Life in the Black Box

First, let us discuss how the black box comes into existence. Since the black box is located at the supreme faculty (indriya) of the brain and is part of the body faculty (kāya-indriya), it arises and is born along with the body faculty. The body faculty is gradually formed in the mother's womb when the seventh consciousness and the eighth consciousness enter the womb to take rebirth. When the eighth consciousness has transformed and fashioned the body faculty in the womb to around four months, the rudimentary form of the brain's supreme faculty is basically complete, and thus the black box is formed.

At this time, the fetus's external sound objects (śabda-viṣaya) and tangible objects (spraṣṭavya-viṣaya) can be transmitted through the fetus's ear faculty and body faculty into the black box of the brain's supreme faculty, becoming the inner representative forms of sound and touch. When they contact the ear supreme faculty and body supreme faculty within the black box, the ear consciousness, body consciousness, and mind consciousness are born. Thereafter, the fetus can discern sounds within the mother's womb and sounds outside the womb, as well as the heat and cold inside the womb and its own sensations of touch, pain, squeezing, and pressure. In fact, all these dharmas that the fetus perceives are information within the black box of its own supreme faculty—not information from inside or outside the mother's body, nor are they external objects of the fetus's own body; they are all the inner sound objects and inner tangible objects within the fetus's supreme faculty.

When the supreme faculty develops and matures further, scent objects (gandha-viṣaya) and taste objects (rasa-viṣaya) will also be transmitted through the gross sense faculties of the nose and tongue to the nose supreme faculty and tongue supreme faculty, becoming the inner scent object and inner taste object. When they contact the nose faculty and tongue faculty within the supreme faculty, the nose consciousness and tongue consciousness are born, to discern the scent and taste objects within the mother's womb—which are in fact the inner scent object and inner taste object within the fetus's own black box. Does the fetus's black box contain an inner form object (rūpa-viṣaya)? Yes, there is an inner form object, but although faculty and object contact occurs, the eye consciousness is not generated, and the fetus cannot see the inner form object. Why? Because there is no light inside the womb, and the arising of the eye consciousness requires nine conditions, of which light is one.

When the fetus's body faculty has developed completely and perfectly, the supreme faculty has also developed to perfection, the black box's functions are fully equipped, and the ten months of gestation are complete, the fetus emerges from the mother's womb and becomes an infant. After birth, the infant at first still cannot open its eyes; only after several days of adaptation can it open its eyes and dimly see the inner form object within its own black box. At this point, the infant's inner six faculties, inner six objects, and inner six consciousnesses—the eighteen dhātus—are complete, and the human form is complete.