All Dharmas Are Related to Tathāgatagarbha

Question: When food is eaten into the stomach and digested, it becomes part of one's own four great elements of the physical body. At this point it is related to the tathāgatagarbha. How exactly is it related?

Answer: When food is eaten into the stomach and digested, the tathāgatagarbha absorbs the nutrients of the four great elements—earth, water, fire, and wind—from the food, maintains the needs of the four great elements of the physical body, and transforms and creates the physical body, so that sentient beings can survive normally. In fact, we are related to the tathāgatagarbha in every instant and every moment; we cannot be apart from the tathāgatagarbha. From seeing the food, to taking and handling it, then eating, chewing, swallowing, digesting and decomposing it, and then absorbing and excreting it—all of this is related to the tathāgatagarbha. None of the dharmas arise by themselves, abide by themselves, change by themselves, or cease by themselves; all are related to the tathāgatagarbha.

When, after enlightenment, one attains great enlightenment that becomes continuous, one will observe that the operation of the tathāgatagarbha is present in all dharmas, and that not a single dharma can be apart from the tathāgatagarbha. We survive by relying on Him; it is He who sustains all the activities of our life and manifests for us all the dharmas we need. But as for exactly how all dharmas are related to the tathāgatagarbha, this must be realized through one's own Chan investigation; others cannot help with this matter.