Is There an External Dharma Object After All?

Outer mental sense-objects (dharma-viṣaya), for example, are like the mountains outside: the shape of a mountain—its height, loftiness, majesty, and so on—are all outer mental sense-objects. After the tathāgatagarbha makes contact with them, they are transmitted into the supreme faculty (indriya), becoming inner mental sense-objects, and only then can the six consciousnesses discern them.

If there were no outer mental sense-objects, and the mountains outside had only color, with nothing else at all, then how could one distinguish this mountain from that mountain, how could one distinguish mountains, rivers, and the great earth? Surely the entire material universe (bhājana-loka) is not just a riot of colors?

Person A is a person, and person B is a person. To B, A is an outer sense-object, including the six sense-objects of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharma. A's height, build, gender, temperament, age, appearance, and so on are all outer mental sense-objects. After B's tathāgatagarbha makes contact with them, they are transmitted into B's supreme faculty, becoming inner mental sense-objects. One cannot say that A is merely a patch of colored form-sense-object, without outer mental sense-objects such as height, build, age, appearance, and so on, right? If every person were only a patch of color, without mental sense-objects, then what difference would there be between any two people? Does each person's tathāgatagarbha create inner mental sense-objects using other people's tathāgatagarbhas? Does each person's tathāgatagarbha randomly and haphazardly fabricate the appearances of other people's mental sense-objects?