What Do Sentient Beings Crave?

Someone abroad invented a cup that uses electromagnetic waves of a certain frequency to stimulate the mouth and tongue, creating the illusion of drinking water. In reality, there is no water—only electromagnetic waves. Yet, after being stimulated by these waves, a person no longer feels thirsty.

The actual principle is that electromagnetic waves are transmitted to the oral cavity (a sense organ) and the tongue (a sense organ), then relayed through the nervous system to the subtle organ in the rear brain, forming a mental image of water. This image contacts the tongue sense faculty, giving rise to body consciousness, tongue consciousness, and mental consciousness. The conscious mind then contacts the mental image of water, undergoes perception and conception, decides to "drink," and subsequently generates a sensation, making one believe they have drunk water. Thus, they feel satisfied and their thirst is quenched. Consider how illusory food, drink, and all phenomena are—how we deceive ourselves! Yet we still cling to them—how foolish and pitiable!

Sentient beings are essentially deceiving themselves, living in an illusory sensory world. If someone in the dark is given a piece of pork but believes it to be human skin, touching it will evoke specific sensations, leading to attachment. If they see it is pork, they feel disgust. Evidently, all phenomena are merely perceptions of one’s own mind. People are constantly deceived by their own perceptions, immersed in various sensations and unable to free themselves. The more one contemplates sentient beings, the more pitiable and lamentable they seem.

Since beginningless kalpas, humans have essentially been eating, drinking, enjoying themselves with heaps of the four elements (earth, water, fire, wind). What they eat, wear, dwell in, use, play with, and enjoy are all just aggregates of the four elements. The tathāgatagarbha (Buddha-nature) uses countless particles of the four elements to assemble various "toys," and sentient beings revel in these toys, indulging in them and refusing to emerge—much like children absorbed in a game of make-believe.

There is also a new feature on mobile phones: the screen transmits electromagnetic waves to the hand, making the hand genuinely feel as if it is touching an object.

The human neural transmission system is like fiber optics, with electrical signals running within it. By stimulating people with electromagnetic waves of different frequencies, all their needs can be satisfied.

When attachment arises in the mind, one should realize that the object of attachment is merely electromagnetic waves—essentially, particles of the four elements. Sentient beings are truly pitiable—deceived by themselves, bewildered by the tathāgatagarbha, yet unaware that they have been deceived for countless kalpas.

What I hold in my hand appears to be a mobile phone, but in essence, it is an illusory image formed by a mass of particles, existing in the back of the brain—there is no real phone. What, then, is the so-called sensation of body consciousness and mental consciousness? It is an illusory feeling produced when the continuously flowing seeds of consciousness operate like an unbroken stream or electric current. Once the seeds of consciousness cease, the conscious mind vanishes, and there is no longer an agent to experience sensation. So what is this so-called sensation? Does it belong to you?

Saying and doing are separate matters. Saying is done by the mental consciousness; doing is done by the mental faculty (manas). They are not the same mind—hence this outcome. Without the actual practice of meditation (dhyāna), nothing can be truly accomplished—merely idle talk. These theories remain theories after all. Without meditation, without experiential realization, one cannot truly comprehend reality, and the mind cannot transform to become pure and free.