Black Box World (14)

The four great elements' particles drawn in by the tathāgatagarbha can penetrate all realms. When ordinary sentient beings have no superknowledge, the four great elements' particles can only penetrate glass and transparent objects; a person with superknowledge can, through walls and other obstacles, see the material sense-objects in the far reaches of the universe's inanimate world, and can see all the objects in the entire universe's inanimate world, including the hells and the heavenly palaces. One with the divine eye has no obstructions; his tathāgatagarbha can draw in all the external material appearances through objects, because all objects, no matter how vast, are illusory and unreal; with meditative concentration (samādhi), one can be unobstructed by illusory objects. When his tathāgatagarbha draws in the four great elements' particles and they land in the supreme faculty (indriya), forming images, the six consciousnesses then know and discern them—this is called the divine eye (clairvoyance). Our external eye faculty—the eye's gross faculty, the eyeball's vitreous body—can also come into contact with the mountains outside and the particles of all objects composed of the four great elements; those are the particles drawn in by the tathāgatagarbha, transmitted to the eye faculty, and only then can the eye faculty make contact with them; otherwise the eye faculty could not make contact. The particles can also be called photons. Photons are in motion—why do they move? Because the tathāgatagarbha outputs the seeds of the four great elements instant after instant, forming particles, or what are called photons. The particles also arise and cease instant by instant: as this one arises, that one ceases; as this one ceases, that one arises. This phenomenon of arising and ceasing, photon by photon, forms the transmission function.

The particles are transmitted in this way. The force of transmission gradually weakens, the transmitted energy diminishes, and finally the transmission stops. The particles formed by the seeds of the four great elements that arise and cease instant by instant—the photons—also arise and cease instant by instant. One photon after another is passed along like a relay baton, through the eyeball's vitreous body, transmitted to the eye's supreme faculty, forming material appearances. The tathāgatagarbha then gives rise to the eye consciousness and the mind consciousness, and we can see the external scenery.

The particles pass through the retina and form images in the supreme faculty at the back of the brain, landing on the supreme faculty. The supreme faculty is like a plate, and the photon particles transmitted over are like beans; the beans land right in the plate, the two come together, and the faculty and the sense-object make contact. When the four great elements' particles land in the supreme faculty, they form the image of the inner object-aspect (nimitta); this image is the manifest color. The object and the faculty make contact—here there is no question of who makes contact actively and who does not; this is the principle of contact, which is such by nature (dharmatā).

Then, once the faculty and the sense-object make contact, the eighth consciousness gives rise to the corresponding consciousness to discern the sense-object. If the manas is not interested in the material sense-object that has landed, it will not direct its attention (manaskāra) toward the present material sense-object, nor will it give rise to the deliberation mental factor (manasikāra) wanting to discern it, and the eighth consciousness will not cooperate with the manas to give rise to the eye consciousness and mind consciousness to discern the material sense-object. However, in the first, second, and third instants, the material sense-object still falls into the supreme faculty, and the eye consciousness and mind consciousness can still discern it. When the manas is not interested, the eye consciousness and mind consciousness will try to avoid such material sense-objects and will no longer discriminate them; it is also possible that the two consciousnesses cease on such material sense-objects and turn toward other material sense-objects.