All Things Are Tathāgatagarbha

The tathāgatagarbha only allows all things and phenomena to constantly arise, cease, and change, while Itself does not change. If the tathāgatagarbha were also subject to change, then it would be a dharma subject to arising, abiding, alteration, and cessation, and this would entail an enormous fault. If that were the case, then a problem would arise: when was the tathāgatagarbha born, and how was it brought forth? Before He existed, all things and all dharmas would not exist—not even empty space would exist. What kind of state would that be? Where would the karmic seeds of sentient beings be stored? Where would the manas exist? If the tathāgatagarbha could cease, how would He cease, and on account of what would He cease? After He ceased, what would happen to the seeds of all dharmas? Would the retributions of sentient beings still exist or not?

The tathāgatagarbha abides nowhere; naturally, He does not abide within all things and phenomena either. Otherwise, after all things and phenomena are destroyed, would the tathāgatagarbha also be destroyed along with them? If all things and phenomena were divided and separated bit by bit, would one then be able to find the tathāgatagarbha? This is fundamentally impossible. The growth of all things and phenomena until their destruction is a process of the combined operation of the seeds of the four great elements, and all of it is the result of the tathāgatagarbha mobilizing and upholding them.

In all dharmas, one can find the traces of the tathāgatagarbha's operation. His traces and marks are the mental dharmas and material forms formed by the seeds of the seven great elements, all of which are the raw materials within the tathāgatagarbha itself. Therefore, when one sees dharmas, one should see the tathāgatagarbha. The mountains filling one's eyes are no other dharma—the whole is just one true dharma realm: the tathāgatagarbha, which neither arises nor ceases. Not even a hair's breadth or a speck of dust is permitted to stand outside the tathāgatagarbha; all are dharmas within the mind of the tathāgatagarbha, and all are the essence, marks, and functions of the tathāgatagarbha. Sentient beings live within the tathāgatagarbha; in reality there are no sentient beings—everything is the tathāgatagarbha. Which dharma is not the tathāgatagarbha? Which dharma can exist independently, transcending the tathāgatagarbha? None can.