華嚴一乘教義分齊章 2.20

2.20

Question: "Generally speaking, gotra must be conditioned; how does this teaching take tathatā as gotra?"
Answer: "Because when tathatā accords with conditions and unites with defilement to form the root consciousness, within that very reality there is the taintless innate enlightenment, which inwardly perfumes sentient beings to serve as the cause for reversing the flow [of saṃsāra], and this can be taken as possessing gotra. The Liang Mahāyānasaṃgraha explains this as the nature of understanding within the ālaya. In the Awakening of Faith, it is the innate enlightenment among the two aspects of the ālaya. Moreover, in that treatise, the tathāgatagarbha is replete with the untainted and constantly perfumes sentient beings to serve as the cause of pure dharmas. Furthermore, regarding what the Ratnagotravibhāga calls 'and that nature of tathatā', its text says: 'As the Saḍāyatana-sūtra says: "The six sense faculties are thus, from beginningless time, because their substance is the ultimate nature of all dharmas."' Explanation: Because tathatā pervades all dharmas, here non-sentient things are excluded; therefore, within the category of sentient beings of the six āyatanas, one takes that ultimate principle of tathatā as the prakṛti-gotra. This shares the same name as what is stated in the Yogācārabhūmi. But that text pertains to the initial teaching, explaining according to the coarse marks of matching principle to phenomena; hence it explains gotra in the midst of phenomena. The Bodhisattvabhūmi says: 'I have already briefly explained the coarse marks of gotra.' This is what it refers to. In the Ratnagotravibhāga, it pertains to this final teaching, explaining according to the profound and subtle marks of matching phenomena to principle; hence it clarifies the prakṛti-gotra in terms of tathatā. Therefore the Buddhagotra-śāstra says: 'The naturally pure mind is called the truth of the path.' Also, the Nirvāṇa-sūtra says: 'Buddha-nature is named the emptiness of the supreme meaning; the emptiness of the supreme meaning is named wisdom.' These all explain the prakṛti-gotra in terms of innate enlightenment and intrinsic wisdom. Its samudānīta-gotra is also formed from tathatā; hence the Mahāyānasaṃgraha says: 'The perfuming of extensive hearing flows from the most pure dharma realm,' and so forth. Furthermore, in the Awakening of Faith, the two greatnesses of substance and characteristic of tathatā serve as the cause of internal perfuming, while the greatness of function of tathatā serves as the condition of external perfuming; because it unites with the defiled dharmas of ignorance, the three greatnesses are therefore spoken of as internal and external perfuming; by the force of perfuming, when ignorance is exhausted, it secretly accords without duality, being solely the one tathatā."