The Black Box World (Part 30)

Why are all the perceptible six dusts merely images within the black box? Some people encounter the issue of internal manifestations and refuse to believe that everything they contact and discern—all dharmas—are merely shadows of internal manifestations within the black box. They consider everything they perceive to be utterly real and reliable, impossible to be mere shadows. This is because the shadows are extremely similar to the external manifestations, almost identical. Consequently, everyone feels that their walking, sitting, lying down, eating, drinking, defecating, and urinating are all so real and tangible. They feel that when they see forms, they are seeing the external scenery; when they hear sounds, they are hearing external sounds; when they feel, they are sensing the external sunlight. They fail to comprehend how all of this could be mere shadows. How could it be false?

If one reads the Diamond Sutra, where the Buddha states that all phenomena are illusory, most can accept and believe it, even reciting it fluently from memory. However, if it is specifically analyzed that these six dusts are all shadows, all within the black box, and therefore all illusory, then it becomes difficult to understand and accept. When explanations become too concrete, forcing one to confront practical realities, it becomes very challenging. While reciting the Buddha's words, one need not engage in specific understanding or contemplation, nor truly face these issues. Moreover, since it is the Buddha's teaching, people may recite along with others without truly comprehending the meaning.

Since beginningless kalpas, we have been accustomed to clinging to appearances, habituated to inversion, and this has become deeply ingrained over time. Our views and understanding are difficult to correct immediately, hard to invert back. We need to gradually transform our cognition, slowly returning to correct views and understanding. Now, let us take concrete examples for contemplation and observation, using specifics to observe that all the six-dust realms we contact are shadows within the black box.

For instance, consider this question: Someone asks, "When I travel from place A to place B, everything I experience along the way—what I see, hear, feel, and know—is so clearly real. Both places A and B are utterly real. Whether I ride a car, take a plane, or walk, it all feels so tangible. How can it all be mere shadows within a black box?"

Let’s first discuss walking. When walking, all the phenomena contacted by the six consciousnesses are the six-dust realms within the black box. Firstly, because the physical body moves as the legs walk, everything contacted by the six consciousnesses undergoes constant change. During the process of walking, the scenery of the external manifestations continuously changes. This change encompasses all variations within the six dusts: changes in form dust (scenery), sound dust (sounds), smell dust (odors), taste dust (sweet, sour, bitter, spicy), touch dust (sensations of cold, heat, pain), along with the ceaseless flux of mental thoughts and ideas.

The various scenes we experience are constantly changing. However, our eye consciousness fundamentally cannot contact the true external scenery. Despite this, we still perceive various changing scenes and thus assume we are observing the continuously transforming external scenery. In reality, the external scenery does indeed change continuously because the physical body is constantly moving, the locations contacted keep shifting, and the scenery must constantly alter. Consequently, the internal scenery—the shadows—which depends on the external scenery, must also change continuously.

But why can the body move from place A to place B? Why do the contacted locations continuously shift? Why must the scenery constantly change? This touches upon the secret workings of the Tathagatagarbha, which, regrettably, cannot be disclosed here. Since the scenery of the external form dust is perpetually changing, the Tathagatagarbha, through the eye faculty, captures particles of various form dust, transmits them into the black box, and there generates the images of the internal manifestations. Thus, the images change moment by moment, though our eye consciousness perceives the transformation gradually, not rapidly.