External five sense-objects without mental sense-objects do not exist

Mountain height and water depth—"height" and "depth" are form-color and expressive color. It is only when there is the manifest color of the mountain's hue that the form-color of the mountain's height can be set off; and it is only when there is the form-color of the mountain's height that the range of the mountain's coloring can be framed. It is only when there is the water's color that the expressive color of the water's depth can be set off, and only with the expressive color of the water's depth can the volume of water be framed. The five sense-object colors of manifest color and the mental sense-objects of form-color, expressive color, and unmanifest form are tightly bound together and cannot be separated even for an instant. Otherwise, none of these colors could exist or appear. Therefore, it is said that external sense-objects must necessarily include mental sense-objects; the six sense-objects are complete in their characteristics. It cannot be that only the five external sense-objects exist while there is no mental sense-object—external five sense-objects without mental sense-objects do not exist; they are merely imagined.

The claim that mental sense-objects are manifested at the supreme faculty in the back of the head in accordance with the five sense-objects has no basis whatsoever and simply does not hold. External sense-objects must be complete sixfold sense-object characteristics. When the tathāgatagarbha initially creates and transforms them, it cannot transform only manifest colors such as hues, leaving a vast expanse of color without shape or content. The world is not composed of color alone. All kinds of objects have their shapes and properties; only thus is the material world rich and colorful. For example, when the tathāgatagarbha creates and transforms the five-aggregate body, it is impossible that it would transform only the colors of the physical body, and then the mental sense-objects such as tallness, shortness, fatness, and thinness would be separately manifested in someone else's supreme faculty. This is absolutely impossible—no matter how one fantasizes, no one could imagine such a form of humanity and sentient beings.