Before Realization, Everything Is Speculation and Imagination.

Question: Is it wrong to say that the material body is the tathāgatagarbha? Can one only say that the material body is the nature of the tathāgatagarbha?

Answer: The material body and the tathāgatagarbha are related as bread is to flour. If I say that all dharmas are the tathāgatagarbha, that is correct; if someone else says this, it is wrong. Because I can genuinely contemplate and practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) to realize it, whatever I say is reasonable; for one who has not realized it through contemplative practice, nothing they say is right. If you have realized that principle, then however you speak—whether discursively or directly—nothing you say is inverted. Without realization, it is merely conjecture and imagination.

The Buddha-nature operates within all dharmas; all dharmas are the result of the Buddha-nature's operation. Therefore, in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Buddha said: 一切法都是如来藏性。

Only after the Buddha-nature operates can the tathāgatagarbha create and fabricate. The Buddha-nature is analogous to the eyes, while the mental factors (caittas) are analogous to the hands and feet.