The Inner Dharma Object Is an Image of the Outer Dharma Object

Question: Do the physical forms and colors of material objects—such as height, size, and posture—already exist in the external world, or do they only appear in the supreme faculty (indriya)?

Answer: The tathāgatagarbha transforms and manifests all dharmas as they truly are; if something does not exist in the external world, how could the tathāgatagarbha rely on it to manifest an inner dharma? On the five external sense objects—form, sound, smell, taste, and touch—there is a roughly fixed amount of the four great elements, which continuously radiate particles of the four great elements outward. The particles of the four great elements of each material form are different, and these particles cannot possibly pile up together in a disorderly manner; their arrangement must certainly be ordered and regular, and thus there is shape. Since there is shape, there is the inner mental sense-object of "visible form" (lakṣaṇa-rūpa); by the same reasoning, there must be the inner mental sense-object of "expressive form" (vijñapti-rūpa), and some must also have the inner mental sense-object of "non-expressive form" (avijñapti-rūpa). Therefore, the mental sense-objects exist outside the supreme faculty; they have long existed, being material-form dharmas born by the tathāgatagarbha from the four great elements. They are real dharmas, already existing in the external world from the beginning, and the tathāgatagarbha then relies on them to manifest the inner material sense-objects, which the six consciousnesses can only discern by taking them as objects.

The tathāgatagarbha manifesting all dharmas is like a mirror reflecting images: it manifests images exactly identical to the external objects, or similar images. What do "exactly identical" and "similar" mean? For example, when we see a person, that person is an image within our own mind, not the real person outside, not the appearance of the original itself, but it should be consistent with the actual person—exactly identical or similar. The image we see in the supreme faculty is manifested as-it-truly-is by our own tathāgatagarbha based on the real person outside; only the tathāgatagarbha can see and contact the real person outside. So does the real person outside have size, height, length, squareness, roundness, tallness, shortness, fatness, and thinness? Certainly yes, and these were born by his tathāgatagarbha in the mother's womb, including the mental sense-objects of limbs, head and feet, weight, height, size, and so forth. When another person sees this person, that person's tathāgatagarbha will, based on this person's original appearance, manifest the same or similar images of the inner six sense objects within his own supreme faculty, and that person will simultaneously see this person's colors, see this person's tallness or shortness, fatness or thinness, size, the shapes of the five faculties, temperament and disposition, and other such mental sense-object marks.

Therefore, when the tathāgatagarbha manifests one's own five-aggregate body, it also simultaneously manifests one's own height, build, shape, and weight. When others look, the tathāgatagarbha can rely on these to manifest exactly identical images within their minds, so that others can truly discern this person's size, height, build, and weight.

The periscope of a submarine, or the refracting mirror on a tank similar to a periscope, displays in the mirror scenes and people exactly identical to the real ones, without the slightest discrepancy. This is the same as the mirror-image principle of the tathāgatagarbha; this is precisely the mirror-like contemplation the Buddha taught. If there is a problem with the eye faculty, the information collected by the tathāgatagarbha undergoes distortion as it passes through the eye faculty, and the information arriving at the supreme faculty will also be distorted; then the mirror image given by the tathāgatagarbha will also appear distorted. What the eye consciousness and mind consciousness see will also be distorted—possibly a distortion of color or of shape. Setting aside the constraints of identical karma and healthy five faculties, the mirror image manifested by the tathāgatagarbha is certainly exactly identical to the actual object.

We can use our own material body to make this inference: whether the tathāgatagarbha has fashioned for us the limbs and head, whether the head and limbs of others that we see should be roughly the same as those persons themselves, and whether when others look at our own limbs and head, these are also roughly the same as our real limbs and head.

If the tathāgatagarbha had not fashioned for us the outer mental sense-objects of visible form such as the shapes of the limbs and head, then by what would each sentient being know that he has a head and limbs, and be able to see the inner mental sense-objects of head and feet, limbs, five faculties, height and build? By what could he have the various functions of the body faculty? These inner mental sense-objects cannot arise out of nothing, and cannot appear without something to rely on; it must be that the tathāgatagarbha, in the mother's womb, gave birth to the sentient being's head and limbs and the other visible forms, expressive forms, and non-expressive forms. The same is true of other material forms: at their initial formation, there must be the outer mental sense-objects of visible form, expressive form, and non-expressive form.