To the question that if all beings are uniformly in possession of suchness and are therefore equally perfumed by it, how is it that there are some who do not believe in it, while others do, As’vagho@sa’s reply is that though all beings are uniformly in possession of suchness, the intensity of ignorance and the principle of individuation, that work from all eternity, vary in such manifold grades as to outnumber the sands of the Ganges, and hence the difference.  There is an inherent perfuming principle in one’s own being which, embraced and protected by the love (maitri) and compassion (karu@na) of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, is caused to loathe the misery of birth and death, to believe in nirva@na, to cultivate the root of merit (kus’alamula), to habituate oneself to it and to bring it to maturity.  In consequence of this, one is enabled to see all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and, receiving instructions from them, is benefited, gladdened and induced to practise good deeds, etc., till one can attain to Buddhahood and enter into Nirva@na.  This implies that all beings have such perfuming power in them that they may be affected by the good wishes of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas for leading them to the path of virtue, and thus it is that sometimes hearing the Bodhisattvas and sometimes seeing them, “all beings thereby acquire (spiritual) benefits (hitata)” and “entering into the samadhi of purity, they

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[Footnote 1:  Technical name for a very vast period of time.]

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destroy hindrances wherever they are met with and obtain all-penetrating insight that enables them to become conscious of the absolute oneness (samata) of the universe (sarvaloka) and to see innumerable Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.”

There is a difference between the perfuming which is not in unison with suchness, as in the case of s’ravakas (theravadin monks), pratyekabuddhas and the novice bodhisattvas, who only continue their religious discipline but do not attain to the state of non-particularization in unison with the essence of suchness.  But those bodhisattvas whose perfuming is already in unison with suchness attain to the state of non-particularization and allow themselves to be influenced only by the power of the dharma.  The incessant perfuming of the defiled dharma (ignorance from all eternity) works on, but when one attains to Buddhahood one at once puts an end to it.  The perfuming of the pure dharma (i.e. suchness) however works on to eternity without any interruption.  For this suchness or thatness is the effulgence of great wisdom, the universal illumination of the dharmadhatu (universe), the true and adequate knowledge, the mind pure and clean in its own nature, the eternal, the blessed, the self-regulating and the pure, the tranquil, the inimitable and the free, and this is called the tathagatagarbha or the dharmakaya.  It may be objected