The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra brings Buddha-nature and the Yogācāra teaching of mind-only into harmony by treating them as two ways of speaking about a single reality: the ultimate nature of consciousness. Buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha) is not introduced as some entity outside or beyond mind, but as the pure, unconditioned aspect of the very consciousness that, in its conditioned mode, appears as the flow of experiences described by cittamātra. In this way, Buddha-nature represents the inherent awakened potential, while mind-only analyzes how that same mind, when obscured, generates saṃsāric appearances. The sutra thus avoids positing a separate metaphysical principle and instead locates Buddha-nature squarely within the dynamics of consciousness itself.

A key to this reconciliation is the role of ālayavijñāna, the storehouse consciousness. In Yogācāra terms, ālayavijñāna is ordinarily the basis for karmic seeds and dualistic perception, the ground from which the manifold of experience arises. The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra identifies this same ālaya, when purified of defilements and karmic impressions, with tathāgatagarbha or Buddha-nature. In its defiled mode it serves as the basis for phenomenal experience; in its purified mode it is nothing other than the dharmakāya, the enlightened dimension of a Buddha. Thus, what appears as the source of bondage and what is praised as Buddha-nature are understood as two aspects—impure and pure—of the same underlying consciousness.

Within this framework, spiritual practice is described as a transformation rather than an annihilation of consciousness. The aim is not to eliminate ālayavijñāna, but to purify it through meditative insight and the realization that external objects are, in truth, mental projections. As dualistic grasping and karmic tendencies are relinquished, the nondual suchness of consciousness is revealed. This nondual suchness is precisely what is named Buddha-nature: the luminous, awakened character of mind that transcends the subject–object split. Mind-only, therefore, shows how duality is constructed, while Buddha-nature language points to the ever-present possibility of awakening once that construction is seen through.

By presenting Buddha-nature and cittamātra as complementary rather than competing doctrines, the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra offers a unified vision of nondual awareness. Buddha-nature emphasizes the positive presence of enlightened potential at the heart of experience, and mind-only emphasizes the absence of truly external objects and the constructed nature of samsaric appearances. Both converge on the insight that the ultimate reality is the empty, nondual nature of consciousness itself, which, when realized, is Buddhahood.