The Black Box World (VII)

The external world of the six sense objects seems real, as if truly existing material things are there; but that "reality" is only spoken of in relation to the inner representation. The external material world is also produced by the eighth consciousnesses of sentient beings with shared karma, jointly transmitting the seeds of the four great elements and transforming and fabricating it. Even its existence is false existence, illusory existence, and is not truly real—it is all phantom images of the eighth consciousness. Moreover, it is a phantom image conjured up jointly by the eighth consciousnesses of all sentient beings with karmic connections; the eighth consciousness of a single sentient being alone could not fabricate it.

The external world of the six sense objects, the external material world, seems a bit more real in comparison with the inner representation within the black box at the back of our brains—a substantial material world composed of the four great elements. But only the eighth consciousness can contact the object-aspect of substantial matter composed of the four great elements; the six consciousnesses and the seventh consciousness cannot contact it, nor can they perceive it. As far as the seventh consciousness and the six consciousnesses are concerned, the external world seems not to exist at all, and what we can contact is merely an image.

Since beginningless kalpas, we have all taken the inner representation to be the outer representation, taken it to be the real material world. This is because we do not know that the inner representation and the outer representation are extremely alike, almost identical. Therefore, when our body consciousness, eye consciousness, and the other consciousnesses among the six consciousnesses discriminate these shadow-images, they take the shadows to be real, and so they discriminate and calculate over these shadows without cease. Every day we feel: "I have truly eaten food and drink," and so we crave food and drink; "I have truly sat on the bed," and so we crave the comfortable big bed; "I have truly drunk water," and so we crave tasty beverages; "I have truly felt the softness and gentleness of the clothing," and so we crave attire; "I have truly seen, taken, and owned jewels," and so we crave gold, silver, and jewels. In fact, they are all shadow-images; we do not know that they are all shadow-images of the inner representation.