Black Box World (15)

The ear hearing sounds works the same way. Within one, two, three thought-moments, the sound enters the ear faculty, and the ear consciousness involuntarily hears the sound. If the manas feels it should not listen, it will divert and disperse the attention, or extinguish the conscious mind so as not to hear the sound. Of course, there are also cases where the mind consciousness or ear consciousness is not interested, and after this is transmitted to the manas, the manas decides not to listen; then it is as if there were no sound, or one no longer pays attention to the sound. This all depends on whether the manas is interested and whether it gives rise to attention (manaskāra). When the manas gives rise to attention and the deliberation (manasikāra) mental factor arises, the tathāgatagarbha, knowing this, will bring forth the eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, and mind consciousness to discern the six sense objects of the inner object-aspect (nimitta).

There is also manifest form (sanidarśana-rūpa): the manifest color formed at the back of the head by photons composed of the four great elements' particles. It is discerned by the eye consciousness. On the basis of this manifest color, these particles are re-integrated, and the tathāgatagarbha also integrates them according to the four great elements' substances in our brain cells. After integration, shaped form (saṃsthāna-rūpa), expressive form (vijñapti-rūpa), and non-expressive form (avijñapti-rūpa) are formed; this is called form included in the mental object base (dharmāyatana), also called the mental sense-object (dharma-viṣaya). This mental sense-object is discerned by the mind consciousness.

If the manas gives rise to attention toward this mental sense-object and the deliberation mental factor arises, the tathāgatagarbha will transform and bring forth the mind consciousness to discern this mental sense-object. The mind consciousness appears slightly later than the eye consciousness, by one thought-moment, arising after the eye consciousness. Although the mind consciousness arises one thought-moment later than the eye consciousness, in our experience these two consciousnesses seem to arise almost simultaneously. As these two consciousnesses arise and cease moment by moment, they discern the form sense-object simultaneously. If the manas does not give rise to attention and does not wish to discern this mental sense-object, then the eye consciousness will not manifest, and the mind consciousness will not manifest either. When the form sense-object arrives, we cannot see the form and do not know there is form.