All dharmas are like illusions

The tathāgatagarbha illusorily manifests certain mental sense-objects—these are what is called the Image-Only Object—and then further illusorily manifests the mind consciousness, which is the solitary mental consciousness. The mind consciousness manifests its function of discernment, and thereby knows the mental sense-objects. In this process, the mental sense-objects did not come, and the mind consciousness did not go, yet the objects of experience were known—this shows that all dharmas neither come nor go. The arising and ceasing of dharmas is also an illusory appearance; therefore all dharmas neither arise nor cease.

Understanding the principle of the illusory manifestation by the tathāgatagarbha will increase one's wisdom. The more wisdom one has, the more one will discover how heavy one's former ignorance was—how one had been unconsciously and groundlessly grasping at all dharmas all along. Things from the past, however precious they seemed at the time, now appear hardly worth mentioning; people and matters that seem so important now will likewise seem insignificant when wisdom grows in the future.