Should Ordinary Beings Cling to Tathāgatagarbha?

Question: If one deeply believes in the existence of a tathāgatagarbha, does this count as a subtle attachment to dharmas? That is, one acknowledges that the Tathāgata is formless and without marks, yet one is still attached to this formlessness and marklessness. Some might say: I only use such a term out of the need for expression; in fact, there is no name, nor is there "an image of the nameless."

Answer: As for the question of attachment to self and attachment to dharmas, for now there is no need to consider either. Attachment to self can only be eradicated by an arhat of the fourth fruit; ordinary beings are still very far from the fourth fruit—eradicating the view of self is already difficult enough, so how could one speak of eradicating attachment to self? Especially attachment to dharmas: only bodhisattvas on the bhūmis can eradicate it bit by bit. Without seeing the mind and attaining the fruits, one simply cannot eradicate attachment to dharmas. The distance between ordinary beings and bodhisattvas on the bhūmis is almost a measureless kalpa; raising the question of eradicating attachment to dharmas this early is of no practical benefit.

Deeply believing in the existence of the tathāgatagarbha is not attachment to dharmas; only constantly grasping at the tathāgatagarbha is attachment to dharmas. Before breaking through the final barrier (lao guan), being attached to the tathāgatagarbha is normal and appropriate. After all, being attached to the tathāgatagarbha is far purer than being attached to the five aggregates, so one might as well be attached to the tathāgatagarbha. Only after realizing the tathāgatagarbha can one gradually cease to be attached to it. Now that the tathāgatagarbha has not yet been realized, attachment to it cannot even be said to exist; as long as one can recognize the tathāgatagarbha as true, that is already very good. The tathāgatagarbha itself has no self-nature, but the sixth and seventh consciousnesses take the tathāgatagarbha to be the true self. Before breaking through the final barrier, this is a good phenomenon—normal and appropriate.