The World of Black Boxes (Part 6)

The internal manifestation, the shadow. All dharmas that we contact and perceive are internal manifestation shadows within the black box. The so-called internal manifestation refers to the shadow manifested by the eighth consciousness at the superior faculty based on the external manifestation. For instance, when we sit on a bed, we are sitting on the shadow of the external bed, not truly sitting on the substantial external bed itself. That relatively real bed composed of the four elements is fundamentally inaccessible to our body; our body consciousness cannot contact the actual external bed; only the eighth consciousness can contact the external material five dusts. And those external five dusts are collectively created by the eighth consciousnesses of sentient beings with karmic affinity; they do not belong to us alone. All sentient beings with karmic affinity have a share in them.

Therefore, that external bed may be sat upon by others; others may move it to their homes. However, the bed others sit on is the internal manifestation shadow manifested anew by their own eighth consciousness based on the external bed; it is not the relatively real external bed. The body consciousnesses of all of us sentient beings can only contact the internal manifestation shadow of the bed. This shadow is an illusion, separately created once more by our own eighth consciousness based on the relatively real bed, for our exclusive enjoyment. No one else, no matter what, can enjoy it. Only this shadow is private property; all else is common property.

We feel that the bed we sit on is truly real, and we genuinely sit upon it. In reality, it is merely a shadow; our body consciousness is contacting and feeling the shadow. Since beginningless kalpas, sentient beings have mistaken various shadows for reality, giving rise to mental activity within them—various discriminations, attachments, and delusions. In truth, all sensations are a kind of illusion. We feel the bed is very firm, or very soft, very comfortable; actually, that sensation of softness or hardness is an illusion. It is a feeling generated after our body consciousness and mental consciousness discriminate against the shadow. It is like a monkey looking at the moon in the water, mistaking it for the real moon, reaching out to grasp it, yet catching nothing.

It is like a dog seeing its own reflection in a mirror, mistaking it for another dog, and thus barking loudly, trying to chase away the dog in the mirror. Since beginningless kalpas, we have been similarly foolish, no different from that dog and monkey. The Buddha once gave an analogy, saying sentient beings chasing after the six dust realms are like a foolish dog chasing a stone—when someone throws a stone, it immediately runs after it; when the wind blows and the grass moves, the foolish dog thinks something significant is happening, barks fiercely towards the moving grass, unable even to distinguish mere wind-blown grass. Therefore, the Buddha, pitying us, descended to the human realm to teach us the Mahayana true reality Dharma, enabling us to depart from all illusory appearances and return to the true mind of emptiness.

Similarly, when we sit on a chair, it is the same; we are contacting a shadow and then generating illusory sensations. The sunlight we feel shining is also the shadow of the external sunlight that we contact, producing the illusory sensations of heat and warmth. All feelings are similarly false and unreal. In truth, we cannot contact the real sunlight, nor can we contact the genuine external breeze; what we contact are merely the shadow images manifested by the eighth consciousness transforming sunlight and breeze. We never touch the actual sunlight or breeze. Thus, the feeling that the sunlight is warm and pleasant, that the breeze blows comfortably—all these sensations are illusions, all are false feelings. What the six consciousnesses can discriminate are merely shadow images; they then generate various feelings, and these feelings are all illusions. These illusions are, of course, not real.