What Are Sentient Beings Craving?

Abroad, someone invented a cup that uses electromagnetic waves of a certain frequency to stimulate the mouth and tongue, thereby producing the illusion of drinking water. In fact, there is no water—only electromagnetic waves—but after being stimulated by the waves, the person no longer feels thirsty.

The actual principle is this: the electromagnetic waves are transmitted into the oral cavity of the gross physical sense organ, transmitted to the tongue of the gross physical sense organ, and then, through the transmission of the nervous system, conveyed into the supreme faculty at the back of the brain, where an image of water is formed. This image contacts the tongue faculty, giving rise to body consciousness, tongue consciousness, and mind consciousness. The conscious mind then contacts the image of water; after feeling and perception, deliberation occurs and the decision to drink is made. Thereafter a feeling arises, and the person believes he has drunk water. He thus feels satisfied, and his thirst is quenched. Consider how illusory food, drink, and all dharmas are—self-deception and deception of others—yet we still crave and cling to them. How foolish and pitiable!

Sentient beings are in fact deceiving themselves and others, living in an illusory world of sense experience. If someone is given a piece of pork in the dark and believes it to be human skin, he will have a special sensation upon touching it and thus give rise to craving and attachment. But if he sees with his own eyes that it is a piece of pork, he will feel disgusted. It is evident that all dharmas are merely the experiences of one's own mind, and people are so often deceived by their own experiences, immersed in them and unable to extricate themselves. The more one contemplates these things called sentient beings, the more pitiable and lamentable they seem.

Since beginningless kalpas, what people have actually been doing is eating, drinking, and merrymaking together with heaps and heaps of particles of the four great elements. What is eaten, worn, dwelt in, used, played with, and enjoyed—all are heaps of particles of the four great elements. The tathāgatagarbha piles up countless particles of the four great elements to construct all kinds of toys, and sentient beings play among these toys with utter delight, wallowing in them and refusing to come out, just like children playing house.

There is also a new function on recently released mobile phones: the screen transmits a kind of electromagnetic wave to the hand, and the hand genuinely feels as if it has touched some object.

The human nervous system is like optical fiber, with electrical signals running through it. If a person is stimulated with electromagnetic waves of various frequencies, all his desires can be satisfied.

Whenever craving and attachment arise again in the mind, one should realize that the object of one's craving is merely various electromagnetic waves—in essence, just particles of the four great elements. Sentient beings are truly pitiable: deceived by themselves and bewildered by the tathāgatagarbha, yet unaware that they have been deceived for countless kalpas.

What I hold in my hand appears on the surface to be a mobile phone, but in reality it is an illusory image composed of a huge pile of particles, located at the back of the brain—there is no real phone. What, then, are the so-called sensations of body consciousness and mind consciousness? They are illusory feelings produced when seeds of consciousness, like an unbroken stream of water or current of electricity, run continuously; once the seeds of consciousness are severed and the conscious mind vanishes, there is no longer any master to perform the function of feeling. So what is this so-called sensation? Is it you?

Talking is one thing; doing is another. Talking is done by the mind consciousness; doing is done by the manas—they are not one and the same mind, and this is the result. Without the skill of meditative concentration, nothing can be accomplished—just empty talk. These theories are, after all, merely theories. Without meditative concentration and without personal realization, one cannot truly understand the real mark of reality, and the mind cannot be transformed into purity and ease.