The World of Black Boxes
Chapter 5: The Question of the External Object-Aspect Inside and Outside the Black Box (2)
Nine: Practice Is Cultivating the Conscious Mind, Not Cultivating the Five Faculties
What is meant by the purity of the six faculties is that the six consciousnesses produced through the six faculties are pure; the five faculties themselves do not involve purity or impurity—they are merely tools used by the conscious mind. Without the conscious mind, the faculties are just wood; cultivating them is useless, and they cannot be cultivated in the first place. What needs to be cultivated is the conscious mind—through practice, the several consciousnesses are made to remove defilement and become purer. The six faculties are receivers that receive the six sense objects; the external six sense objects can enter the supreme faculty through the six faculties. When faculty and object make contact, the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to the consciousnesses which then discriminate the six sense objects; after discrimination, defiled mental activities arise, or the consciousnesses discriminate while carrying defiled characteristics, and thereafter bodily, verbal, and mental actions corresponding to the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion are produced, and the six consciousnesses become impure.
The external six sense objects are material form (rūpa-dharma) and cannot enter the six consciousnesses; the six consciousnesses are formless mental dharmas, not material form, and the two cannot merge into or encompass each other—in all of this it is the tathāgatagarbha that is functioning. When the eye sees form, the tathāgatagarbha, through the eye faculty, makes contact with the form object; the tathāgatagarbha then takes in the particles of the form object, just as a mirror reflects an object, and transmits them to the supreme faculty. The form object manifested within the supreme faculty is a shadow image—not the coarse materiality of the four great elements, but the subtle material form of the four great elements. The tathāgatagarbha transmits the four-great-element particles of the external form object it has taken in, through the external eye faculty, to the eye's supreme faculty. After faculty and object make contact, the tathāgatagarbha produces the eye consciousness; the eye consciousness then contacts the shadow image within the supreme faculty, and then discriminates that shadow image—thus we see the form object.
The ear hearing sounds, the nose smelling scents, the tongue tasting flavors, the body feeling touch—all follow this same principle. Therefore the Diamond Sutra says, "All marks are false and illusory." All the marks we recognize, discriminate, and know are false images—shadow images manifested for us by the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha is like a mirror: when it contacts the external six sense objects, it can produce shadow images identical to the external six sense objects, and these shadow images are the internal six sense objects. Only when we truly realize that all marks are shadow images, all false images, can the mind's grasping nature be lightened, afflictions become thin and weak, and one no longer计较 too much over gains and losses and benefits—hmm, the mind can then settle into purity. Then, when the six faculties again contact the six sense objects, the conscious mind will not give rise to defiled afflictions, and gradually the mind attains purity. So purity is the purity of the mind, not the purity of the faculties; the faculties have no discriminating nature, while consciousness has a discriminating nature, and when consciousness discriminates, its mental activities carry purity or impurity.
Ten: Does the Flavor Object of the External Object-Aspect Exist?
Question: The internal object-aspect is manifested from the external object-aspect, so does the external object-aspect ultimately exist or not? For example, a dish is very salty; although the taste differs in each person's internal object-aspect, does the dish ultimately have flavor or not?
Answer: The external object-aspect of the flavor object is the same; because each person's karmic power differs, the flavor they feel differs. With different karmic power, the four-great-element particles of the flavor object transmitted through the tongue faculty undergo variation, the internal object-aspect changes, and therefore the feeling after the conscious mind's discrimination differs. It is like a person with an eye disease who can see a circular shadow in a lamp's light while others cannot see it—this is due to the karmic obstruction of the eye disease. Sentient beings' blessings and karmic obstructions differ, so the flavor objects they feel also differ. For example, the Buddha possesses unsurpassed merit; any food in the Buddha's mouth is the most supreme delicacy, but in the mouths of ordinary sentient beings, it is not so.
The flavor object is material form, composed of the seeds of the four great elements, and is divided into two kinds: the external object-aspect and the internal object-aspect. Thus there exists the external object-aspect of flavor objects such as salty, bland, sweet, and pungent; the tongue consciousness and mind consciousness cannot contact it nor discriminate it. Only the tathāgatagarbha can contact the external object-aspect of the flavor object, but He has no mouth, and so cannot tell us about it.
When we taste the flavor object, our own Buddha-nature is operating; therefore, when tasting food, one can see the wondrous function of the Buddha-nature, and at that time one no longer takes the flavor object as real, and will realize the contemplation of illusoriness. Some people do not cultivate merit, nor cultivate meditative concentration, but apply themselves exclusively to the power of wisdom (prajñā-bala); such people do not easily attain realization of the Buddha-dharma, often suffer great losses, and do not know it themselves. For those who do not cultivate blessings and meditative concentration, if they cultivate wisdom exclusively, they will pay a greater price, expending more time and energy; it would be better to cultivate blessings thick and solid, cultivate meditative concentration firmly, and then, with just a little contemplation of the Buddha-dharma, attain realization. Those who do not want to suffer losses end up suffering losses instead—this is a choice lacking wisdom.
Eleven: The Six Consciousnesses Can Never Contact the External Object-Aspect
The external object-aspect is material form jointly enjoyed by sentient beings with karmic affinity, such as the universe's inanimate vessel-world. The inanimate vessel-world of the universe is formed by the tathāgatagarbha of every sentient being with karmic affinity jointly outputting the seeds of the four great elements, forming the four great elements, and then all the tathāgatagarbhas jointly using these four great elements to construct the inanimate vessel-world of the universe. This part can only be contacted by each sentient being's own tathāgatagarbha; material forms can contact one another, but the seven consciousnesses cannot contact them. Therefore sentient beings absolutely cannot know what the external object-aspect looks like, nor how great the difference is between it and the shadow images of the internal object-aspect within their own black box.
When scientific instruments are used to test the universe, regardless of whether science develops or not, the scientific instruments must be in contact with the external object-aspect, not with the internal object-aspect. Because scientific instruments are also material form, like the form objects of the external object-aspect, both are produced by the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings with common karma using the seeds of the four great elements; both are external object-aspects that only the tathāgatagarbha can contact. But when a human being goes to observe the external object-aspect, the instrument together with the form objects all become the internal object-aspect—an image of the external object-aspect is generated at the back of the head, called the internal object-aspect—and humans can only observe this false object-aspect here. If a person does not observe or study it, there is no internal object-aspect, only the external object-aspect; once observed, there is a transformed internal object-aspect, similar to the external object-aspect but with differences. That is why it is said that with material form, the result differs depending on whether the human eye observes it or not; but the essential realm (the underlying essential object) of the external object-aspect does not undergo any change.
No matter how advanced science becomes, there will never be a saying that humans can infinitely approach the external object-aspect, because as long as one is a human using the supreme faculty, all dharmas one sees are dharmas within the black box of the supreme faculty; dharmas outside the black box cannot be seen by the human eye. As for why it is so—that is the rule and law of the tathāgatagarbha, which even the Buddha cannot interfere with. But the Buddha possesses immeasurable supernatural powers; the supreme faculty is something He may use or not use at will, completely at ease, depending on no dharma whatsoever—we are not capable of that.
The external object-aspect is an absolute existence, the most primordial material form manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, and also the most fundamental material form. Once sentient beings contact it, the material form is no longer primordial, no longer fundamental, no longer the original essential realm. When an individual's eight consciousnesses participate in it, the material form is changed—and what is changed is the material form within one's own mind; hence the saying that all dharmas are one's own mind. Can the most primordial material form of the external object-aspect be changed? It can also be changed: when an individual's karma merges into it, the dharmas enjoyed will undergo a certain change; it is only a matter of whether these changes can be perceived, with differences in obviousness.
Twelve: Sentient Beings with Different Karma Discriminate Different Object-Aspects
Devas see river water as lapis lazuli, humans see river water as water, hungry ghosts see river water as raging fire. The same river appears as different object-aspects to beings of different karmic paths. The tathāgatagarbhas of the three kinds of beings all participated in manifesting that river; their karmic seeds differ, their shares differ, and so, dividends drawn according to shares, what each obtains and sees differs. Therefore the defiled Sahā world is spoken of from the standpoint of sentient beings; but from the standpoint of Śākyamuni Buddha, the Sahā world is extremely adorned, no different from the land of bliss (sukhāvatī)—this is what is taught in the Vimalakīrti Sūtra. This shows that in the world the Buddha participated in manifesting, the karmic seeds He output are extremely sublime, and the object-aspect He attracted differs greatly from that of sentient beings—like a joint-stock company: with different shares, the benefits received differ.
Only beings with a supreme faculty have an internal object-aspect; without a supreme faculty, there is no internal object-aspect. Only those with the fleshy eye but without supernatural powers discriminate the internal object-aspect. Those with the divine eye and supernatural powers do not necessarily discriminate the internal object-aspect; those in whom the six faculties interfunction and interoperate need not discriminate the internal object-aspect. For the arhats liberated in both ways and the great bodhisattvas of the eighth bhūmi, when discriminating the realms of the six sense objects, they need not use the six consciousnesses to discriminate, but can directly use the manas to discriminate—and what they discriminate is then not the internal object-aspect. The beings of the formless realm have no material body, hence no supreme faculty and no internal six sense objects; when they discriminate the mental object (dharma-viṣaya), it is not the inner mental sense-object they discriminate.
Thirteen: The External Object-Aspect of Beings with Common Karma Must Be the Same
Question: Is the external object-aspect seen by hungry ghosts and humans the same? For example, hungry ghosts seeing a river, humans seeing a river, and devas seeing a river—clearly they are seeing the same river, yet what they see differs: humans see a river, devas see lapis lazuli, hungry ghosts see flames or thick pus.
Answer: Since it is the same river being seen, the external object-aspect must be the same; only the internal object-aspects differ respectively, and this difference in result is caused by karmic power. If a hungry ghost sees a river in the hungry ghosts' world, that is certainly different from the river of the human world that humans see, because the external object-aspects differ. If the hungry ghost sees matters of the hungry ghosts' world, it has nothing to do with us humans—the external object-aspects differ. But if it sees the mountains, rivers, lands, and rivers of the human world here, although what it sees differs in result from what humans see, the external object-aspect is the same—what it sees is still a river in the human realm.
The ghost realm does have the ghost realm's way of life, a ghost's inanimate vessel-world living environment, which still differs from our human realm. But when it sees people and things in the human realm—for instance, when a ghost sees a human, is it a person of the ghost realm or a person of the human realm? The person it sees is the same person that others see; can the external object-aspect be the same? It certainly is the same. That is why when we humans make offerings of water and food to ghosts and spirits in generosity (dāna), the ghosts and spirits can eat it, can eat their fill, and find it delicious.
Fourteen: The Sublime Realms Enjoyed by the Buddha
For the Buddha, the external object-aspect and the internal object-aspect are completely identical; the Sahā world the Buddha sees is completely identical to the land of bliss (sukhāvatī). Thus the external object-aspect of the Sahā world manifested by the Buddha's undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna) is also as beautiful and adorned as the land of bliss. Likewise living in the Sahā world, the Buddha's clothing is never stained with dust, and His body and skin are never stained with dust either; dust represents the mind's ignorance (avidyā), and since the Buddha has no ignorance, He cannot attract dust.
The Buddha has the five eyes and six supernatural powers. When the Buddha discriminates the six sense objects, He can entirely do so without using the six consciousnesses to discriminate the internal object-aspect, and can do without the supreme faculty. The Buddha's seventh consciousness alone can completely substitute for the six consciousnesses in discriminating all dharmas; even the Buddha's first five consciousnesses can individually discriminate all dharmas. Because all eight consciousnesses of the Buddha possess twenty-one mental factors: the five universal factors—attention (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), volition (cetanā); the five particular factors—desire (chanda), determination (adhimokṣa), mindfulness (smṛti), meditative concentration (samādhi), wisdom (prajñā); and the eleven wholesome factors—faith (śraddhā), shame (hrī), embarrassment (apatrāpya), non-greed (alobha), non-hatred (adveṣa), non-delusion (amoha), diligence (vīrya), tranquility (praśrabdhi), non-negligence (apramāda), equanimity (upekṣā), non-harm (ahiṃsā). Thus the Buddha's undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna), like the wisdom of wondrous observation, has desire, determination, mindfulness, meditative concentration, and wisdom, and can discriminate and observe the realms of the six sense objects; the first five consciousnesses and the seventh consciousness are the same—therefore all eight consciousnesses of the Buddha are endowed with perfect and complete wisdom and virtuous capabilities.
Glaring at people with the eyes, looking at people with hostile eyes, squinting at people, looking at people with contempt—these are unwholesome mental factors of the eye consciousness; but at the buddha-bhūmi, the Buddha's first five consciousnesses are all wholesome, and the first five consciousnesses also have wisdom and can discriminate all dharmas—these realms are beyond our imagination. Since the Buddha can directly discriminate the external object-aspect, the Buddha's external object-aspect must all be sublime and perfect; yet He can also, in accordance with sentient beings' minds, discriminate beings' unsublime, imperfect realms—for the Buddha, there is fundamentally nothing imperfect. Therefore the Sahā world, for Śākyamuni Buddha, is an extremely sublime buddha-land, completely different from the world seen by beings whose minds have defilement—hence that passage in the Vimalakīrti Sūtra.
Fifteen: Beings with Different Karmic Power Enjoy Different Internal Object-Aspects
Each sentient being's tathāgatagarbha takes in the external object-aspect and transforms it into its own internal object-aspect, and this too must be done according to the being's own karmic conditions and karmic seeds. When participating in manifesting the external object-aspect, because each being's karmic seeds differ, the four great elements output certainly differ from those of other beings; that is to say, the shares invested in the manifestation differ, so the retribution differs, and the external object-aspect each attracts should also differ. Therefore the object-aspect taken in by each being's tathāgatagarbha differs, and the internal object-aspect manifested also differs—this is the first point.
Secondly, because beings' karmic power differs, even with the same external object-aspect, when the tathāgatagarbha takes it in, the internal object-aspect manifested will also differ. This is due to beings' karmic seeds: the six faculties have obstructions and cannot normally transmit and receive the four-great-element particles of matter in between. The tathāgatagarbha then cannot normally manifest the corresponding internal object-aspect, and the internal object-aspect is distorted. Thus what the six consciousnesses discriminate is the distorted internal object-aspect, yet they take it to be the true external object-aspect outside, and so the six consciousnesses make abnormal, distorted discriminations of the six sense objects. Furthermore, because the six consciousnesses have the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, their wisdom is narrow and inferior, and they also cannot normally discriminate the internal object-aspect; therefore they often make erroneous discriminations.
Sixteen: Seeing Objects Should Mean Seeing the Mind
When we know the six sense objects, the six objects are marks manifested upon the mind; therefore seeing objects should mean seeing the mind. Without the mind there are no objects; objects are objects within the mind—outside the mind there are no objects. When the eye sees a flower, the eighth consciousness, through the eye faculty, contacts the flower, and like a mirror displaying an image, manifests the flower's shadow image at the black box at the back of the head; then the inner eye faculty contacts the flower's shadow-object, and the manas contacts the mental object upon the flower; the eighth consciousness, on this basis, gives rise to the eye consciousness and the mind consciousness, and these two conscious minds discriminate the flower's shadow image. The shadow image is almost identical to the external flower faced by our eye faculty, extremely three-dimensional and lifelike, and we think what we see is the real flower outside—but it is not; it is all shadow-objects within the black box.
So when we look at flowers and other material things, we should know that these scenes of objects are jointly and harmoniously manifested by our eye consciousness, mind consciousness, manas, and eighth consciousness. At this time one should introspectively observe, within the seeing of objects, which is the eye consciousness, which is the mind consciousness, which is the manas, which is the eighth consciousness—thus the mind can penetrate objects, and objects also communicate with the mind. The real flower outside is jointly and harmoniously manifested by the eighth consciousnesses of beings with common karma; it is equally false, equally illusory, all depending on the seeds of the four great elements within the eighth consciousnesses of all beings with common karma to manifest, and all the eighth consciousnesses jointly hold and sustain the flower. By the same principle, the sounds we hear, the fragrant and foul odors we smell, the sour, sweet, bitter, and pungent flavors we taste, and so on, are all like this.
Seventeen: Only When Beings Have Ignorance Do They See the Object-Realms
When the six faculties contact the six sense objects, the eighth consciousness produces the six consciousnesses; faculty, object, and consciousness—the three—make combined contact, and the six consciousnesses discriminate the internal six sense objects; beings then know the content of the internal six sense objects, and the discriminating knowing is complete. What beings know is the internal objects, the internal object-aspect, not the external objects, the external object-aspect; therefore the six sense objects known by beings are false. The internal objects are illusory; the external objects, relative to the internal objects, seem real, but they are also conjured forth by the eighth consciousness and are also illusory and unreal. The true real is the unborn and unceasing true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, the eighth consciousness; apart from this, all is false, all illusory, conjured and unreal.
Sentient beings can never contact the external objects; they all live within false appearances and illusory marks—merely a diseased eye gazing at flowers in the sky. Do the internal and external objects exist or not? When beings' eyes are diseased, they can see flowers in the sky; when beings' mind-eye has diseased obstructions, they will see all marks as real and true. When beings' minds are without disease, they do not see flowers in the sky, but only see the tathāgatagarbha nature. For example, our five aggregates (pañca-skandha) have movement and activity; these false marks, if not eliminated, exist—but this existence is false existence. These dharmas may not be experientially realized now, but after enlightenment, when various contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) wisdoms arise, one will then understand. This is a personally realized realm of direct perception; no matter how others explain it, one cannot experience it, because this is not a matter of intellectual understanding—it must be personally verified through actual practice to be experienced. What is merely understood is unreliable and cannot solve the problem of birth and death.
Eighteen: The Manifestation of the Internal and External Six Sense Objects
The external six sense objects are transmitted through the external faculties to the internal faculties, forming the internal six sense objects; the entire process is entirely sustained by the tathāgatagarbha—it is not that the external and internal faculties themselves can transmit and give birth to the six sense objects. The external and internal faculties are themselves composed of the four great elements and have no active function of their own; if there were no conscious mind operating within them, the external and internal faculties would be the same as stones, wood, and insentient things. Precisely because there is a conscious mind operating upon the internal and external faculties and the four great elements, the four great elements seem to have function, the external and internal faculties seem able to transmit material form, and there appears to be the function of receiving material form.
In fact, all these functions are entirely conjured forth by the tathāgatagarbha. The structure of the internal and external faculties is created by the tathāgatagarbha; the tathāgatagarbha receives the external material six sense objects, and through the external faculties transmits the external six sense objects into the internal faculties, forming the internal six sense objects; the internal six sense objects are also produced by the tathāgatagarbha using the seeds of the four great elements—both the external and internal objects are composed of the seeds of the four great elements.
But the quality of the internal and external objects differs to a certain degree: the external objects are composed of real seeds of the four great elements, close to the essential realm, carrying the four-great-element quality of the essential realm; the internal objects are shadow images of the external objects, false images conjured based on the external objects, carrying a portion of the seeds of the four great elements, and therefore appear false. The external object is like the thing outside a mirror, called a real object; the internal object is the shadow inside the mirror, a false object. The shape of the internal shadow-object is roughly the same as the external object, but their essence is different—there is a distinction.
Nineteen: How Is Pork Eaten?
How do the six consciousnesses eat pork? Do they actually eat real pork? The four great elements of the pork were constructed by the pig's tathāgatagarbha using the seeds of the four great elements, having nothing to do with humans; so how do the pig's four great elements enter the human body and disappear? The external object-aspect of the pig's body—the real flesh, the essential realm—can only be contacted by the tathāgatagarbha; the six consciousnesses can only contact the internal object-aspect. So how do the six consciousnesses contact the pork and eat it? That is to say, what is eaten into the stomach can only be the internal object-aspect; then how does the external object-aspect of the pork disappear? The external object-aspect really is eaten into nonexistence—who is so capable?
When you put pork into your mouth, the lips, teeth, tongue, and other body faculties cannot contact the real pork; chewing does not chew the real pork; the tongue consciousness cannot taste the real meat flavor; and the external object-aspect essential realm of the pork cannot enter the stomach and intestines. In short, what the six consciousnesses contact is all false appearance; they cannot contact the true essential realm. So what is the point of eating meat like this? It is all self-deception, and in reality no unwholesome karma is created either. But the pig's flesh is indeed gone, and the pig's manas will not easily forgive the person who ate its flesh. That pig's tathāgatagarbha painstakingly conjured up a lump of flesh, which has nothing to do with you, and you contributed not a bit of effort—by what right do you eat its flesh? How is this different from robbery and forcible seizure?
Twenty: One's Own Body That One Sees Is Also an Internal Object-Aspect Image Within the Black Box
Question: These past two days I have been contemplating the principles of the external and internal object-aspects, but I always feel the results are meager; although I know the theory is correct, it does not correspond to actual experience at all. Later I suddenly realized that I had unconsciously set my own body in opposition to external things, forgetting that this flesh body of mine is also just a part of the object-aspect. In fact, the external and internal object-aspects are purely the realms cognized by consciousness; to truly awaken and enter, one must still work hard in meditative concentration before there is true attainment—is this the principle?
Answer: One's own body that one sees is also an internal object-aspect image within the black box, not the essential-realm body born of the tathāgatagarbha; the essential-realm body can only be seen and touched by the tathāgatagarbha. These dharmas, without meditative concentration, cannot be contemplated through contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), and then all dharmas remain mere theory. In that case, theory is theory, and oneself is still oneself; one's mind has nothing at all to do with liberation. The theory is not one's own; even if one discusses it fluently and eloquently, it is merely Chan of the mouth, unable to withstand birth and death. Meditative concentration is extremely important, and earnest contemplative practice is also extremely important. Only after contemplative practice is carried out can one truly and genuinely attain realization; only then do those dharmas truly belong to oneself, not obtained from outside or from others. A great man does not learn others' words; when speaking, one must speak one's own words—and to speak one's own words, one must actually attain realization. Only thus will wisdom thereafter open greatly, various contemplative-practice wisdoms be able to manifest, and true liberation and benefit be genuinely attained.
