In the tathāgatagarbha of sentient beings, the seven great seeds are the same, while karmic seeds differ.

Question: Are the seeds of the seven great elements contained within the tathāgatagarbha of all sentient beings the same? Are the consciousness seeds of sentient beings all the same? What do consciousness seeds include—are there many classifications? Karmic seeds are formed by combining the basic seeds of the seven great elements, right?

Answer: The seeds of the seven great elements within the tathāgatagarbha of every sentient being are the same, without the slightest difference; the consciousness seeds are also the same, without the slightest difference. What differs is that the karmic seeds are different, the mental factors (caittas) are different, and the manifestations of the five aggregates and the conscious mind are different.

Consciousness seeds are divided into the seeds of the eye consciousness, ear consciousness, mind consciousness, and the seventh consciousness (manas), which respectively form the seven consciousnesses. Karmic seeds are what remain after bodily, verbal, and mental actions have been performed; they are formless and markless, recording the true facts of the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the five aggregates. The activities of the mental factors are also stored in the form of karmic seeds.