Seeing a Rope as a Snake: Examining the Mind-Consciousness Problem of Sentient Beings

When a person sees a rope, what the eye consciousness sees should be the color of the rope, which is material sense-object (rūpa-viṣaya); the rest—the rope's length, thickness, material, texture, and so on—is form included in the dharma realm (dharma-āyatana-rūpa), the mental sense-object seen by the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna), all of which contain the seeds of the four great elements. What falls into the eye consciousness is a real-object realm (性境), and what falls into the consciousness accompanied by the five senses is a quasi-attached-substance realm (似带质境). When the two combine and complete the discrimination of the rope, arriving at the conclusion that a normal worldly person should arrive at, one counts as a normal worldly person. The subsequent handling of the rope should also be the way a normal person would handle it.

If, due to certain causes, this person's mind consciousness becomes deranged, they may see the rope as a snake. The eye consciousness sees the rope, and it may still be the rope's color, with the material sense-object unchanged; yet the mind consciousness, seeing the rope's mental sense-object, forcibly discriminates the image and appearance of a snake, altering the mental sense-object. This altered mental sense-object is called a subjectively imagined realm (独影境), discriminated by the mind consciousness alone, with the eye consciousness not discriminating it together with the mind consciousness. The more and the greater the alteration of the mental sense-object, the more severe the mind consciousness's derangement; the less of the rope's substance it carries, the more it departs from fact, and the more frenzied the mind becomes. The more of the rope's substance it carries, the closer it is to fact, and the closer the mind is to normality.

In the process of seeing the rope, the rope's mental sense-object and the subjectively imagined realm may coexist, but as one wanes the other waxes. If it is entirely a subjectively imagined realm, the rope is completely taken to be a snake, the person is completely deranged, and will be so frightened as to turn and flee. If only a portion of the mental sense-object has been altered into the subjectively imagined realm of a snake, the person, though afraid and trembling, will have doubts in mind and not fully believe it, and so will, while fearing, go on to carefully discriminate and observe. When it becomes clear that it is truly a rope, the subjectively imagined realm completely reverts to the mental sense-object, the fear disappears, and the person can face the rope normally. If, however, due to the influence of psychological suggestion being relatively strong, after careful observation the person confirms it is a snake, the mental sense-object will completely become a subjectively imagined realm, and the person may bolt away at once.

As ordinary beings of the Sahā world, those with deranged mind consciousness are everywhere, all having some degree of mental derangement; almost none are completely normal. Why? The afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion and karmic obstructions cause the mind to be scattered and unsettled; erroneous cognitions are everywhere, and one cannot normally and correctly judge the people, affairs, objects, and principles one encounters—one does not recognize the true facts, but only recognizes the subjectively imagined realm generated by wrong views (mithyā-dṛṣṭi), whether with substance or without, whether grounded or ungrounded.

The better one's psychological constitution and the more normal one's mental state, the thinner and calmer and more peaceful the mind, the smaller the reactions, and the fewer the disturbances. Conversely, the mind will surge with waves, the greater its influence—or destructive power—over the surrounding environment, the more it can trigger disorder among the people and affairs around, leading to unrest in the group. The phenomenon of an entire group being mentally deranged is not rare, and will become more and more common in the future. It mainly arises from the derangement of one dominant figure, whose influence permeates and affects the whole group, causing everyone in the group to have deranged mind consciousness and disordered minds. When the group's problems grow ever more numerous and ever larger, with problems emerging one after another, it will lead to the point where paper can no longer wrap the fire, and the group will not be far from destruction.

As long as you are not an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva, nor a first-bhūmi bodhisattva, then everyone is subject to being perfumed and influenced. What kind of influence one should receive, and what one should be perfumed into—everyone has the right to choose; this right belongs to oneself and cannot be taken away by others. Therefore, choice involves wisdom, and also involves the questions of karma and merit. If one makes a correct, error-free choice, it shows that one has wisdom, that karmic obstructions are slight, and that one has merit. Some influences are not limited to one lifetime; they may persist over many lifetimes, even life after life, manifesting the habits formed after being perfumed. Choosing one's environment and choosing the people, affairs, objects, and principles one comes into contact with is also extremely important.