Apart from the tathāgatagarbha, there are no dharmas of causes and conditions

The twelve links of dependent origination taught by the Buddha are, in essence, that each link exists in dependence upon the tathāgatagarbha; apart from the tathāgatagarbha, there is no dharma of dependent origination. What worldly people speak of as dependent arising is only knowing the surface phenomena, as if "this existing, that exists," and this dharma produces that dharma. In reality, because this dharma exists, the tathāgatagarbha produces that dharma, and this dharma itself is also a dharma within the tathāgatagarbha.

Any dharma, once separated from the tathāgatagarbha, does not exist. The arising of any dharma is also the tathāgatagarbha producing it; it is only that many conditions must be complete before the tathāgatagarbha can produce that dharma. If, apart from the tathāgatagarbha, one speaks of the dharma of dependent origination—that this dharma can produce that dharma—it simply does not hold. For example, "ignorance conditions volitional formations (avidyā-pratyayāḥ saṃskārāḥ)": ignorance cannot produce bodily, verbal, and mental actions; rather, because sentient beings have ignorance, the tathāgatagarbha of sentient beings can produce bodily, verbal, and mental actions. All the other links should be understood in the same way.