The Difference in Cognitive Content and Modes between the Tathāgatagarbha and the Seven Consciousnesses

The tathāgatagarbha and the seven consciousnesses all possess the nature of discernment, but the content and manner of their discernment are entirely different. The tathāgatagarbha cannot, like the seven consciousnesses, discern the specific contents of the six sense objects; it does not know what the six sense objects are. However, He does know the present state of the six sense objects and the trends of their development and change. The tathāgatagarbha can discern all dharmas, only without knowing their specific contents and realms—that is the content of the seven consciousnesses' discernment.

For example, take clothing: a human being can discern it, and a washing machine can also "discern" it, but the content of the two kinds of discernment is completely different. Even though the washing machine has taken over and washed so many clothes, it still does not know what it has done, nor does it know that there is a self; it is completely without mind. The tathāgatagarbha's knowing and not-knowing are similar to this.

A washing machine operates entirely according to pre-designed programs; it does not make choices of its own. The tathāgatagarbha also operates according to inherent programs and rules. What these rules specifically are, the tathāgatagarbha does not know—just as the washing machine does not know what the programs and rules of its own operation are. But both can do their proper work on time, and after finishing, neither knows what it has done; there is no joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness, and no sense of hardship, so there are also no afflictions of greed, anger, or delusion. This is the state of no-self and no-mind.