An Explanation of the Mahāyāna Sūtra on the Manifestation of Consciousness

Original text: 贤护。如木机关。系执一所。作种种业。或行走腾跃。或跳掷戏舞。于意云何, 机关所作。是谁之力。贤护白佛言。智慧狭浅。非能决了。

Explanation: The Buddha said, "Bhadrapāla, it is like a wooden mechanism placed in a location, performing various deeds—perhaps walking, running, and leaping, or jumping, tossing, playing, and dancing. What do you think? The deeds performed by this mechanism—whose power are they?" Bhadrapāla said to the Buddha, "My wisdom is narrow and shallow; I am not able to decide and understand clearly."

The Buddha said, Bhadrapāla, it is just like a mechanism made of wood. Place it somewhere, and it performs various tasks. For example, a robot, or a washing machine or the like—have it do some things within its capacity, set up its program, connect it to electricity, and the wooden automaton mechanism, the robot, and so on begin to operate. In fact, it is not that the wooden automaton or the robot can operate by themselves; it is the result of human manipulation behind them. By the same token, the Ālayavijñāna also operates according to its own program. Once He operates, the five aggregates of sentient beings begin to operate. How do the five aggregates operate? The Buddha has explained it clearly here. "Perhaps walking, running, and leaping, or jumping, tossing, playing, and dancing"—these are all things done by the five aggregates.

The Buddha said, "Bhadrapāla, what do you think? The tasks performed by the wooden automaton mechanism—what force drives them? Who is the one pressing the button of that mechanism?" If the Buddha had made it a bit clearer here, we would not need to investigate Chan. For example, a washing machine—press the button and it starts running; a lamp—flip the switch and the light comes on; a robot—press the button switch and the robot starts working; an electric doll—press that button and it starts singing and dancing.

The Buddha asked Bhadrapāla: "Who pressed these mechanism buttons?" The Bodhisattva Bhadrapāla modestly said that his wisdom was narrow and shallow and he could not know. Perhaps the Bodhisattva Bhadrapāla was pretending not to know, in order to let the Buddha expound the teaching for sentient beings, so as to bring forth a Buddhist sutra.