How Do Sentient Beings Come into Existence within the Black Box?

First, let's discuss how the black box comes into existence. Since the black box is located at the subtle sense faculties (胜义根) in the posterior brain and belongs to a part of the body faculty, it arises and comes into being along with the body faculty. The body faculty is gradually formed when the seventh consciousness and the eighth consciousness enter the mother's womb for rebirth. When the eighth consciousness transforms and creates the body faculty in the mother's womb until about four months, the rudimentary form of the subtle sense faculties in the posterior brain is essentially complete, and thus the black box is formed.

At this stage, the external sound objects and tactile objects of the fetus can be transmitted through the fetus's ear faculty and body faculty to the black box within the subtle sense faculties of the posterior brain, becoming internal manifestations of sound objects and tactile objects. These come into contact with the subtle ear faculty and subtle body faculty within the black box, causing the ear consciousness, body consciousness, and mental consciousness to arise. Subsequently, the fetus becomes able to discern sounds within the womb, sounds outside the womb, as well as sensations of cold and heat inside the womb, and its own sensations of touch, pain, squeezing, and pressure. In reality, what the fetus perceives are all pieces of information within its own black box of subtle sense faculties, not information from inside or outside the mother's body, nor the external objects of the fetus's own body. They are all internal sound objects and internal tactile objects within the fetus's subtle sense faculties.

When the subtle sense faculties further develop and mature, scent objects and taste objects will also be transmitted through the physical sense organs (浮尘根) of the nose and tongue to the subtle nose faculty and subtle tongue faculty, becoming internal scent objects and internal taste objects. These come into contact with the nose faculty and tongue faculty within the subtle sense faculties, giving rise to nose consciousness and tongue consciousness, enabling the discernment of scent objects and taste objects within the womb. In reality, these are the fetus's own internal scent objects and internal taste objects within its black box. Does the fetus's black box contain internal form objects? It does contain internal form objects, but contact occurs between the faculty and the object without giving rise to visual consciousness; the internal form objects are not seen. Why? Because there is no light inside the mother's womb. The arising of visual consciousness requires nine conditions, and light is one of them.

When the fetus's body faculty is fully developed and complete, and the subtle sense faculties are also fully developed and complete, the functions of the black box are fully established. After ten full months in the womb, the fetus is born from the mother's womb, becoming an infant. Initially, the infant still cannot open its eyes. After adapting for a few days, it can open its eyes and vaguely see the internal form objects within its own black box. The internal six faculties, internal six objects, and internal six consciousnesses — the eighteen realms — are complete, and the human form is fully established.