The Interactive Relationship between the External Environment and Body and Mind

Question: When a major change in the weather is about to occur, many people experience physical reactions. For example, when a cold front is coming or heavy rain is approaching, some people will have a migraine attack a day or two in advance; some people with rheumatism will also suffer joint pain flare-ups due to weather changes. One reason is that major changes in the material world (bhājanaloka) cause the tathāgatagarbha to produce a disharmony of the four great elements in the body faculty, and this also includes the retributive results produced by each individual's karmic seeds. The second reason is that before a major change occurs in the material world, part of the conditions have already manifested; the mind consciousness cannot discern them, but the manas has discerned them, and because the manas grasps onto the body, the body produces a reaction. Is this correct?

Answer: The elements that compose the universe's material world are the four great seeds within the tathāgatagarbha, and the elements that compose material form are also the four great seeds within the tathāgatagarbha—the same as the four great elements that compose the physical body. Therefore, in essence, the physical body is no different from external material form, no different from stone or wood. The only difference is that the physical body has the单独 grasping and sustaining function of an individual sentient being's tathāgatagarbha, with its own independent operation; whereas external matter is jointly sustained by the tathāgatagarbhas of all sentient beings sharing common karma, and its functioning differs from the functioning of the tathāgatagarbha in the physical body.

The physical body and material form that are individually manifested and sustained by a sentient being's own tathāgatagarbha belong to the direct object condition (ālambana-pratyaya) of the tathāgatagarbha, while the material form jointly sustained by multiple tathāgatagarbhas is the indirect object condition of all tathāgatagarbhas. Because of the difference between direct and indirect, their functions differ, and the modes of operation of the tathāgatagarbha also differ.

Regarding the physical body that the tathāgatagarbha directly and individually takes as its object\: first, the tathāgatagarbha must constantly transform the four great seeds according to the sentient being's karmic seeds in order to transform the physical body; second, it must constantly transform the four great seeds according to the living environment outside the body and various conditions, in order to continuously transform the physical body; third, it must constantly cooperate with the mental activities of the manas, transforming the four great seeds to change the state of the physical body, which has the functions of the five aggregates. As for the material universe's material world, which is the indirect object condition jointly taken as object by the tathāgatagarbhas, it merely constantly transforms the four great elements according to the karmic seeds and karmic conditions of sentient beings sharing common karma, thereby transforming material form; it has no functions of the five aggregates.

When the external material world changes, the living environment on which sentient beings depend changes, and material form changes. External material form can influence the physical body, and can therefore also influence the conscious mind. How does material form influence the conscious mind? External material form is the external sense-objects of sentient beings; the tathāgatagarbha, through the body faculty, takes in the four great particles from external matter, thereby changing the four great particles of its own physical body, and the physical body changes. For example, when the weather turns cold, the fire element changes; the physical body, through the tathāgatagarbha, absorbs the external fire-element particles, and the fire element of the physical body changes accordingly, so the body becomes cold. When it rains, the water element changes; the tathāgatagarbha absorbs water-element particles, the water element in the body increases, humidity increases, and one feels damp; pre-existing illnesses of the body then flare up, such as rheumatism and arthritis.

How does the tathāgatagarbha take in the four great particles from various kinds of matter? For example, with the physical bodies of other sentient beings, one's own tathāgatagarbha did not participate in manifesting them—how does He take in four great particles that were not manifested by oneself? When the tathāgatagarbha takes in the four great particles, it does not directly seize them from matter; the tathāgatagarbha has no such kind of initiative. Rather, material form must release four great particles instant by instant, while at the same time new four great seeds form new four great particles in the matter. Because matter arises, ceases, and changes instant by instant, the four great particles in matter must be continuously released; only in this way can the tathāgatagarbha take in the four great particles from other sentient beings' physical bodies and from external matter, forming one's own inner material sense-objects and inner mental sense-objects, while also changing the four-element structure of one's own physical body.

Because all material form must release four great particles instant by instant, it can thereby influence the surrounding environment—this is the principle behind what is called magnetic fields and gravity. Every sentient being's physical body has a release of bioelectric signals and has a magnetic field; the release of energy from material form also has a magnetic field. Therefore, different kinds of matter have different magnetic fields; there is mutual attraction between materials, and also mutual repulsion; and likewise there is mutual attraction and repulsion among sentient beings.