The Black Box World (VI)

The inner representation shadows: everything we come into contact with and discern is the shadow of the inner representation within the black box. The so-called inner representation is the shadow manifested by the eighth consciousness at the supreme faculty, based on the outer representation. For example, when we sit on a bed, we are actually sitting on the shadow of the external bed, not truly sitting on the substantial external bed. That relatively real bed composed of the four great elements is something our body cannot touch at all; our body consciousness cannot touch the real external bed. Only the eighth consciousness can touch the external material five sense-objects. And the external five sense-objects are conjointly created and manifested by the eighth consciousnesses of sentient beings with karmic connections; they do not belong to us alone—every sentient being with a karmic connection has a share in them.

Therefore, that external bed could also be sat upon by others, and others could also move it into their own homes. But the bed that others sit on is the shadow of the inner representation that their own eighth consciousness manifests again based on the external bed, not the relatively real external bed. The body consciousness of all of us sentient beings can only come into contact with the shadow of the inner representation of the bed. This shadow is an illusion; it is our own eighth consciousness, based on the relatively real bed, manifesting it once again separately, for us alone to experience and enjoy. No other person can ever experience it no matter what. Only this shadow is private property; everything else is public property.

We feel that the bed we sit on is truly, genuinely real, and we really are sitting on it. In fact, it is just a shadow, and our body consciousness is merely contacting and feeling the shadow. Since beginningless kalpas, sentient beings have been taking all kinds of shadows as real, giving rise to mental activity and thoughts within them—various discriminations, attachments, and delusions. In fact, all sensations are a kind of illusion. We feel the bed is very hard, or very soft and comfortable, but that feeling of softness or hardness is an illusion; it is the feeling that arises after our body consciousness and mind consciousness, facing the shadow, make discriminations. It is like a monkey gazing at the moon in the water, thinking it is the real moon, reaching out its hand to scoop it up, and ending up catching nothing.

It is like a dog that sees its own shadow in a mirror, thinks it is another dog, and so barks loudly, trying to drive away the dog in the mirror. Since beginningless kalpas, we have been just as foolish as this, no different from that dog and monkey. The Buddha once gave a simile, saying that sentient beings chasing after the objects of the six sense-objects are like a foolish dog chasing after a lump: when someone throws a stone, it immediately runs over; when the wind blows and the grass stirs, the foolish dog, thinking something big has happened, starts barking wildly at the place where the grass is swaying, unable to distinguish even the wind blowing and grass stirring. Therefore, out of compassion for us, the Buddha descended into the human world and taught us the Mahāyāna dharma of true reality, enabling us to depart from all false and illusory marks and return to the true mind of emptiness (śūnyatā).

By the same token, it is the same when we sit on a chair—we are all contacting shadows and then producing false feelings and perceptions. When we feel the shining of sunlight, we are also contacting the shadow of the external sunlight, and then produce the false sensations of heat and warmth. All sensations are thus false and unreal. In fact, we cannot touch the real sunlight, nor can we touch the real external breeze; what we touch are all the shadow-images that the eighth consciousness manifests from the sunlight and the breeze—we never touch the real sunlight and breeze. So when we feel the sunlight is pleasantly warm, or feel the breeze blowing comfortably, these feelings are all illusions, all false feelings and perceptions. What the six consciousnesses can discern are all shadow-images, and then various feelings arise from them; these feelings are all hallucinations, and these hallucinations, of course, are not real.