What We Face Is Not the Real Realm of the Six Sense Objects but Countless Information Signals

The six sense objects that the six consciousnesses come into contact with are all signals transmitted from the essential realm, also called information. No matter what the five sense-object realms are like, by the time they reach the black box they are all information, and what the six consciousnesses perceive is also information and shadows, yet they are mistakenly taken to be three-dimensional, dazzlingly colorful sense-object realms. How can this be proven? Just look at how the eyes and ears discern information on mobile phones and computers, and you will know. The information on phones and computers, though it includes text, images, and videos, as well as sounds, is all information received by the phone or computer—there are actually no texts, images, videos, or sounds there.

For example, suppose an online group has one hundred people, and each person communicates in the group through a phone or computer, viewing the texts, images, and videos in the group space, and listening to the voice messages in the group space. Yet what each person hears and sees is the content within their own black box of the supreme faculty (indriya), belonging solely to themselves and not shared with others. Therefore, on one's own phone or computer, one can delete any information at will, and it has no effect on others, who remain unaware of it. Moreover, no matter how others handle this information, it has no effect whatsoever on the original essential realm.

How does this information come to appear? One person types on their own phone; the text typed out belongs to the essential realm. Through the medium of the phone, the signal is transmitted, and other people's phones receive the signal, which is then conveyed into the supreme faculty (indriya). The six consciousnesses arise and discern it; what is discerned is all information, not text, images, videos, or sounds. Yet the six consciousnesses insist on recognizing this information as concrete forms and sounds. This shows that the discernment of the six consciousnesses is an illusion. Moreover, all dharmas within the black box are entirely information and signals; there is no substantial, concrete realm of the six sense objects—they are all shadows. Thus, whatever the six consciousnesses discern is entirely a false image.