How Sentient Beings Age in the Black Box

The black box matures gradually along with the progressive maturation of the physical body. The five external sense faculties mature continuously as one ages, and then age, stiffen, and degenerate. The five supreme faculties (indriya) inside the black box likewise gradually age and degenerate with increasing years. The seeds of the four great elements are constantly being renewed, and the functions of the five supreme faculties go from being delicate and weak at first, to powerful, and then to stiff and degenerate. Among them, the transmitting nerves of the five sense faculties gradually become less sensitive, and the particles of the four great elements that they transmit gradually decrease and become distorted and deformed. As a result, the six consciousnesses discriminate the inner six sense-objects (ṣaḍāyatana) more slowly; their discernment gradually becomes blurred and indistinct, and their reactions sluggish.

What the six consciousnesses discern about the condition of one's own body faculty is not the actual condition of one's original physical body, but rather the image formed within the black box of the supreme faculties from the original physical body—a composite of various particles such as electrons, atoms, and neutrons. It is an illusory false body, not the original real, three-dimensional physical object. Therefore, there is no need at all to grasp at the physical body; these are merely combinations of bioelectric signals—there is no body and no body faculty of the five gross sense faculties. If there were a real physical body, then there should not be various supernormal powers such as passing through mountains or entering water.