The Principle of the Activities of the Five Aggregates of Sentient Beings

Question: Robots have no seeds of consciousness flowing forth, nor do the eight consciousnesses dwell within them, so why can they still have behavioral activities?

Answer: The activities of robots are the result of man-made program control—the effect of electric current plus programs. In fact, the activities of sentient beings' five aggregates operate on the same principle as robots; it is just that sentient beings themselves are not awakened and cling to the activities of the five aggregates as being real.

Question: The movements of the body faculty are accomplished through the cooperation of the body consciousness, the mind consciousness, the seventh consciousness, and the eighth consciousness. Without the mind consciousness and body consciousness, and with only the seventh and eighth consciousnesses, the activities of the body faculty cannot be accomplished. But the first seven consciousnesses are all located in the head, while body faculties such as the hands and feet are far from the head. That is to say, the first seven consciousnesses are not in the hands—so why can the hands move?

Answer: When one thread is pulled, the whole body is set in motion. The brain is the general headquarters, and the manas is the commander-in-chief. Once the manas stirs, commands are issued from the brain's central nervous system and rapidly transmitted to the various neural tissues throughout the body, and the whole body moves. In actuality, when the manas stirs, the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to the six consciousnesses; when the six consciousnesses then move, subsequent actions appear. All of this is secret dharma, involving the general-characteristic wisdom, specific-characteristic wisdom, and seed-wisdom of the tathāgatagarbha. Each person needs to investigate Chan themselves to figure it out; others cannot state it explicitly.