Commentary on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (173)

How should we recognize and understand that the five aggregates are as unreal and illusory as a dream?

This must be recognized and contemplated through two parts: the physical body and the conscious mind. The physical body is a flesh body, like a piece of wood, constantly arising and ceasing, changing moment to moment. If there were no conscious mind operating on the physical body, the body would have no activity or functional operation whatsoever. The first seven consciousnesses that function on the physical body arise and cease, cease and arise, in constant succession, like a whirling fire wheel. The seven consciousnesses are not real: only when the tathāgatagarbha transmits seeds of consciousness one after another can the seven consciousnesses function; if the tathāgatagarbha does not transmit seeds, the seven consciousnesses do not operate, and there is no functional activity of the five aggregates—the body of the five aggregates would be nothing but a block of wood. The body of the five aggregates as a whole is something assembled together, composed of form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness; it is not real. If any one thing is lacking, it is incomplete. A living being aggregated together from various conditions and causes is simply a delusive dharma—and it is delusive right here and now; there is no need for us to deliberately think of it as delusive.

In the activity of the five aggregates in any single instant, if the ālayavijñāna did not transmit seeds of consciousness, the activity of the five aggregates would stop immediately, and there would be no signs of life. Such is the delusiveness of the physical body. The body of the five aggregates is like a robot controlled by the ālayavijñāna: if the seed storehouse does not supply raw materials in a continuous stream, the machine will stop running. And if the manas, the power switch, is not activated, the raw materials cannot be delivered to the physical body, and the body of the five aggregates still cannot function. Such an illusory physical body has not a shred of reality; its existence in appearance merely dazzles the eyes and deludes the mind. Although ordinary beings and bodhisattvas are reluctant to let go of these illusory marks of constant arising and ceasing, they likewise cannot be grasped—they are just like illusory scenes in a dream. The mark of self, the mark of person, the mark of sentient beings, and the mark of life span—these four marks likewise have no real appearance, like things in a dream. Waking life and the dream are the same: there is no real "I" as a person, nor you as a person, nor him, no sentient beings, no life span—all of these are entirely delusive false appearances. When one genuinely recognizes and realizes this from within the mind, one attains realization of the fruit. Why are so-called waking life and a dream the same? If one realizes this principle, one has cultivated to the bodhisattva fruit of the tenth dedication stage.