The True Object with a Basis and the Baseless Subjectively Imagined Realm

When you go out to bask in the sun, the sunlight you receive is a true implicative realm (true daizhi realm), because it adds heat and energy to the body and supplements calcium, having an actual functional effect. Food and drink eaten into the stomach belong to the true implicative realm, because they replenish the body's energy, fill the stomach, and give a person spirit and physical strength. But food and drink eaten in a dream has no satiating effect—upon waking, the stomach still feels hungry. Food in a dream is a formless subjectively imagined realm, carrying no real substance, and therefore has no actual functional effect. Likewise, food conjured up in the imagination also has no satiating effect and cannot add energy to the body; it is likewise a formless subjectively imagined realm.

Some people, when making offerings to the Buddha, never use real objects; instead, they rely on insubstantial subjectively imagined realms of food conjured up by thought to make offerings to the Buddha. With no real objects, they need not give away any actual material things or money. Without giving, of course, there is no reward in return. If the food one imagines cannot even fill one's own stomach or be brought to one's own mouth, could it possibly enter the Buddha's mouth and stomach? Using imagined food and drink to make food offerings to ghosts and spirits is also utterly insincere, requiring no giving of actual material things, because imagined food and drink contains not a bit of real substance. Giving such things to others is the same as deceiving them; in future lives one will likewise be deceived in this way—deceiving others is the same as deceiving oneself.