The Black Box Is the Stage

Amid all the ever-changing realms, our mind has actually never moved and has gone nowhere; it has always remained within the black box, watching the coming and going of the various realms and their unfathomable transformations, while simultaneously making responses that are utterly detached from reality. Just as in animated cartoons and film footage, there is no actual movement or stillness of scenery and characters—only numerous images being rapidly projected and played. Likewise, within the black box, neither the mind consciousness nor the realms have moved or stopped; it is merely that various images and scenes flash by rapidly. The director of this is the manas, the producer is the tathāgatagarbha, and the six consciousnesses are the actors and the audience. Therefore, everything we watch is an animated cartoon, a drama—nothing is real. Even the act of watching, the five-aggregate behavior itself, is directed; the director makes the six consciousnesses act however He wills. Yet the director too is not in control—at most He is merely the head of the troupe, and when the play ends and the music ceases, He too will exit the stage.