Black Box World (31)

The scenery of the internal manifest-form perceived by eye consciousness and mental consciousness is constantly changing. Once eye consciousness and mental consciousness discern it, the conscious mind assumes that this scenery and its transformations are truly real. In reality, these images correspond to the relatively real scenery outside; they are almost identical, making it difficult for us to distinguish between truth and falsehood, inside and outside. It is like a spherical screen movie — the people, events, and objects on the screen also appear real to us. Seeing a person on screen approaching with a knife, we instinctively want to dodge. Yet, upon calm comparison and reflection, we recall it is not real and thus remain seated to continue watching. When a car on screen drives toward us, we still instinctively want to avoid it. This is due to the habitual tendency of the mental faculty to grasp at appearances; the calm analysis and comparison by the conscious mind still cannot exert significant influence.

The images of the internal manifest-form within the black box are also three-dimensional, like a spherical screen movie, making them feel incredibly lifelike. Sometimes, when a TV show depicts a critical situation, we take it very seriously. For instance, seeing one person being chased by another, we feel anxious; at crucial moments, our hands clench into fists, cold sweat breaks out, and our bodies tense up. Even when we know it is acting, we still get drawn into the drama. How much more so in daily life, when we are unaware that all phenomena we encounter are merely shadows within the black box — then we take them even more as real.

Along the journey from point A to point B, all the sounds heard by our ear faculty are sounds from within the black box. These sounds are constantly changing, shifting incessantly. Why do they change? Because the external sound-objects are also constantly changing. Compared to the internal images, the existence of external sound-objects is relatively real; only the alaya-vijnana (storehouse consciousness) is absolutely real. Every location outside has sounds produced by people, animals, vehicles, horses, wind, and various objects. Wherever we go, these sounds are continuously transmitted through the ear faculty into the supramundane faculty, forming images. If the external form-objects change, the internal images will correspondingly change.

Upon hearing them, we become aware: this place has this kind of sound, that place has that kind of sound. We also feel these sounds are so real, and the direction from which the sounds come feels equally real. We know this is the sound of wind from the south, that is the sound of speech from the north, this is the sound of a car from the east, that is the sound of a dog barking from the west. In this place, all sound-objects are transmitted; then, moving to another place, all sound-objects are transmitted again. The sound-objects we encounter are constantly changing.

Thus, external sound-objects certainly appear one after another, continuously. Our ear faculty must grasp them one by one, or grasp them all simultaneously. Once grasped, the alaya-vijnana manifests the internal manifest-form sound-objects within the black box, also manifesting their direction and degree of intensity, almost identical to the external world. Consciousness then assumes that the sounds it hears are indeed from specific locations outside. Through this mistaken perception and illusion, the mental faculty is influenced, causing it to believe it has heard real sounds, that these sounds are all real. Consequently, it directs consciousness to engage in various discriminations, judgments, and ceaselessly creates karmic actions of body, speech, and mind.

Among these, the realm of mental objects (dharmas) far exceeds that of sound-objects. The discernment by consciousness far surpasses that by ear consciousness. Evidently, without the discernment of the conscious mind, ear consciousness cannot discern sound-objects; the two are interdependent. The sounds we hear are all within the black box. All the sounds along the way — from vehicles, horses, people, animals, the universe, animals, wind, and human speech — are transmitted by the alaya-vijnana from external sound-objects. Thus, the internal sound-objects within the black box are formed. What we discern are precisely all these sounds within the black box.