What Do Sentient Beings Crave?

Abroad, someone invented a cup that uses electromagnetic waves of a certain frequency to stimulate the mouth and tongue, thereby producing the illusion of drinking water. There is actually no water, only electromagnetic waves, but after being stimulated by the waves, the person no longer feels thirsty.

The actual principle is this: the electromagnetic waves are transmitted into the oral cavity of the gross material sense faculty (indriya), transmitted to the tongue of the gross material sense faculty, and then, through transmission by the nervous system, reach the supreme faculty (indriya) at the back of the brain, where an image of water is formed. This image makes contact with the tongue faculty, giving rise to body consciousness, tongue consciousness, and mind consciousness. The conscious mind then makes contact with the image of water; after feeling and perception, deliberation (manasikāra) occurs, deciding to drink. Thereafter a sensation of feeling arises, and one believes one has drunk water. Thus one feels satisfied and the thirst is quenched. Consider how illusory food, drink, and all dharmas are—self-deception and deception of others—yet we still crave and cling to them. How foolish and pitiable we are!

Sentient beings are in fact deceiving themselves, living in an illusory world of sense experience. If in the dark someone is given a piece of pork, and this person believes it to be human skin, then touching it will produce a special sensation, and craving will arise. But if this person sees with the eyes that it is a piece of pork, they will feel disgusted. It is evident that all dharmas are merely the experiences of one's own mind; people are constantly deceived by their own sensations, immersed in various experiences and unable to extricate themselves. The more one contemplates sentient beings, the more pitiable and lamentable they seem.

Since beginningless kalpas, what people have actually been doing is eating, drinking, and making merry together with heaps and heaps of particles of the four great elements. What one eats, wears, lives in, uses, plays with, and enjoys are all heaps of particles of the four great elements. The tathāgatagarbha piles up countless particles of the four great elements to construct all kinds of toys, and sentient beings play among these toys with great delight, wallowing in them and refusing to come out, just like children playing house.

There is also a newly released feature on mobile phones: the screen transmits a kind of electromagnetic wave to the hand, and the hand genuinely feels as if it has touched some kind of object.

The human nervous system is like optical fiber, with electrical signals running through it. If a person is stimulated with electromagnetic waves of various frequencies, all their desires can be satisfied.

When craving arises again in the mind, one should realize that the object of one's craving is merely various electromagnetic waves, which in essence are just particles of the four great elements. Sentient beings are truly pitiable—deceived by themselves and by the tathāgatagarbha until dizzy and disoriented, yet unaware that they have been deceived for countless kalpas.

What I am holding in my hand appears on the surface to be a mobile phone, but in essence it is an illusory image composed of a huge pile of particles; inside the back of the head, there is no real mobile phone. What, then, are the so-called sensations of body consciousness and mind consciousness? They are illusory feelings produced when consciousness-seeds run continuously, like an unbroken stream of water or current of electricity. Once the consciousness-seeds are interrupted and the conscious mind vanishes, there is no master to perform the function of feeling. So what is this so-called sensation? Is it you?

Talking is one thing; doing is another. Talking is done by the mind consciousness; doing is done by the manas—they are not one and the same mind, and this is the result. Without the skill of meditative concentration (samādhi), nothing can be accomplished—one merely plays with words. These theories are, after all, just theories. Without meditative concentration and the ability to realize them personally, one cannot truly understand ultimate reality, and the mind cannot be transformed into purity and ease.