Without External Dharma Objects, Can There Be External Five Sense Objects?

Only when the mental sense-object (dharma-viṣaya) combines with one of the five sense-objects can a single sense-object realm be formed. The mental sense-object and the five sense-objects cannot be separated; once separated, nothing exists at all—there would be no form, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, and no mental sense-object. In the sense-object formed by the combination of the mental sense-object and the five sense-objects, the proportion of the mental sense-object is very large; it is almost dominated by the mental sense-object. For example, with the form sense-object (rūpa-viṣaya): colors belong to the realm of the five sense-objects, discerned by the eye consciousness; everything else is the mental sense-object, discerned by the mind consciousness. Only when the discernments of these two consciousnesses are combined is the discernment of the form sense-object complete—neither can be lacking. Especially if the mental sense-object discerned by the mind consciousness is missing, then nothing exists at all. Therefore, without the mental sense-object, the realm of the five sense-objects could not possibly exist. The sense-object realm is a unified whole and cannot lack the mental sense-object.

For example, a person's physical body is composed of colors and the material-form mental sense-object (rūpa-dharma-viṣaya). The colors are discerned by the eye consciousness, while the rest are contents discerned by the mind consciousness, including tallness or shortness, fatness or thinness, body weight, temperament, appearance, age, personality, disposition, whether one is healthy or not, and so on. Therefore, without the mental sense-object, there would be no physical body. Thus, when sentient beings' tathāgatagarbha gives rise to their physical bodies, it must simultaneously give rise to colors and the mental sense-object, and to the sound sense-object and the mental sense-object; these together constitute the essential realm (the essential nature) of sentient beings' physical bodies. When others look at them, they also see the illusory transformed realm of sentient beings—one's own inner six sense-objects. It is impossible for there to be no external mental sense-object while only the external five sense-objects exist; there is no such thing as a standalone realm of the five sense-objects. In the mundane world, no such dharma exists.