The Worlds in the Ten Directions Are the One True Dharma Realm

Zhu Qingshi said: Our world is like this large fish tank, with a goldfish swimming inside. Suppose there are at least two video cameras, one observing the fish tank from the side, and one observing the fish tank from behind, and in another room there are two monitors. Imagine a person entering the monitor room; he would see two fish in the fish tank, and these two fish would not be the same, because one is filmed from the tail end and the other is filmed from the side. These two fish are very strange: no matter what action one of them makes, the other immediately responds, and both are simultaneous.

The monitors are equivalent to the black box, and the person is equivalent to the six consciousnesses. The six consciousnesses, within the black box, perceive the realms of the six sense objects, which is equivalent to the person watching the images on the monitors. The monitors are monitoring a single fish in the fish tank in another room; clearly there is only one fish in the tank, so why can two different fish be seen on the monitors? Because the two cameras film this fish from different angles, the captured images are different, as if there were two fish, and so two fish would be seen on the monitors.

The monitors are equivalent to the black box; everything in the black box consists of illusory false appearances resembling the external world, but they are not necessarily entirely similar—there may be great discrepancies. The six consciousnesses do not know this, and still believe they have seen the real appearances—a great misunderstanding. If ten cameras were placed at different positions in the room, ten fish would be captured; if one hundred cameras were placed, one hundred fish would be filmed, and from the monitors one would see ten or a hundred different fish. When a certain number is reached, these fish from different angles, combined together, form one complete fish. When the Buddha taught about setting up the Śūraṅgama maṇḍala in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, an eight-faceted mirror was placed in the practice site—this is exactly the same principle.

The worlds of the ten directions are just the one true dharmadhātu. Can we now understand what the one true dharmadhātu is really all about? The Buddha-dharma is precisely what dissects the false and illusory appearances of the mundane world for us; when dissected to the very end, everything is emptiness, and that which cannot be emptied is the formless, markless true dharmadhātu. Holographic photography, dome-screen movies, and so on, all demonstrate that the world is illusory and transformed; everything and anything we come into contact with is illusory and transformed. Holographic photography, dome-screen movies, and so on, all demonstrate that the world is illusory and transformed; everything and anything we come into contact with is illusory and transformed.

If anyone admits that all dharmas are illusory and transformed, then let us empty our minds, stand in one place, and let others revile us for seven days, and see whether the mind can really be emptied or not?