The History of Buddhist Thought c26.22

c26.22

All things having been explained as mind or consciousness, the ultimate reality is then interpreted as the fundamental store-consciousness, and all the other terms which have been applied to this reality are also used here. It is suchness, the Tathāgata, Buddhahood, and mind, but mind stripped of everything transient and phenomenal. Hence it becomes superfluous to ask whether this mind or store-consciousness is universal or individual. It is conceived as the one reality beyond all differentiation, and any plurality would imply differentiation. But it is also spoken of in its state of evolution, in which it includes all differentiation. This is the Tathāgata-garbha, “ the womb of the Tathāgata,” in which all reality and difference is embraced.² Buddha, buddhahood, tathatā are one, but on the plane of relative reality there are differences. Hence it is possible to speak of many Buddhas, and the bodhisattva may exercise his “ skill in means ” by appearing to accept such differences in order to save beings.