Black Box World (Twenty-Two)

Since the tathāgatagarbha is formless and without marks, pervading the five aggregates, pervading all places, pervading all realms, pervading all times, pervading all stages, and pervading all dharmas—throughout the entire world and the material universe, traces of the tathāgatagarbha are everywhere—there is no such thing as the tathāgatagarbha being somewhere or not being somewhere, no such thing as going somewhere or not going somewhere; He neither comes nor goes. Since He neither comes nor goes, yet has these six pervasions, do the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings overlap with one another? Do they influence and communicate with one another?

Although the tathāgatagarbha of every sentient being has these pervasions, tathāgatagarbhas do not overlap with one another, because they are all formless and without marks. Tathāgatagarbhas do communicate with one another, because they are mind-consciousnesses of the same kind; therefore they certainly exert influence upon one another and can all communicate with one another. When conditions are met, they will come to know the seeds stored within the other's mind-substance, and thereby come to know the five-aggregate body that the other holds and sustains. When a tathāgatagarbha knows the seeds within another tathāgatagarbha, it knows all the conditions of the five aggregates of the sentient being manifested by that other tathāgatagarbha, and will know all matters across lifetime after lifetime; therefore there are no secrets between tathāgatagarbhas.

Our tathāgatagarbha, by conditioning upon the other's tathāgatagarbha, can come to know everything within that other tathāgatagarbha; the seeds within the other's tathāgatagarbha can also be discerned by our tathāgatagarbha, and the seeds within our tathāgatagarbha can likewise be known by the other's tathāgatagarbha. Therefore, between the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings who share a karmic connection, the karmic seeds of the other can be discerned, and each will alert the five aggregates that it holds and sustains; there will then be a resonance between the five aggregates. With wholesome karmic connections, there will be harmony and peace, and the five aggregates of the two sentient beings will feel great joy and contentment. But if there is an unwholesome karmic connection, the tathāgatagarbhas each know the seeds of that unwholesome connection and will alert the five aggregates they sustain; the relationship between the two five-aggregate sentient beings becomes awkward. If each tathāgatagarbha outputs the seeds of the unwholesome connection, the five aggregates of the two sentient beings, when together, will be disharmonious, and discord will arise.