Black Box World (Seventeen)

In fact, there is no such thing as "energy." What is called energy is simply material particles composed of the four great elements, such as photons, electrons, neutrons, protons, and the like. They are constantly arising and ceasing, changing—as one ceases, another arises, one linked to another—so it seems as if there is energy. Moreover, these particles arise and cease moment by moment along certain orbits, as if matter were moving along trajectories. Within the surface movement of the particles, the seeds of the four great elements are constantly changing, and when we observe this, we feel it is a transformation of energy. As for the function that the tathāgatagarbha performs within all this, we do not know it and do not see it; we only know the surface phenomena—this is ignorance (avidyā).

Sound, these particles of the four great elements, can pass through walls and through certain obstacles; walls and other obstacles cannot block the propagation and penetration of these particles. These particles are drawn in by the tathāgatagarbha from a distant sound, then transmitted all the way to the ear faculty and the eardrum, continuing all the way to the supreme faculty (indriya) at the back of the head, where a relatively coarse sound is first formed, facing the inner ear faculty, giving rise to the ear consciousness, which discerns the coarse vibrational phenomena. Afterward, on the basis of this coarse sound object, a subtle mental sense-object (dharma-viṣaya) of the sound is further combined and manifested; it contacts the manas, and the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to the mind consciousness, which then discerns it.

The various subtle dharmas of sound—such as its content, nature, attributes, distance, and agreeableness or disagreeableness—are called mental sense-objects (dharma-viṣaya). After the mental sense-object is formed, the manas makes attention toward it or not, depending on whether He is interested in the mental sense-object. If He is interested, He decides to discern it, and the tathāgatagarbha will manifest the mind consciousness to discern it together with the ear consciousness; if the manas is not interested, He decides to avoid it and not discern it, and the tathāgatagarbha will not give rise to the mind consciousness to discern it, and the ear consciousness will also cease—not listening to this sound. Therefore, even though there is sound, we do not hear it; in a state of meditative concentration, or in a state of being focused on other matters, or in a state of no-mind, and so on, one does not hear a certain sound.