The Principles of Hypnosis (II)

In the second hypnosis case, the hypnotist hypnotizes a person, tells him to sleep, and the person immediately enters a sleep state and falls asleep. After entering the sleep state, the hypnotist suggests to him, "You are now very, very hungry," and his manas believes it, so he feels very hungry. Why does the manas believe it? Because He lacks the capacity for fine discrimination; there is no mind consciousness to distinguish for Him what the six sense objects actually are, or whether the hypnotist's words are truthful and reasonable. Therefore, whatever the hypnotist says, the manas believes, and the hypnotist substitutes for his mind consciousness.

After the hypnotist suggests hunger, he asks him whether he is hungry. He says he is hungry, and the hypnotist says, "I'll give you an apple to eat; after two bites you won't be hungry anymore." As a result, the hypnotist hands him an onion instead of an apple, but tells him it is an apple. His manas cannot distinguish whether it is an onion or an apple, so he believes that this thing is an apple; eating the onion, he tastes it as apple flavor—this is false discrimination and false feeling.

The aggregate of perception and the aggregate of feeling are just such false discrimination and false feeling, with no reason to speak of at all. The perceptions and feelings of all sentient beings regarding the mundane world are likewise ethereal and insubstantial, utterly without reason, and their birth-and-death transmigration is utterly devoid of any real meaning. As for the falsity of the aggregate of perception, we may refer to the passage on the aggregate of perception spoken by the Buddha in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra. What does the Buddha say in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra? The Buddha says that a person sitting at home thinks of climbing to a high place, imagines himself standing on the edge of a cliff, and as soon as he imagines standing on the cliff, it is as if he were actually standing there; at this moment he is afraid of falling, his nerves are taut, and the soles of his feet feel extremely sore and astringent—that is the feeling of being afraid of falling.

Or when someone thinks of a sour plum, without eating one or seeing one, sour water flows from his mouth. He has not eaten any sour plum, so why does sour water come out? It is the result of false imagining; when the aggregate of perception arises, states corresponding to that perception are produced. The states of the six sense objects and the body of the five aggregates are also falsely imagined; a false mind imagines false states, then makes false discriminations and false reactions. The world of the five aggregates is like the summer heat-shimmer and a mirage.

This hypnosis case can prove the falsity of the aggregate of perception as spoken of by the World-Honored One. Therefore, every single thing in our daily lives, everything that each person experiences in each life and each world, is all imagined by the aggregate of perception, all false, without any real existence and without any reason. We should all study the Śūraṅgama Sūtra well; what it teaches is all the dharma by which the World-Honored One leads us to awakening. Read carefully the passages on the falsity of the aggregate of perception, the falsity of the aggregate of feeling, the falsity of the aggregate of volitional formations, and the falsity of the aggregate of consciousness, and then undertake actual contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā); you will then feel that the five aggregates subject to clinging are all entirely false. Truly, this is the Śūraṅgama that brings enlightenment.

Sentient beings, life after life, act out plays on the stage of the three realms, living falsely. Due to various kinds of perception—wild imaginings, deluded thoughts, false perceptions—they conjure up out of thin air a world that is unreal and nonexistent. Is the imagined world real? It is absolutely not real, yet we take it as real; then even more false states appear, and we take these illusory states as real, whereupon false reactions of feeling, perception, and volitional formations arise—and these reactions are also unreal.

All these unreal states are imagined by deluded thought, and then, facing these imagined states, we make unreal reactions and responses, endlessly, thus living and playing without any meaning. The result is that life after life we make fools of ourselves; suffering always exceeds joy, and even joy is not true joy. What, in the end, is every sentient being doing in the world of the three realms? Like prancing clowns and stage actors, yet not knowing they are in a play, not knowing they are acting, and still acting with utter seriousness—isn't that foolish? These matters and these principles we should contemplate well in meditative concentration (samādhi), pondering and experiencing them carefully with the mind; then we will feel that we are indeed far too ignorant and far too stupid. When will we ever awaken?

If we do not awaken, we will forever make fools of ourselves, celebrating April Fools' Day every day, fooling ourselves until we are unbearably miserable, yet still craving, still clinging relentlessly, still seeking something. In the great drama of birth and death we have played every kind of role, tasted every flavor, experienced every kind of feeling—which of these things is real? None is real; from beginning to end there is not a single real thing. The aggregate of feeling and the aggregate of perception are both unreal—deluded thoughts, wild imaginings, false perceptions, all pathological forms of perception—where is there anything real? We imagine false states, and then must endure the suffering of birth and death within those states—far too high a price to pay.