The Black Box World (48)

Devas see a river as lapis lazuli, humans see it as water, and hungry ghosts see it as blazing fire. It is the same river, yet the three perceive it differently. All three kinds of sentient beings participate in manifesting that river; because their karmic seeds differ, their shares differ, and so, according to their shares of the dividends, what each obtains and sees differs. Therefore, the defiled Saha world is spoken of from the perspective of sentient beings; from the perspective of Shakyamuni Buddha, the Saha world is extremely majestic, no different from the land of bliss (Sukhāvatī)—this is what is taught in the Vimalakīrti Sūtra. This shows that the world the Buddha participates in manifesting—His output of karmic seeds is supremely excellent—so the outer representation and inner representation He attracts differ greatly from those of sentient beings, just like in a joint-stock company: with different shares, the benefits distributed differ.

For the Buddha, the outer representation and the inner representation are completely identical. The Saha world the Buddha sees is exactly the same as the land of bliss, so the outer representation of the Saha world that the Buddha comes into contact with is likewise so beautiful and majestic. Living in the same Saha world, the Buddha's clothing never gets stained with dust, nor does His body and skin. Dust represents the ignorance of the mind, and since the Buddha has no ignorance, He cannot attract dust.

Only sentient beings who possess a supreme faculty have an inner representation; without a supreme faculty, there is no inner representation. Only those who have the physical eye but no supernatural powers discern the inner representation. Those who have the divine eye and supernatural powers do not necessarily need to discern the inner representation, and those with the interfunctioning of the six faculties need not discern the inner representation at all. For arhats liberated in both ways and the great bodhisattvas of the eighth ground, when discerning the six sense objects, they need not discern through the six consciousnesses but can discern directly through the manas; what they discern is then no longer the inner representation. Beings in the formless realm have no physical body, hence no supreme faculty and no inner six sense objects; when they discern mental sense objects, it is not the inner mental sense-object they discern.