Black Box World (XLIII)

The six sense faculties are divided into internal and external faculties, as well as material and immaterial faculties. The first five sense faculties are material faculties, composed of the four great elements (earth, water, fire, and wind) as their seeds, forming visible material sense faculties. The mental faculty is an immaterial faculty, not composed of the four great elements and not belonging to material phenomena. It is mind, it is consciousness, possessing the discerning and recognizing functions of the mind. The five sense faculties include the superficial sense faculties and the supramundane sense faculties. The superficial sense faculties are the external faculties, located on the surface of the body and visible to others. The supramundane sense faculties are the internal faculties, located at the back of the head, invisible to others but visible to the divine eye. When the five sense faculties are emphasized as superficial, they refer to the superficial sense faculties, excluding the supramundane sense faculties. When referring to the complete functional nature of the five sense faculties, they include the supramundane sense faculties. There are also contexts specifically emphasizing the supramundane sense faculties, depending on the situation. The supramundane sense faculties are located at the back of the head, responsible for contacting internal dust, after which the tathāgatagarbha produces consciousness.

When the six sense faculties contact the six dusts, the tathāgatagarbha produces the six consciousnesses. The three—faculty, dust, and consciousness—combine to make contact, and the six consciousnesses discern the internal six dusts. Sentient beings then know the meaning of the internal six dusts, and the process of discernment is completed. What sentient beings discern is the internal dust, the internal manifestation part, not the external dust or the external manifestation part. Therefore, the six dusts known by sentient beings are illusory. The internal dust is illusory, while the external dust appears relatively real compared to the internal dust, but it is also conjured by the tathāgatagarbha and is equally illusory and unreal. The only true reality is the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, which is neither born nor perishes. Apart from this, all is false, all is illusory and unreal.

Sentient beings can never contact the external dust; they always live within illusory and false appearances, like diseased eyes seeing flowers in the sky. Do internal dust and external dust exist or not? When sentient beings have diseased eyes, they see flowers in the sky; when sentient beings have diseased mental faculties, they perceive all appearances as real and true. When sentient beings' minds are free from disease, they do not see flowers in the sky but only perceive the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. For example, our five aggregates exhibit movement, transformation, and functioning. These illusory appearances are not negated; they exist, but this existence is illusory. These dharmas may not be comprehended now, but after realization, various contemplative wisdoms arise, and then they will be understood. This is the direct experiential state of personal realization. No matter how others explain it, it cannot be comprehended, because this is not a matter of understanding. It must be personally confirmed through actual practice. Understanding alone is unreliable and cannot resolve the problem of birth and death.