Black Box World (Twenty)

So where do the six consciousnesses appear? Of course, they also appear at the supreme faculty (indriya) at the place where the faculties and sense objects make contact, at the back of the head. Although the conscious mind is formless and without appearance, having no specific location, and is not inside, outside, or in the middle of the material body, the tathāgatagarbha nevertheless transmits the seeds of consciousness into the supreme faculty at the place where the faculties and sense objects make contact. Then the six consciousnesses, within this black box, discriminate the vast sky and the immense material universe (the vessel-world), and discriminate all dharmas within the material body. The inner sense-object realm of the six sense objects (the inner rūpa-viṣaya and the rest) within the back of the head is the entire world in which our mind roams. Although beyond this there are many more mental sense-objects (dharma-viṣaya), those are the contents contacted by the seventh consciousness (manas). Because the six consciousnesses are obscured by ignorance, when they are limited, they can only apprehend these contents, or perhaps only a very small portion of these contents, and perhaps even that is not apprehended clearly. Such is the retribution of pitiable sentient beings obscured by ignorance.

Therefore, all the discriminating activities of our six consciousnesses take place at the back of the head. Even the sense-object of touch at the toes on the body is transmitted to the supreme faculty at the back of the head; the body consciousness and the mind consciousness also apprehend the condition of the toes at the back of the head, and cannot directly apprehend the toes outside the supreme faculty. The black box of the supreme faculty is the entire world apprehended by the six consciousnesses. If we can carry out contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) to this point, we will know how illusory the faculties are, how illusory the sense objects are, and how illusory the consciousnesses are—which of them is not arising and ceasing moment by moment? All of them arise and cease moment by moment. The faculties are composed of the four great elements and arise and cease instant after instant; the sense objects are composed of the four great elements and arise and cease even more instant after instant; as for consciousness, seed after seed of consciousness arises and then ceases, ceases and then arises again—also arising and ceasing moment by moment. What is there that does not arise and cease? All the myriad dharmas of this world are subject to arising and ceasing.

The external mountains, rivers, and great earth—the external sense-objects such as form, sound, taste, smell, and touch—are jointly produced, manifested, and sustained by the tathāgatagarbha of all sentient beings. When our tathāgatagarbha conditions those external sense-objects, it extracts the four great elements from them; once extracted, they form particles and become photons, which are continuously transmitted through the gross faculty (the five sense organs) and the transmitting nerves into the supreme faculty. Then the faculties and sense objects make contact, and the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to the six consciousnesses, which apprehend the shadow-image of the external mountains, rivers, and great earth. Thereupon, taking these shadow-images as real external dharmas, we cling to them in every way and dispute over them endlessly.