Why Should One Realize Tathāgatagarbha in the Manas?

Question: According to the findings of modern psychology, the manas also participates in the process of constructing the human body; therefore, under correct guidance, the manas can restore or correct abnormal conditions of the body. It is like a watchmaker—the watch is something he himself made, so when a problem arises, he knows how to solve it. Is this statement correct?

Answer: The construction of the material body is something the tathāgatagarbha does entirely on its own, in accordance with karmic seeds; the manas does not understand these things and cannot be of much help. Therefore, restoring the condition of the body is entirely the affair of the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha knows the karmic seeds and discerns karmic conditions, and thus naturally knows how to transform the material body; nevertheless, it must also, as far as possible, transform all dharmas—including the material body—in accordance with the intentions of the manas.

On the one hand, the transformation of the material body is also the result of the tathāgatagarbha, moment by moment, complying with the manas' mental deliberation (caittasika of deliberation). Whatever the manas wants to do, the tathāgatagarbha does its utmost to cooperate and realize its intentions—this is the most important point. This is the manas' greatest power: holding the emperor hostage to command the feudal lords.

The mind consciousness, however, cannot do this. The tathāgatagarbha does not cooperate with the mind consciousness; it only cooperates with the manas. The mind consciousness must pass the manas' scrutiny and gain its consent before its intentions can be realized. Therefore it is said that realizing the tathāgatagarbha through the manas is extremely easy. Who realizes the manas' intentions? Who discerns the manas' intentions? Who delivers the consciousness-seeds to the manas? It is all the tathāgatagarbha. The entire operation and activity of the manas is the tathāgatagarbha; the entire activity of the five-aggregate body is the tathāgatagarbha. There is nothing else—pure and unmixed, it is all the tathāgatagarbha. The whole cloth doll is cloth.