The World of Black Boxes
Chapter 3 Our Birth, Aging, Sickness, and Death All Occur Within the Black Box
1. Birth Within the Black Box
First, let us discuss how the black box comes into being. Since the black box is located at the supreme faculty (indriya) of the brain and is part of the body faculty, it arises and is born along with the body faculty. The body faculty is gradually formed in the mother's womb when the seventh consciousness and the eighth consciousness enter the womb to take rebirth. When the eighth consciousness has transformed and fashioned the body faculty in the womb to about four months, the rudimentary form of the brain's supreme faculty is basically complete, and thus the black box is formed.
At this point, the fetus's external sound sense-objects and touch sense-objects can be transmitted through the fetus's ear faculty and body faculty into the black box of the brain's supreme faculty, becoming the inner object-aspects (nimitta) of sound and touch. When they contact the auditory supreme faculty and the body supreme faculty within the black box, the ear consciousness, body consciousness, and mind consciousness are born. Thereafter, the fetus can discern sounds within the mother's womb and sounds outside it, as well as the cold and heat inside the womb and its own sensations of touch, pain, squeezing, and pressure. In fact, all these dharmas that the fetus perceives are information within the black box of its own supreme faculty—not information from inside or outside the mother's body, nor are they external sense-objects of the fetus's own body; they are all the inner sound sense-objects and inner touch sense-objects within the fetus's supreme faculty.
When the supreme faculty develops and matures further, scent sense-objects and taste sense-objects will also be transmitted through the gross sense faculties of the nose and tongue to the nose supreme faculty and tongue supreme faculty, becoming the inner scent sense-object and inner taste sense-object. When they contact the nose faculty and tongue faculty within the supreme faculty, the nose consciousness and tongue consciousness are born, to discern the scent and taste sense-objects within the mother's womb—which are in fact the inner scent sense-object and inner taste sense-object within the fetus's own black box. Does the fetus's black box contain an inner form sense-object? There is an inner form sense-object, but although faculty and sense-object contact each other, the eye consciousness does not arise, and the inner form sense-object cannot be seen. Why? Because there is no light inside the womb, and the arising of the eye consciousness requires nine conditions, of which light is one.
When the fetus's body faculty has developed completely and perfectly, the supreme faculty has also developed to perfection, the black box's functions are complete, and the ten months of gestation are full, the fetus is born from the mother's womb and becomes an infant. After birth, the infant still cannot open its eyes at first; only after a few days of adjustment can it open its eyes and dimly see the inner form sense-object within its own black box. At this point, the infant's inner six faculties, inner six sense-objects, and inner six consciousnesses—the eighteen realms—are complete, and the human form is complete.
2. Aging Within the Black Box
The black box matures continuously along with the gradual maturing of the material body. The external five faculties, as age increases, continuously mature, and then age, stiffen, and degenerate. The five supreme faculties within the black box also gradually age and degenerate with increasing age. The seeds of the four great elements are constantly renewed, and the functions of the five supreme faculties go from initial delicacy and frailty, to strength, and then to stiffness and degeneration. Among them, the transmission nerves of the five faculties gradually become insensitive; the four-great-element particles transmitted gradually decrease and become distorted and deformed. The six consciousnesses then discern the inner six sense-objects slowly, discrimination gradually becomes blurred and unclear, and reactions become sluggish.
What the six consciousnesses discern about the condition of one's own body faculty is not the actual condition of one's original material body, but the image formed within the black box of the supreme faculty from the original material body—a composite of various particles such as electrons, atoms, and neutrons. It is an illusory false body, not the original real, three-dimensional object. Therefore, there is no need at all to grasp at the material body; these are merely combinations of bioelectric signals—there is no body, no body faculty, and no five gross sense faculties. If there were a real material body, then various supernatural powers such as passing through mountains and entering water should not exist.
3. Sickness Within the Black Box
So-called sickness is the discord of the four great elements—the disharmony of earth, water, fire, and wind—where the tissues and structures undergo changes, causing the elementary particles of the material body to change, and pathological changes appear in the body faculty and the other five gross sense faculties, including possible pathological changes in the five supreme faculties, and also including pathological changes in the inner object-aspects of the five faculties within the black box. The pathological changes perceived by sentient beings' six consciousnesses are all pathological changes within the black box, never beyond it; therefore they are false sicknesses, illusory sicknesses, not real sicknesses. For example, when one feels eye pain, it is not the eyes on the face of the gross sense faculties that hurt, but the sensation of pain in the image of the eyes within the black box. How could an image feel pain or not feel pain? It is all just electrical signals. Likewise, the sensations of muscle pain and bone pain are not pains of the body of the gross sense faculties; they are all sensations of pain in the electrical signals within the black box. What is there to hurt about electrical signals? What is there to hurt about images? It is merely illusion.
Even the sensation of a headache is a false headache within the black box composed of electrical current signals—what real pain is there? The head on the shoulders does not hurt. The sensations of the six consciousnesses are all unreliable, because they are all perceptions of illusory and false appearances, all perceptions of the electrical signals of the black box. What is perceived is ever-changing virtual scenarios, so what reality is there in the feeling that arises after perception? What difference is there between feeling and not feeling? Whatever one does toward these illusory false appearances, doing or not doing is emptiness. Perceiving or not perceiving, feeling or not feeling—the dharmas are as they inherently are; it merely adds to one's own bondage of birth and death. Apart from this, what else is there?
When one is sick, the five faculties do not hurt, the six sense-objects do not hurt—do the six consciousnesses hurt? What do the six consciousnesses hurt about, when they have no nature of sense-objects? Birth and death is the great sickness; sentient beings are gravely ill and need treatment. Treating it with the Four Noble Truths of suffering, its origin, cessation, and the path is most effective.
4. Death Within the Black Box
(1) After aging and sickness, when the four great elements are severely out of balance and can no longer be harmonized, the body can no longer be used. How is it unusable? The functions of the body's five gross sense faculties age and can no longer normally receive and transmit the external six sense-objects; the nervous transmission system ages and can no longer normally receive and transmit the electrical signals coming from the five gross sense faculties; the brain and the black box of the supreme faculty age and stiffen, unable to normally receive the electrical signals transmitted by the nervous system, and thus cannot integrate the electrical signals to form a virtual inner object-aspect of the inner six sense-objects resembling the external object-aspect.
When there are no inner six sense-objects in the supreme faculty, the conditions for the arising of the six consciousnesses are incomplete, and the six consciousnesses cannot arise to discern the inner six sense-objects. Sentient beings then lose the function and role of awareness. The manas loses its right-hand and left-hand assistants and becomes powerless with respect to all dharmas; it will then decide to leave the body, and thus death enters the neutrino-body (antarā-bhava).
Once the black box is no longer functional, faculties and sense-objects do not contact, the six consciousnesses cannot manifest, bodily, verbal, and mental actions cannot appear, and the activities of the five-aggregate body will terminate. When the manas feels it can do nothing, the five-aggregate body will inevitably die. It can be seen that the black box of the supreme faculty is extremely important. Even if the five gross sense faculties are perfectly normal and the transmission nerves are also perfectly normal, if the black box is abnormal, the manas cannot be aware of the realms of the six sense-objects and will helplessly choose death—in fact it is forced, not a choice.
Why is the black box so important? Because the black box is a venue—the venue where the six faculties, six sense-objects, and six consciousnesses converge, the venue where the five aggregates are active. Here the inner object-aspects of the great thousand worlds can be generated, the six consciousnesses can be generated, the six consciousnesses can contact and discern the virtual great thousand worlds; there is cognition, there can be awareness and feeling, and one can experience and enjoy the virtual realms of the six sense-objects. In common terms, this is called being alive, or called living. Once one can no longer be alive, or can no longer live, the manas will inevitably go search anew for a place where it can live, and begin a new life.
(2) The Feelings at the Time of Death
The Śūraṅgama Sūtra says: 一切世间生死相续，生从顺习，死从变流，临命终时，未舍暖触，一生善恶俱时顿现，死逆生顺，二习相交。Here it says that at the time of death one has not yet relinquished the warmth contact. "临" (approaching) means close to but not yet past—that is, not yet dead. Since one has not died, at least the mind consciousness and the manas exist. And since the Buddha said the warmth contact has not been relinquished, there is still the warmth contact, and there is the feeling of the warmth contact, so the body consciousness also exists. At this time the four great elements have not yet disintegrated, or have only just begun to disintegrate; all the feelings of the material body still exist and can all be perceived, and the six consciousnesses are all still present, not yet extinguished. What is the feeling at this time? The Buddha compared the disintegration of the four great elements of sentient beings to a live turtle having its shell peeled off—how much suffering and pain would that be?
Since there is perception at this time and the mind consciousness has not ceased, the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) can also manifest. What does the solitary consciousness do at this time? It exclusively receives the information emitted by the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha broadcasts all the wholesome and unwholesome karmic actions one has performed in this lifetime, like playing a movie—and it is played rapidly, at extremely fast speed, finishing in an instant, for the tathāgatagarbha exports it at extreme speed. To the mind consciousness it is like rapid recollection; the solitary consciousness has no leeway to think anything—it just receives. Then the mind consciousness immediately understands, knowing where it will go in accordance with these karmic actions, but it can no longer inform the people around it. At the time of death, although the mind consciousness is somewhat drowsy and muddled, regarding the recorded content that the tathāgatagarbha forcibly stuffs into Him, He can still discern it very clearly, distinctly and unmistakably, and can even judge which realm He will go to receive retribution in. There is no need for anyone to explain the principle of karmic retribution to one—completely unnecessary.
At the time of death, the mind consciousness and the manas have no choice but to accept the retribution of the future life. This is the power of karma—the force of a lifetime's karmic actions. It brooks no resistance from the mind consciousness, nor from the manas; both must submit to the arrangement and summons of karmic power, without complaint. Even if, in the neutrino-body (antarā-bhava), one is judged by Grandpa Yama, one will not argue, complain, or cry out injustice. Why? Because the facts are laid out there, plainly visible to everyone; King Yama need not investigate and gather evidence. In the face of the facts, what is there left to say? One obediently submits to King Yama's arrangement, submits to the arrangement of fate. How is fate formed? Fate is created by me. The karma one has created oneself, of course, must be borne by oneself—otherwise what? Who will bear it in your place? Even one's own father, mother, or son cannot bear it in your place. Each person's karma is received by that person; no one can bear it for another.
(3) What in This World Is Most Equal
If cause and effect belong to this world, then cause and effect are the most supremely equal of all: wholesome actions have wholesome retribution, unwholesome actions have unwholesome retribution; when the time comes, the retributions of wholesome and unwholesome actions manifest, and there is no escaping them. Some say the virus is most equal—regardless of rich or poor, powerful or powerless, regardless of man or woman, old or young, anyone can be infected by the virus. Yet some people do not get infected and do not fall ill. Death, however, is different: no matter who one is, death is certain. A person who has attained the fourth dhyāna meditation can extend their lifespan, yet in the end the five-aggregate body still ceases. The Buddha can remain in the world for several great kalpas or even immeasurable kalpas, yet in the end He too must step down and leave the lands He established.
In one's life one may possess everything, but after death, everything becomes useless: money, power, status, fame, knowledge, learning, relatives, family, and so on—all are of no avail and helpless with respect to the matter of death. Observing at this time, apart from the wholesome and unwholesome karma created throughout one's life, which one can carry away at will and whose retributions one will receive, everything else can no longer be enjoyed. Therefore we should know what the wise, living a lifetime in the secular world, should most pursue; what can best bring welfare to oneself; what can bring oneself suffering, poverty, and lowliness; and what can never be obtained or taken away.
