How to Find the Formless and the Unmanifested Within the Formed and the Manifested

Within Longya Mountain dwells a dragon, whose form does not possess worldly colors. The world's finest dragon painters, with all their skill, cannot depict it. Only those who recognize the dragon find their minds instantly put to rest upon seeing it.

Explanation: Longya Mountain refers to the five aggregates. The dragon refers to the ālaya-vijñāna. Within the five aggregates, the ālaya-vijñāna resides in seclusion, sustaining and upholding the five-aggregate body, enabling it to function. Worldly colors are all material forms—possessing shape and appearance, visible, tangible, audible, smellable, and touchable. Yet this ālaya-vijñāna is not so; it is formless and shapeless, invisible, intangible, inaudible, and unsmellable. The world's most skilled dragon painters cannot depict the image of the ālaya-vijñāna, because the ālaya-vijñāna lacks the characteristics of the mundane three realms. Thus, there is no basis for comparison, nor a starting point for depiction. Only those who understand the ālaya-vijñāna recognize it with the eye of wisdom, ceasing thereafter to grasp externally. For only this is the most real; all else is but illusory appearances manifested by it. Upon realizing this, the mind comes to rest and ceases seeking outwardly.

Since the ālaya-vijñāna is formless and shapeless, how can one seek this dragon—the ālaya-vijñāna—within the five-aggregate body? One must understand the intrinsic nature of the ālaya-vijñāna, know how it arises and where it manifests, and then observe it at the places where it appears. Within the five-aggregate body, there are six apertures: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. Although this dragon never emerges bodily from these apertures, it often roars through them. When it roars, if one can recognize its sound, one can trace its whereabouts. From then on, one can follow the sound to recognize one's true nature and find the way home.