The Mechanisms Behind Life and Natural Phenomena

Many people marvel at the wonder and mystery of life and nature, leading scientists across various fields to dedicate their lives to exploring the secrets of life and the natural world, striving to uncover the underlying operating mechanisms behind all phenomena in the universe. Because our ignorance is profound, our wisdom is limited, our perspective is too narrow, our knowledge is insufficient, and our powers of observation are too weak, we cannot discern what the underlying mechanisms truly are. We lack understanding of many natural phenomena, unaware of their essential nature and internal workings, which is why the activities of life seem so mysterious to us. If we could see all the activity mechanisms and internal structures of the body, as well as the phenomena of arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing in nature with perfect clarity, these material phenomena would hold no mystery for us. We would realize that the life activities of the physical body are simply as they are, and that the universe and the world of containers are naturally thus—there would be nothing particularly wondrous about them.

All natural activities existing within the universe and the world of containers, such as the wind rustling the grass, lightning and thunder, storms and sudden downpours, gentle breezes, the passing of spring into autumn, and the cycle of the four seasons—are the operating mechanisms of these phenomena naturally inherent, or are they formed by the aggregation of causes and conditions? Superficially, they all arise from causes and conditions, including the karmic conditions of sentient beings sharing collective karma, evoked by their shared karmic forces. The living environments perceived by beings with relatively greater wholesome karma manifest as another kind of beautiful state, free from the phenomena of birth, aging, sickness, and death, without the alternation of the four seasons. Their living environments are always comfortable and perfect, because these environments are evoked by the pure karma of sentient beings. In contrast, the Saha World contains phenomena like birth, aging, sickness, death, arising, abiding, changing, ceasing, and countless impermanent transformations—all these are evoked by the mixed wholesome and unwholesome, defiled karma of sentient beings.

So how do these life and natural phenomena occur, and what are the underlying operating mechanisms behind them? If we say these phenomena are all dharmas born from causes and conditions, that is only a superficial answer. In reality, it is the Tathagatagarbha that directs all these dharmas from behind the scenes. Based on the collective and individual karma created by sentient beings, the Tathagatagarbha manifests karmic conditions, and then, according to these karmic conditions, generates all dharmas. The reason the Tathagatagarbha can create all these dharmas is because it possesses the seven great seeds. The different combinations of these seven great seeds constitute the colorful world. Among them, material phenomena (rupa-dharma) are formed by the five great seeds, while mental phenomena (citta-dharma) are formed by the consciousness seeds and perceiving seeds. The combination of material and mental phenomena manifests non-material, non-mental phenomena (neither-rupa-nor-citta-dharma). In this way, all dharmas in the world are complete, and the world of sentient beings is established. Because the karma seeds and karmic conditions differ, the seeds allocated by the Tathagatagarbha will correspondingly differ, and the dharmas generated will naturally vary. It is precisely because of these differences that the functions of the dharmas become complete, enabling the world to be diverse.

The differences in all dharmas are caused by karma seeds. Different karma seeds result in different fruits and phenomena. However, these differences exist only on the level of superficial phenomena; in essence, they are the same—all are the functioning of the Tathagatagarbha. The Tathagatagarbha manipulates its own inherent seeds, causing them to gather, disperse, combine, and separate, thereby transforming into the world's phenomena of arising, abiding, changing, ceasing, and their myriad, colorful manifestations. Once the karma seeds and karmic conditions change, the phenomenal world will change accordingly. Therefore, the underlying operating mechanism behind life and natural phenomena is the law by which the Tathagatagarbha generates all dharmas. By mastering the functions and roles of the Tathagatagarbha's seeds, one will gradually uncover the secrets of these phenomena and no longer find the natural world so mysterious.