The Aging Within the Black Box

The "black box" matures gradually as the material body develops. As the external five sense faculties (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body) mature with age, they eventually become rigid, degenerate, and deteriorate. Concurrently, the five subtle sense faculties within the black box also gradually age and degenerate over time. The four great elements (earth, water, fire, and wind) continuously renew themselves, while the functions of the five subtle sense faculties evolve from an initial state of delicacy to robustness, and finally to rigidity and degeneration. The neural pathways of the five sense faculties gradually lose sensitivity; the transmitted particles of the four great elements progressively decrease and become distorted. Consequently, the six consciousnesses (visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, and mental) become slower in discerning the internal six sense objects (forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and mental objects). Discernment gradually becomes blurred and unclear, leading to sluggish reactions.

The condition of one's own body faculty discerned by the six consciousnesses is not the actual state of the original material body. Rather, it is an image formed within the black box of the subtle sense faculties, a composite of various particles such as electrons, atoms, neutrons, etc. It is an illusory, false body, not the original, true, three-dimensional entity. Therefore, there is fundamentally no need to cling to the material body; these are merely combinations of bioelectric signals, devoid of any actual body or the five gross sense faculties (the physical eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body). If there were a real material body, there should not be various supernatural powers such as passing through mountains or entering water, etc.