The Alteration of Inner Images in Accordance with the Transformation of the Outer Form's Essential Realm

The receptacle world is also divided into the external receptacle world and the internal receptacle world. The external receptacle world is collectively manifested by the tathagatagarbha of beings sharing collective karma, within which all beings coexist, and everyone has a share. What the six consciousnesses of beings can perceive is the internal receptacle world, which is further transformed by their own tathagatagarbha based on the external receptacle world. This is a dual manifestation, entirely illusory like a shadow, devoid of essential form. When beings alter the internal receptacle world within their minds, it necessarily occurs in accordance with changes in the external receptacle world. Without a change in the external receptacle world, the internal receptacle world cannot be altered.

For example, when I fell a large tree, it is necessarily the essential tree in the external realm that falls first. This event is then transmitted to the supramundane sense faculties in the hindbrain, and what the six consciousnesses perceive is the fallen tree, or the tree gradually falling, which belongs to the internal sense objects. Another example is when we construct a building: it is certainly the external building that is gradually completed bit by bit, and our six consciousnesses then perceive the gradually completed internal image of the building. All instances demonstrate that the external manifestation either exists first or is altered first, followed by the subsequent existence or alteration of the internal manifestation. Without the external manifestation, there is no internal manifestation.

The physical body composed of the five sense faculties is itself formed by the four great elements and is also part of the essential realm. In reality, it is insentient matter, merely a condition relied upon by the functioning of the seven evolving consciousnesses, and is upheld by the tathagatagarbha. When the seven evolving consciousnesses give rise to thoughts and engage in actions, the tathagatagarbha can utilize this five-aggregate body to alter the receptacle world. When the essential realm of the receptacle world changes, both the internal and external six sense objects change accordingly. When a doctor cures a patient's illness, the patient's physical body changes. To the doctor, the patient's physical body is the external manifestation, the essential realm patient, while what the doctor's six consciousnesses perceive is the image of the patient within their own supramundane sense faculties. So, is the doctor altering the external manifestation patient or the internal manifestation patient? If only the internal manifestation patient is altered, the patient's own illness remains uncured. It must be that the patient's physical body external to the mind has undergone change. If a change occurs, does the actual person change first, or does the image of the other person within one's own mind change first? The image arises from changes in the essential realm of the external manifestation; it is a shadow of the external manifestation. Therefore, it is the patient's own physical body that changes first, followed by the change in the image.

The essential realms of the five-aggregate body and the receptacle world are distinct: one pertains to collective karma, the other to individual karma; one is collectively transformed, the other is individually transformed. The essential realm of an individual's physical body is primarily upheld by their own tathagatagarbha, but other tathagatagarbhas can also alter this physical body. Healing someone's illness involves one's own tathagatagarbha using one's own physical body as a condition to alter the essential realm of the other person's physical body. Altering the external realm constitutes karmic action, which entails karmic consequences: wholesome actions yield wholesome results, unwholesome actions yield unwholesome results. Altering another's karma means one must bear the karmic consequences. If a person with strong meditative concentration visualizes killing the image of another person within their mind, is the actual external person affected? If affected, there are karmic consequences; this constitutes mental killing, not physical or verbal killing. Physical killing is prohibited by worldly law, while verbal and mental killing are beyond the law's reach, yet karmic consequences are inevitable. However, the only entity capable of changing oneself is one's own tathagatagarbha; there is no second avenue. When others change us, it is still through our own tathagatagarbha; ultimately, it is our own tathagatagarbha that changes us.