Death in the Black Box

After aging and illness, when the four elements become severely imbalanced and can no longer be harmonized, the body ceases to function. How does it cease to function? The five gross sense faculties of the body deteriorate, becoming unable to properly receive and transmit the external six dusts (sense objects). The neural conduction system ages, failing to normally receive and conduct the electrical signals from the five gross sense faculties. The brain and the subtle sense faculty "black box" become aged and rigid, unable to properly receive the electrical signals transmitted by the nervous system. Consequently, it cannot integrate these electrical signals to form the virtual internal six dusts—internal manifest appearances—that resemble the external manifest appearances.

When there are no internal six dusts within the subtle sense faculty, the conditions for the birth of the six consciousnesses are incomplete. The six consciousnesses cannot arise to perceive and distinguish the internal six dusts, causing sentient beings to lose the function of awareness. The mental faculty, having lost its "right and left arms" (the six consciousnesses), becomes powerless regarding all phenomena. It will then decide to leave the body, leading to death and entry into the intermediate state (bardo body).

Once the "black box" becomes unusable, the sense faculties and sense objects do not make contact, and the six consciousnesses cannot arise. Body, speech, and mind cannot manifest, and the activities of the five-aggregate body cease. When the mental faculty perceives itself as incapable, the five-aggregate body inevitably dies. Thus, it is evident that the subtle sense faculty "black box" is extremely important. Even if the five gross sense faculties are perfectly normal and the conduction nerves are also perfectly normal, if the "black box" is abnormal, the mental faculty cannot perceive the six dust realms. It will then helplessly "choose" death—in fact, compelled rather than chosen.

Why is the "black box" so crucial? Precisely because the "black box" is a locus—the place where the six sense faculties, six sense objects, and six consciousnesses interact. It is the locus of the activities of the five aggregates. Here, the internal manifest appearances of the great thousandfold world can be generated; here the six consciousnesses can be generated. The six consciousnesses can contact and perceive the virtual great thousandfold world, enabling cognition, perception, and experience of the virtual six dust realms. In common terms, this is called "being alive" or "living." Once one can no longer "be alive" or "live," the mental faculty will inevitably seek out a new locus where it can "be alive," thereby initiating a new existence.