Black Box World (31)

The scenery of the inner object-aspect (nimitta) seen by the eye consciousness and the mind consciousness is constantly changing, and as the eye consciousness and mind consciousness discern it, the mind consciousness comes to believe that all this scenery and its changes are so very real. In fact, these images are consistent with the relatively real scenery outside, almost exactly identical, and we cannot distinguish between true and false, inner and outer. It is like a three-dimensional dome movie: the people, events, and things on the screen also seem real to us as we watch. When we see a person on the screen coming at us with a knife, subconsciously we want to dodge; but when we calmly compare and think, we remember that this is not real, and so we remain seated and continue watching the movie. Then when we see a car driving toward us on the screen, we still subconsciously want to dodge — this is due to the habit energy of the manas grasping at appearances, and the calm analysis and comparison of the mind consciousness cannot play much of a role.

Moreover, the images of the inner object-aspect within the black box are all three-dimensional, like a dome movie, so we feel they are extremely lifelike. Sometimes when the television shows a rather critical situation, we take it very seriously; for example, when we see one person being chased and attacked by another, we feel very anxious inside. At critical moments, our hands clench into fists, cold sweat breaks out on our bodies, and our bodies tense up. Sometimes we clearly know it is an acted drama, yet we still get drawn into it. How much more so in daily life, when we do not know that all the dharmas we contact are shadows within the black box — then we take them as real all the more.

Along the whole way from place A to place B, the sounds heard by our ear faculty are all sounds within the black box. These sounds keep changing, changing constantly. Why do they change? Because the outer sound-dust (śabda-viṣaya) is also constantly changing. Compared with the inner images, the existence of the outer sound-dust is relatively real; only the tathāgatagarbha is the absolutely real dharma. At every place outside, there are people and animals, carts and horses, the sound of wind, and sounds emitted by various objects. Wherever we go, these sounds are continuously transmitted through the ear faculty into the supreme faculty (indriya), forming images. If the outer form-dust (rūpa-viṣaya) changes, the images in the inner realm will change accordingly.

After we hear them, we know: this place has this kind of sound, that place has that kind of sound, and we also feel that these sounds are so real, and the directions from which the sounds come are also so real. We know this is the sound of wind coming from the south, that is the sound of voices coming from the north, this is the sound of cars coming from the east, and that is the sound of dogs barking coming from the west. In this place, all the sound-dust will be transmitted over; then when we walk to another place, all the sound-dust there will also be transmitted over. The sound-dust we contact is constantly changing.

Thus the outer sound-dust must certainly appear one after another without cease, and our ear faculty must condition (pratyaya) them one by one, or condition them all simultaneously. After conditioning them, the tathāgatagarbha manifests the sound-dust of the inner object-aspect within the black box, and the directions must also be manifested, and the degrees of coarse and fine must also be manifested, almost exactly the same as the outside. The mind consciousness then believes that the sounds it hears are the sounds of some place outside. With this mistaken knowledge and mistaken perception, the manas is perfumed, so that the manas believes "I have heard real sounds, and these sounds are all real," and thereupon it directs the mind consciousness in all kinds of discriminations and calculations, continuously creating karmic actions of body, mouth, and mind.

Among these, the realms of mental dust (dharma-viṣaya) are far more numerous than the realms of sound-dust, and the discernment of the mind consciousness is far greater than the discernment of the ear consciousness. It can be seen that without the discernment of the mind consciousness, the ear consciousness has no way to discern sound-dust; the two depend upon and rely on each other. The sounds we hear are all within the black box. Along this whole way, the sounds of various carts, horses, people, and animals, the sounds of the universe, the sounds of animals, the sounds of wind, and the sounds of people speaking — all are transmitted over by the tathāgatagarbha from the outer sound-dust, thus forming the inner sound-dust within the black box. What we discern is precisely all these sounds within the black box.