Sensation Is the Cause of Illusion

Question: When the foot is cut by a knife, the tactile dust from the foot is transmitted to the superior meaning faculty at the back of the brain. When the faculty and dust come into contact, the body consciousness and mental consciousness arise. The union of these three results in the sensation of contact, and the feeling of bodily pain is generated at the superior meaning faculty in the back of the brain. The floating dust faculty of the foot has no perception and feels no pain. I can understand and accept this doctrinal principle. However, the actual sensation of pain occurs at the foot where it was cut, while there is no feeling of pain in the back of the brain. For someone like me who lacks the ability for meditative observation, how can I explain this using the Dharma?

Answer: All the various conditions and dust realms of different parts of the body must be transmitted through the nerves to the corresponding locations within the superior meaning faculty. Only then can consciousness arise to experience the respective dust realms. Since the conscious mind discerns within the superior meaning faculty, all contact and sensation occur within the superior meaning faculty. Since sensation belongs to the conscious mind, the superior meaning faculty and the floating dust faculty—both being material elements—certainly have no capacity for sensation and cannot feel pain. The pain must be felt by the conscious mind within the superior meaning faculty. The location in the superior meaning faculty perceived by the conscious mind corresponds to the relevant part of the floating dust body, creating the illusion that the pain is in that body part. In reality, it is the conscious mind at the corresponding location in the superior meaning faculty that feels the pain.

Therefore, all sensory perceptions are illusory. When can this illusion cease to arise? Only after attaining the fourth dhyāna and breaking through the realm of the form aggregate can the sensation of feeling be extinguished. At that point, even if the body is cut, burned, or dismembered, one will not feel pain. This is because one has transcended the realm of the form aggregate, and the material body no longer obstructs the conscious mind. The body, being form, has the function of obscuring and deceiving the conscious mind; this is called the form aggregate. To break through the obscuration of the form aggregate requires the power of dhyāna. Upon reaching the fourth dhyāna, one can break through it, no longer being controlled by the material body or influenced by the environment.

A single material body has only one superior meaning faculty, located at the back of the brain. The six consciousnesses arise and function there. The mental faculty is not confined by the superior meaning faculty, and the eighth consciousness is even less confined by it, existing and operating everywhere. Beyond the superior meaning faculty, material elements still exist. The entire material body is distinct from the superior meaning faculty; the two are both connected and separate.