Black Box World (Twelve)

The secret of how the tathāgatagarbha manifests the inner object-aspect at the place where the faculties, sense-objects, and consciousnesses operate is a matter of very profound dharma meaning, involving the extremely deep principles of Yogācāra. For example, with regard to the material sense-object outside, our eye faculty does not go to where that material sense-object is, and does not come into contact with the substantial material sense-object, yet we nevertheless see the material sense-object. The form does not reach the eye, and the eye does not reach the form, yet form can be seen — this is truly strange. When we look at a distant mountain, that mountain is very far from our eye faculty; our eye faculty certainly cannot reach it, and the mountain has not come to our eye faculty, yet we see that mountain. This is indeed very strange. All of this is a Yogācāra mystery, involving the question of the wisdom of all aspects (sarvākārajñatā); this mystery is profound upon profound.

For example, take that distant mountain outside — who manifested it? It was jointly manifested by the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings with shared karma, and after it was manifested, the tathāgatagarbhas of all sentient beings with shared karma jointly uphold that mountain. Do we have our own tathāgatagarbha participating in the mountain outside? Of course we do! We are also one of the sentient beings with shared karma. When we see that mountain, that mountain is connected with us; our tathāgatagarbha has also participated in manifesting it and in upholding that mountain — that is the outer object-aspect.