the six sense dusts, and thus the perceiver and the perceived were established in this way. Afterward, the tathāgatagarbha, like a mirror reflecting images, instantly manifested the sense faculties and the material world, and the five-aggregate body appeared; in this way, the threefold world was established.