Existence Within the Black Box

First, let's discuss how the black box comes into existence. Since the black box resides within the brain's superior faculty, which is part of the body faculty, it arises and is born along with the body faculty. The body faculty is gradually formed as the seventh consciousness and the eighth consciousness enter the mother's womb for rebirth. When the eighth consciousness transforms and shapes the body faculty in the womb to about four months, the rudimentary form of the brain's superior faculty is essentially complete, and thus the black box is formed.

At this stage, the external sound and touch objects can be transmitted through the fetus's ear faculty and body faculty to the black box within the brain's superior faculty, becoming internal manifestations of sound and touch objects. These then contact the ear superior faculty and body superior faculty within the black box, causing the ear consciousness, body consciousness, and mental consciousness to arise. Subsequently, the fetus becomes able to perceive sounds inside the womb and sounds outside the womb, as well as cold and heat within the womb, and its own sensations of contact, pain, squeezing, and pressure. In reality, the phenomena recognized by the fetus are all information within its own superior faculty's black box; they are not information from inside or outside the mother's body, nor are they the fetus's own external sense objects. They are all internal sound objects and internal touch objects within the fetus's superior faculty.

As the superior faculty further develops and matures, smell and taste objects will also be transmitted through the gross sense organs of the nose and tongue to the nose superior faculty and tongue superior faculty, becoming internal smell objects and internal taste objects. Contact occurs with the nose faculty and tongue faculty within the superior faculty, giving rise to nose consciousness and tongue consciousness, enabling the discrimination of smell and taste objects within the womb. In reality, these are the fetus's own internal smell objects and internal taste objects within its black box. Are there internal form objects within the fetus's black box? There are internal form objects, but even though contact occurs between the faculty and the object, visual consciousness does not arise, and the internal form objects are not seen. Why is that? Because there is no light inside the womb. The arising of visual consciousness requires nine conditions, and light is one of them.

When the fetus's body faculty is fully and completely developed, the superior faculty is also fully developed, and the black box's functions are complete, the fetus reaches full term at ten months and is born from the womb, becoming an infant. After birth, the infant initially still cannot open its eyes; it takes a few days to adapt before it can open its eyes and dimly perceive the internal form objects within its own black box. At this time, the infant's internal six faculties, internal six objects, and internal six consciousnesses—the eighteen dhatus—are complete, and the human form is complete.