The Principle of the Activities of the Five Aggregates of Sentient Beings

Question: Robots have no flowing of consciousness seeds nor the dwelling of the eight consciousnesses, so why can they still have behavioral activities?

Answer: The activities of robots are the result of man-made program control, the effect of electric current plus programs. In fact, the activities of sentient beings' five aggregates follow the same principle as robots; it is only that sentient beings themselves are not awakened and cling to the activities of the five aggregates as real.

Question: The movements of the body faculty are accomplished through the cooperation of the body consciousness, mind consciousness, seventh consciousness, and eighth consciousness. Without the mind consciousness and body consciousness, and with only the seventh and eighth consciousnesses, the activities of the body faculty cannot be completed. But the first seven consciousnesses are all located in the head, while body faculties such as hands and feet are so far from the head—that is to say, the first seven consciousnesses are not in the hands—so why can the hands move?

Answer: Pull one hair and the whole body is set in motion. The brain is the general headquarters, and the manas is the commander-in-chief. Once the manas moves, commands are issued by the brain's central nervous system and rapidly transmitted to the various neural tissues throughout the body, and the whole body moves. In reality, when the manas moves, the tathāgatagarbha gives birth to the six consciousnesses; when the six consciousnesses then move, subsequent behaviors appear. All of this is secret dharma, involving the general-aspect wisdom, specific-aspect wisdom, and seed wisdom of the tathāgatagarbha. Each person needs to investigate Chan themselves to figure it out; others cannot state it explicitly.