Who needs to attain enlightenment, and how does one attain it?

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 illusory dharmas in the mind, and awaken to the true principle. 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 principle of the reality of the dharmadhātu, so they need to cultivate and awaken to the truth. Only after awakening to the truth can one 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 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? We simply cannot see the essence of the tathāgatagarbha, because He is empty, without any appearance or form; of course we cannot see His essence. We can only realize Him through His functions and operations. To be able to directly perceive, in the operation of the five-aggregate body, the modes of activity of the tathāgatagarbha's functioning—this is realizing the tathāgatagarbha. Only then can one clearly understand how the tathāgatagarbha operates within the five-aggregate body. Although the essence of the tathāgatagarbha is empty and quiescent, His operations are by no means empty and quiescent; His functions and operations have modes of activity that can be observed and contemplated. When one contemplates them, that is realization.

I once used wind as an analogy: the empty and quiescent mind is like the wind—invisible, yet we can still know of the wind's existence. Wind is also empty; we simply cannot see the wind, smell the wind, or touch the wind. But why can we know that the wind has come? Because when the wind comes, there are certainly all kinds of operations, and these operations are manifested upon objects and in space. The wind acts upon objects and acts within empty space; the wind makes contact with objects and with space, and their mutual collisions produce various phenomena. At the very moment 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 violent storm, or a tornado—from the phenomena manifested on objects, we can determine which kind of wind it is.

The essence of the tathāgatagarbha, like the wind, is formless and without appearance, but He can only be discovered through His operations upon the five-aggregate body. Then, when we find the wind, who is it that finds it? It is the minds of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, including also the five sense consciousnesses. When a great wind arises, the sixth and seventh consciousnesses together devise ways to evade and guard against the wind disaster. Likewise, when the tathāgatagarbha is realized, it is the sixth and seventh consciousnesses that realize Him together, by observing the functions that the tathāgatagarbha performs—the modes of activity that manifest as He operates within the five-aggregate body. What functions does the tathāgatagarbha have? All myriad dharmas are generated and sustained by Him; all myriad dharmas are held and maintained by Him. When one has investigated and discovered exactly how the tathāgatagarbha operates and how He functions, one can then understand the five verses of "how unforeseen is self-nature (svabhāva)" spoken by the Sixth Patriarch.