Black Box World (31)

The scenery of the inner manifest aspect perceived by eye-consciousness and mental consciousness is constantly changing. Once eye-consciousness and mental consciousness discern it, the mental consciousness mind will assume that this entire scenery and its transformations are truly real. In reality, these images correspond to the relatively real scenery outside, being almost identical, making it difficult for us to distinguish truth from illusion, inside from outside. It is like a three-dimensional spherical screen movie; the people, events, and objects on the screen also seem real to us. Seeing a person on the screen approaching with a knife, we instinctively want to dodge. Yet, upon calm comparison and reflection, we recall it is not real and thus remain seated to continue watching the movie. Then, when a car on the screen approaches, we still instinctively want to dodge. This is due to the habit of the manas clinging to phenomena; the calm analysis and comparison by the mental consciousness mind still cannot exert much influence.

The images of the inner manifest aspect within the "black box" are also three-dimensional, like a spherical screen movie, making them feel very lifelike to us. Sometimes, when the situation on television becomes critical, we take it very seriously. For example, seeing one person being chased by another, we feel anxious; at critical moments, our hands clench into fists, cold sweat breaks out, our bodies tense up, and even though we know it's acting, we still get emotionally involved. How much more so in daily life, where we are unaware that all phenomena we encounter are merely shadows within the "black box," leading us to take them even more seriously.

Along the journey from point A to point B, all the sounds heard by our ear faculty are sounds within the "black box." These sounds are constantly changing, transforming incessantly. Why do they change? Because the external sound objects are also constantly changing. Compared to the inner images, the existence of external sound objects is relatively real; only the Tathāgatagarbha is absolutely real. Every location outside has sounds produced by people, animals, vehicles, horses, wind, and various objects. Wherever we go, these sounds are continuously transmitted through the ear faculty into the subtle essential faculty, forming images. If the external form objects change, the inner images will correspondingly change.

After hearing them, we know: this place has this kind of sound, that place has that kind of sound, and we still feel these sounds are so real, the direction from which the sounds come also seems so real. We know this is the sound of wind coming from the south, that is the sound of speech coming from the north, this is the sound of a car coming from the east, that is the sound of a dog barking coming from the west. In this place, all sound objects are transmitted; then, moving to another place, all sound objects are also transmitted, and the sound objects we encounter are constantly changing.

Thus, external sound objects certainly appear one after another continuously. Our ear faculty must perceive them one by one, or perceive them all simultaneously. After perceiving them, the Tathāgatagarbha manifests the inner manifest aspect's sound objects within the "black box," including their direction and intensity, almost identical to the external world. Mental consciousness then assumes that the sounds it hears are indeed coming from specific places outside. This mistaken perception and illusion then condition the manas, causing the manas to believe it hears real sounds, that these sounds are all real. Consequently, it directs mental consciousness to engage in various discriminations and calculations, continuously creating karmic actions of body, speech, and mind.

Among these, the realm of dharmas is far more extensive than the realm of sounds; the discernment by mental consciousness far exceeds that by ear-consciousness. Thus, it is evident that without the discernment of the mental consciousness mind, ear-consciousness cannot discern sound objects; the two are mutually dependent and reliant. The sounds we hear are all within the "black box." Along this journey, the sounds of various vehicles, horses, people, animals, the sounds of the universe, animal sounds, wind sounds, and human speech are all transmitted by the Tathāgatagarbha from the external sound objects. This forms the inner sound objects within the "black box," and what we discern are all these sounds within the "black box."