The Categories and Essential Nature of the Image-Only Object

The Image-Only Object corresponding to the solitary mental consciousness is divided into the Image-Only Object without substance and the Image-Only Object with substance. The Image-Only Object without substance is a realm conjured up by the mind consciousness's deluded imagination; it has no real existence at all, and does not exist in reality or before one's eyes, like flowers in the sky or a hare's horns, carrying not a single seed of the four great elements. It is subject to very few constraints, so some people are very fond of fantasizing out of thin air, indulging in wild flights of fancy, so that the spirit has something to rest on, mental fatigue is relieved, and one is not left bored and muddled. For example, recalling the past and imagining the future—wild, unbounded reveries that go off at a tangent. Such fantasized Image-Only Objects, because they do not require consuming seeds of the four great elements and can also dispense with meditative concentration, have relatively little impact on the brain; therefore they arise quite frequently and carry no binding force.

The Image-Only Object with substance is a realm cognized by the mind consciousness alone that has some connection with the five sense-objects, carrying a slight substance of the four great elements of the five sense-objects; the mind consciousness elaborates imagination upon the basis of the five sense-objects, or else misinterprets them. For example, seeing a rope as a snake: the rope is a substantive object of material form (rūpa); the mind consciousness should have discerned the shape of the rope on the basis of that substantive object and produced the designation "rope," yet the mind consciousness misinterprets it, judging the rope to be a snake, producing the image and name of a snake, and even being frightened into crying out. The snake is an Image-Only object\: the five sense consciousnesses do not participate in discerning and distinguishing it, and the snake's form does not appear apart from the material sense-object; therefore it is an Image-Only Object with substance.

Another example: seeing a flower, the mind consciousness processes and imagines it—imagining its appearance before it bloomed, imagining how it looks after blossoming, or imagining it larger or smaller, transforming its colors and variety, or imagining extra branches and leaves, or imagining many more of the same flowers gathered into a bouquet. Another example: seeing a book, one simultaneously associates it with another book, or with another kind of book cover, or with another title of the book, and so on.

Therefore, the realms we encounter, the realms appearing in our heads, and whatever we think and contemplate in our minds—where is there any real dharma? Where is there any true, unchanging nature? It is purely the mind's ignorance and boredom conjuring up all sorts of affairs, superfluous affairs, adding complication and confusion, unable to attain stillness and tranquility. Because of ignorance, sentient beings do not know the bliss of tranquility; they seek trouble when there is none, stir up disputes out of nothing, without end—foolish to the extreme.