External Object-Aspect and Internal Object-Aspect

The external object-aspect is material form that sentient beings with karmic connections collectively partake of and use, such as the universe's inanimate world (the container world). The universe's container world is formed when the tathāgatagarbhas of all sentient beings with karmic connections jointly output the seeds of the four great elements, forming the four great elements, and then all the tathāgatagarbhas together use these four great elements to transform and construct the universe's container world. This part can only be contacted by each sentient being's own tathāgatagarbha; material forms can contact one another, but the seven consciousnesses cannot touch it. Therefore sentient beings can absolutely never know what the external object-aspect looks like, nor how great the difference is between it and the inner object-aspect—the images within their own black box.

When scientific instruments are used to test the universe, whether science develops or not, the scientific instruments must be in contact with the external object-aspect, not with the inner object-aspect. This is because scientific instruments are also material forms; like the material sense-objects of the external object-aspect, they are all created by the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings with collective karma using the seeds of the four great elements, and they are all part of the external object-aspect that only the tathāgatagarbha can contact. However, when a human being observes the external object-aspect, the instrument together with the material sense-objects all become the inner object-aspect—an image of the external object-aspect is generated at the back of the head, called the inner object-aspect, and humans can only observe this false object-aspect here. If a person does not observe or investigate, there will be no inner object-aspect, only the external object-aspect; once observed, there arises a transformed inner object-aspect, similar to the external object-aspect but with differences. That is why it is said that with material forms, it makes a difference whether or not the human eye observes them.

No matter how advanced science becomes, there will never be a claim that humans can infinitely approach the external object-aspect, because as long as one is a human using the supreme faculties (indriya), everything seen is dharma within the black box of the supreme faculty; dharmas outside the black box cannot be seen by the human eye. As for why it is so, that is the rule and law of the tathāgatagarbha, which even the Buddha cannot interfere with. But the Buddha possesses immeasurable supernatural powers; the supreme faculty is something He can use or not use at will, free and independent, not depending on any dharma—we simply cannot do that.

The external object-aspect is an absolute existence, not subject to human will. It is the most primordial material form manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, and also the most fundamental material form. Once sentient beings come into contact with it, the material form is no longer primordial, no longer fundamental, no longer the original essential realm (bhūta-pratibhāsa). When an individual's eight consciousnesses become involved, they will alter the material form—and what is altered is the material form within one's own mind. Hence the saying that all dharmas are one's own mind. So can the most primordial material form of the external object-aspect be changed? It can also be changed: when an individual's karma merges into it, the dharmas one experiences will undergo certain changes; it is only a matter of whether these changes can be perceived, with differences between obvious and subtle.