Feeling and Awareness Are the Cause of Illusion.

Question: When the foot is cut by a knife, the tactile sense-object of the foot is transmitted to the supreme faculty (indriya) at the back of the head; the faculty and the sense-object come into contact, producing body consciousness and mind consciousness, and when the three converge in contact, pain is felt. The feeling of bodily pain is all produced at the supreme faculty at the back of the head; the foot, being a gross sense faculty, has no feeling and no pain. I can understand and accept the Dharma teaching in this way. However, the real sensation of pain is in the foot that was cut by the knife, and there is no sensation of pain at the back of the head. For someone like me who lacks the capacity for meditative contemplation, how can this be explained with the Buddha's teachings?

Answer: The various conditions and various sense-objects of all parts of the body must be transmitted through the nerves to the corresponding locations within the supreme faculty (indriya), and in this way consciousness arises to receive the corresponding sense-objects. Because consciousness discerns within the supreme faculty, contact and feeling all occur within the supreme faculty. Since feeling is the feeling of the consciousness-mind, then the two material forms—the supreme faculty and the gross sense faculty—of course have no sensation of feeling and cannot feel pain; the sensation of pain must be at the consciousness-mind within the supreme faculty. The location of the supreme faculty felt by the consciousness-mind corresponds to the corresponding bodily part of the gross sense faculty, so one feels that it is that part that hurts; in fact, it is the consciousness-mind at the supreme faculty corresponding to the gross sense faculty that feels the pain.

Therefore, all sensations of feeling are illusory perceptions. When will this illusion disappear and no longer appear? Only after attaining the fourth dhyāna and breaking through the domain of the aggregate of form can the sensations of feeling be extinguished; at that time, even if the body is cut by a knife, burned by fire, or dismembered, one will not feel pain. Because at this point one has transcended the domain of the aggregate of form, the physical body no longer obstructs the consciousness-mind, and no longer affects or blocks the consciousness-mind. The body is form, and it has the function of covering and deceiving the consciousness-mind; this is called the aggregate of form. To break through the covering of the aggregate of form requires the power of meditative concentration (samādhi); reaching the fourth dhyāna allows one to break through it, no longer being swayed by the physical body, and no longer being swayed by the environment.

One physical body has only one supreme faculty (indriya), located at the back of the head, where the six consciousnesses arise and function. The manas is not limited by the supreme faculty, and the eighth consciousness is even less limited by the supreme faculty; it exists and operates pervading all places. Beyond the supreme faculty there are still material forms existing; the entire physical body is distinct from the supreme faculty, and the two are both connected and different.