The Black Box World (31)

The scenery of the inner representation seen by the eye consciousness and the mind consciousness is constantly changing. The eye consciousness and mind consciousness discern it, and the mind consciousness then takes all this scenery and its transformations to be so real. In fact, these images are consistent with the relatively real scenery outside, almost exactly identical, and we cannot distinguish the true from the false, the inner from the 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 upon calm comparison and reflection, 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 manas' habitual tendency to grasp at appearances, so that the mind consciousness's calm analysis and comparison cannot play much of a role.

The inner representation images within the black box are likewise three-dimensional, like a dome movie, so we feel they are extremely lifelike. Sometimes when a television drama reaches a critical moment, we take it very seriously. For example, when we see one person being chased and attacked by another, we feel very anxious. At the critical moment, our hands clench into fists, cold sweat breaks out on our bodies, and our bodies tense up. Sometimes we know full well it is an acted scene, 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 even more seriously.

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 are constantly changing, transforming without pause. Why do they change? Because the external sound objects are also constantly changing. Compared with the inner images, the existence of the external sound objects is relatively real; only the tathāgatagarbha is absolutely real dharma. At every place outside, there are sounds made by people and animals, vehicles and horses, the wind, and various objects. Wherever we go, these sounds are continuously transmitted through the ear faculty into the supreme faculty, forming images. If the external material sense-objects change, the images of the inner realm will change accordingly.

After we hear them, we know: in this place there is this kind of sound, in that place there is that kind of sound, and we also feel that these sounds are so real, and the directions from which the sounds come are equally real. We know that 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 one place, all the sound objects are transmitted over; then when we walk to another place, all the sound objects there are also transmitted over. The sound objects we contact are constantly changing.

Thus the external sound objects must certainly appear one after another without pause, and our ear faculty must condition them one by one, or condition them all simultaneously. Once they are conditioned, the tathāgatagarbha manifests the sound objects of the inner representation within the black box, and it also manifests the directions, as well as the degrees of coarseness and subtlety, almost exactly identical to the external world. The mind consciousness then takes the sounds it hears to be the sounds of some place outside. Based on 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." It then 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 sense-objects are far more numerous than the realms of sound objects, and the discernment of the mind consciousness is far more extensive than that of the ear consciousness. It can be seen that without the discernment of the mind consciousness, the ear consciousness would have no way to discern sound objects; 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 vehicles, horses, people, and animals, the sounds of the universe, the sounds of animals, the sounds of the wind, and the sounds of people speaking are all transmitted over from the external sound objects by the tathāgatagarbha, thereby forming the inner sound objects within the black box. What we discern is precisely all these sounds within the black box.