What We Face Are Not the Real 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 objects, also called information. No matter what the five sense objects are like, by the time they reach the black box, they are all information; what the six consciousnesses perceive is also just information and shadows, yet they are mistaken for three-dimensional, dazzlingly colorful sense objects. How can this be proven? It can be known from how the ears and eyes discern information on mobile phones and computers: the information on a phone or computer, 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, in an online group of one hundred people, everyone communicates in the group through their phones and computers, 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 supreme faculty—the black box—which belongs to themselves alone and is not shared with others. Therefore, on one's own phone or computer, one can delete any information at will without affecting anyone else, and others will not know. Moreover, no matter how others process this information, it has no effect whatsoever on the original essential object.

How does this information appear? One person types on their own phone; the text typed out belongs to the essential object. The signal is transmitted through the medium of the phone, and other people's phones receive the signal, which is then transmitted into the supreme faculty. When the six consciousnesses arise and discern it, what they discern is all information—not texts, 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, since all dharmas in the black box are entirely information and signals, without any substantial, concrete six sense objects—all being mere shadows—everything discerned by the six consciousnesses is entirely false appearance.