The Illusion of Dome-Screen Movies

The six consciousnesses discern the inner six sense objects within the black box, taking the various sense objects to be extremely three-dimensional and tangible, and thus appearing very real, without sensing in the slightest that these sense objects are illusory and unreal. It is like a person sitting in a dome theater watching a dome-screen movie: it feels extremely real—seeing the airplane on the screen as if it were about to fly over one's head, seeing a sharp knife about to stab into one's heart, seeing a bullet about to fly toward one's forehead, seeing a club about to strike one's body.

In short, whatever one sees feels especially real, as if one were personally on the scene—and of course this includes the sounds one hears. Yet when we calm down and think rationally, we know that not a single dharma on the screen actually exists in reality, and there are no real objects on the screen either; it is all merely a synthesis of various kinds of modern technological information, which deceives our senses into trusting it. We give rise to various states of mind and various feelings and sensations, feeling stimulated and thrilled, feeling fear and terror.

It is the same with the six sense-object realms that we perceive. The black box is like the dome theater: the six consciousnesses sit inside the black box, watching the six sense-object realms within it, feeling that all realms are especially real—the realms are so tangible, three-dimensional, and vivid that one simply cannot let go of them, or hates them to the bone. One indeed feels personally on the scene, situated amid the various realms, inseparable from them. In actuality, these realms are just like the scenes in a dome-screen movie: all are virtually projected, mere combinations of signals, with nothing actually there.