The inner representation image changes in accordance with changes in the outer representation's underlying object-aspect

The material world (inanimate world) is also divided into the outer material world and the inner material world. The outer material world is jointly manifested by the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings who share common karma, and all sentient beings live within it, each having a share in it. What the six consciousnesses of sentient beings can come into contact with, however, is the inner material world, which is transformed again by one's own tathāgatagarbha in dependence upon the outer material world. This is a twofold manifestation, entirely a shadow, without any essential material form. When sentient beings change the inner material world within their own minds, they must do so in dependence upon the outer material world; if the outer material world does not change, the inner material world cannot be changed.

For example, when I fell a large tree, the essential object—the large tree outside—must fall first, and then this is transmitted into the supreme faculty at the back of the brain; what the six consciousnesses see is the fallen tree, or the tree slowly falling, which belongs to inner sense-objects. Another example: when we build a building, the building outside is certainly being completed bit by bit, and our six consciousnesses can then see the inner representation of the building being completed bit by bit. All such examples show that the outer representation exists or changes first, and the inner representation exists or changes afterward; without the outer representation there would be no inner representation.

The five sense-faculties body itself is also accomplished by the four great elements, and is also an essential object. In actuality it is an insentient thing, merely a condition upon which the seven transforming consciousnesses rely in their operation, and it is held and sustained by the tathāgatagarbha. When the seven transforming consciousnesses give rise to thoughts and engage in activity, the tathāgatagarbha can use this five-aggregates body to change the material world. When the essential objects of the material world change, the inner and outer marks of the six sense-objects all change accordingly. When a doctor cures a patient's illness, the patient's physical body changes. To the doctor, the patient's physical body is an outer representation—an essential object—of the patient, while what the doctor's six consciousnesses see is the image of the patient within his own supreme faculty. So did the doctor actually change the outer-representation patient or the inner-representation patient? If only the inner-representation patient were changed, then the patient himself would not have been cured; it must be that the physical body of the patient himself, outside the mind, has undergone change. If such change occurs, does the patient himself change first, or does the image of the other person within one's own mind change first? The image arises from changes in the outer representation, the essential object; it is a shadow of the outer representation. Therefore, the patient's own physical body changes first, and the image changes afterward.

There is a difference between the five-aggregates body and the essential objects of the material world: one pertains to common karma, the other to individual karma; one is jointly created and transformed, the other is created and transformed individually. The essential object of a person's physical body is mainly held and sustained by that person's own tathāgatagarbha, but other tathāgatagarbhas can also change this physical body. Curing someone's illness means that one's own tathāgatagarbha, taking one's own physical body as a condition, goes to change the essential object of another person's physical body. Changing the external environment constitutes karma creation, which involves cause and effect: creating wholesome karma yields wholesome results, creating unwholesome karma yields unwholesome results; if one changes another person's causes and effects, one must oneself bear the corresponding cause and effect. For a person with strong meditative concentration, if he contemplates killing the image of the other person within his mind, will that person himself in the external world be affected? If he is affected, there is karmic result; this belongs to killing by mind, not killing by body and speech. As for killing by body, worldly law does not permit it; killing by speech and killing by mind are beyond the reach of the law, but cause and effect will certainly follow. However, the only one who can change oneself is one's own tathāgatagarbha; there is no second channel. When others change you, it is also accomplished through your own tathāgatagarbha—it is still your own tathāgatagarbha that changes you.