Every Dharma Is Not Apart from Suchness

The general outline of the Buddha-dharma is that all dharmas unfold around tathatā (suchness), leading to the path to buddhahood, and every dharma is inseparable from tathatā. Throughout His life, the World-Honored One taught the Dharma entirely centered on the fundamental mind, the tathāgatagarbha; apart from the mind there are no dharmas, and all dharmas point to the tathāgatagarbha and tathatā. In the Hinayana Āgama sūtras, the tathāgatagarbha is also implicitly taught, and sometimes explicitly stated as well. For example, the Buddha said: 法不离如，法不异如。This "suchness" (如) is the tathāgatagarbha, and the "dharmas" here refer to the dharmas of the five aggregates and the dharmas of the eighteen realms. The Buddha also said: 五阴非我，不异我，不相在。The "self" here refers to the tathāgatagarbha, and within the arhat's nirvāṇa without remainder there is only the tathāgatagarbha.

The truth of the Four Noble Truths is inseparable from the tathāgatagarbha. The truth of suffering is inseparable from the tathāgatagarbha and exists in dependence on it: after sentient beings create karma, when conditions ripen, the seeds of suffering are output by the tathāgatagarbha, and sentient beings undergo the retribution of suffering. The truth of the arising of suffering exists in dependence on the tathāgatagarbha: the karmic seeds created by sentient beings are stored by the tathāgatagarbha. The truth of the cessation of suffering exists in dependence on the tathāgatagarbha: what ceases are the seeds of suffering within the tathāgatagarbha. The truth of the path exists in dependence on the tathāgatagarbha: apart from the tathāgatagarbha, sentient beings could not cultivate the path. Everything needed for cultivation is provided by the tathāgatagarbha, and the seeds of wholesome dharmas accumulated through practice are stored by the tathāgatagarbha, so that cultivation can continue in the future.

The Middle Vehicle's dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination exists inseparably from the tathāgatagarbha: it is the tathāgatagarbha that stores and outputs the seeds of body, speech, and mind, and the tathāgatagarbha that stores and outputs the seeds of nāma-rūpa (name-and-form) and the seeds of the six sense bases. Every one of the twelve links exists because of the tathāgatagarbha. Moreover, when the pratyekabuddha traces the dharma of dependent origination in reverse, he finally stops at consciousness and turns back, unable to go beyond it. Tracing back the source of nāma-rūpa, when he traces it to the tathāgatagarbha, he can trace no further, and finally arrives at one conclusion: nāma-rūpa is born from the tathāgatagarbha. The World-Honored One said: 识缘名色，名色缘识，meaning that the tathāgatagarbha can manifest because of nāma-rūpa, while nāma-rūpa is born from the tathāgatagarbha and functions because of it; the two depend on each other.

The Mahāyāna dharma, even more so, unfolds everywhere around the functions, essential nature, and operations of the tathāgatagarbha. Without the tathāgatagarbha, there would be no bodhisattva's myriad practices of the six pāramitās. All kinds of cultivation are inseparable from the tathāgatagarbha, and all dharmas are inseparable from the tathāgatagarbha. All the way until the attainment of buddhahood, everything is cultivated in reliance on the tathāgatagarbha, and the karmic seeds of cultivation are stored within it, so that the buddha-path can be perfectly accomplished in the future.