Who Needs to Realize Enlightenment and How to Awaken?

Many people do not understand how to attain realization, nor who it is that needs to attain realization. So why do we, in studying Buddhism, need to attain realization? Because from beginningless kalpas we have been deluded and inverted, taking the false as true, falsely undergoing the suffering of birth-and-death in saṃsāra, unable to attain liberation and freedom. Therefore we need to break through ignorance, break through the false dharmas in the mind, and awaken to true reality. But we must see clearly and understand who this "we" refers to—it refers to the two minds of the mind consciousness and the manas. Because these two minds have an immense amount of ignorance and do not know the true reality of the dharmadhātu, they need to cultivate practice until they awaken to true reality. Only after awakening to true reality can they realize the falsity of all dharmas in the world of the five aggregates, exhaust all ignorance, extinguish all the suffering of birth-and-death, and attain great liberation. Only after realizing the tathāgatagarbha, the true reality of the dharmadhātu, can one, through cultivation over three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas, exhaust all ignorance, reach the tranquility of nirvāṇa, and be liberated from all the suffering of birth-and-death. Therefore, what needs to attain enlightenment are the minds of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses.

How does one realize the tathāgatagarbha? The essential substance of the tathāgatagarbha fundamentally cannot be seen, because He is empty, without any appearance or form; of course one cannot see His essential substance. One can only realize Him through His functions and operations—observing with direct perception the modes of activity of the tathāgatagarbha as He operates within the body of the five aggregates; that is realizing the tathāgatagarbha. At that time one will clearly understand how the tathāgatagarbha operates within the body of the five aggregates. Although the essential substance of the tathāgatagarbha is empty and quiescent, His functions are by no means empty and quiescent; His functional operations have modes of activity and can be observed through contemplation. When one observes them, that is realization.

I once used wind as an analogy: the empty and quiescent mind, like the wind, cannot be seen, and yet we can still know that the wind exists. Wind is also empty. Why is wind empty? We fundamentally cannot see the wind, smell the wind, or touch the wind, and yet we know that wind has arrived. When the wind arrives, there must be all kinds of functions; these functions all operate upon objects and in the air. The wind acts upon objects and acts within empty space; there is contact and collision between them, and various phenomena appear. At the same time we see these phenomena, we realize the wind—whether it is a gentle breeze, a great wind, a small wind, a fierce gale, or a tornado—from the phenomena appearing on objects we can determine which kind of wind it is.

The essential substance of the tathāgatagarbha, like the wind, is formless and without appearance, but He can only be discovered through His operations upon the body of the five aggregates. Then, who is it that finds the wind? It is the minds of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. Knowing that wind has appeared, the sixth and seventh consciousnesses together devise ways to evade and guard against the wind disaster. Realizing the tathāgatagarbha is likewise jointly realized by the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, through the functions that the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to and the modes of activity by which He operates within the body of the five aggregates. What functions does the tathāgatagarbha have? All myriad dharmas are generated and sustained by Him, and all myriad dharmas have His distinctive functions. As for exactly how the tathāgatagarbha operates, one needs to continue investigating after enlightenment; when the investigation bears fruit, one will clearly understand the five "how unforeseen is self-nature (svabhāva)" statements spoken by the Sixth Patriarch.