The Black Box World (15)

The same applies to hearing sounds. In the first, second, and third moments, sound enters the ear faculty, and the auditory consciousness unconsciously perceives the sound. If the manas deems it inappropriate to listen, it shifts or disperses attention, or extinguishes the discerning mind, ceasing to hear the sound. Of course, it is also possible that the consciousness or auditory consciousness lacks interest, transmitting it to the manas, which then decides not to listen. This makes it as if there were no sound, or one simply pays no attention to it. All this depends on whether the manas is interested and whether it applies attention. When the manas applies attention and generates the mental factor of thought, the Tathāgatagarbha perceives this and gives rise to the eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, and mental consciousness to discern the six sense objects within the internal manifestation.

There is also "manifested form" (rūpa-pratibhāsa), which refers to photons formed by the four great elements at the back of the head. This is discerned by the eye consciousness. Building upon this manifested form, these particles are reintegrated, and the Tathāgatagarbha also integrates them based on the material of the four great elements within our brain cells. After integration, it forms "form" (rūpa), "appearance" (saṃsthāna), and "non-apparent form" (anidarśana-rūpa). This is called "form included in the dharmāyatana" (dharmāyatanika-rūpa), also known as the dharmāyatana object. This dharmāyatana object is discerned by the mental consciousness.

If the manas applies attention to this dharmāyatana object and generates the mental factor of thought, the Tathāgatagarbha will manifest mental consciousness to discern this dharmāyatana object. The mental consciousness arises slightly later than the eye consciousness, emerging just after the eye consciousness. Although the mental consciousness arises slightly later than the eye consciousness by one moment, in our perception these two consciousnesses seem to arise almost simultaneously. As both consciousnesses arise and cease moment by moment, they simultaneously discern the form object. If the manas does not apply attention and does not wish to discern this dharmāyatana object, the eye consciousness will not manifest, nor will the mental consciousness. When a form object arrives, we cannot see it and remain unaware of its presence.