Black Box World (XLIII)

The six sense faculties are divided into internal and external faculties, as well as material and immaterial faculties. The first five faculties are material, constituting the physical sense organs with form, composed of the four great elements: earth, water, fire, and wind. The mental faculty is immaterial, not composed of the four great elements, and does not belong to material dharmas. It is the mind, consciousness, possessing the functions of mental discrimination and recognition. The five sense faculties include the gross sense faculty and the subtle sense faculty. The gross sense faculty is the external faculty, floating on the surface of the body and visible to others. The subtle sense faculty is the internal faculty, located at the back of the head, invisible to others but perceivable by the divine eye. When referring to the five sense faculties with emphasis on the surface, it denotes the gross sense faculty, excluding the subtle sense faculty. When speaking of all the functional natures of the five sense faculties, it includes the subtle sense faculty. There are also contexts specifically emphasizing the subtle sense faculty, depending on the situation. The area at the back of the head is the subtle sense faculty, responsible for contacting internal dust, after which the Tathagatagarbha produces consciousness.

When the six sense faculties contact the six dusts, the Tathagatagarbha produces the six consciousnesses. The union of the three—faculty, dust, and consciousness—results in contact, and the six consciousnesses then cognize the internal six dusts. Sentient beings thereby know the meaning of the internal six dusts, and the process of discrimination and cognition is completed. What sentient beings cognize is the internal dust, the internal manifestation aspect, not the external dust, the external manifestation aspect. Therefore, the six dusts known by sentient beings are illusory. The internal dust is illusory, while the external dust may seem real relative to the internal dust, but it is also an illusion conjured by the Tathagatagarbha, equally unreal and illusory. The only true reality is the true mind, the Tathagatagarbha, which is neither born nor perishes. Apart from this, everything else is false, illusory, and unreal.

Sentient beings can never directly contact the external dust; they exist entirely within illusory and false appearances, like diseased eyes seeing flowers in the sky. Do the internal and external dusts exist or not? When sentient beings have diseased eyes, they see flowers in the sky; when sentient beings have diseased mental faculties with obstructions, they perceive all appearances as real and true. When sentient beings’ minds are free from disease, they do not see flowers in the sky but perceive only the nature of the Tathagatagarbha. For example, our five aggregates exhibit movement, transformation, and functions; these false appearances are not negated—they exist—but this existence is illusory. These dharmas may not be comprehended now, but after realization, when various contemplative wisdoms arise, they will be understood. This is a directly perceived state, a realm of personal realization. No matter how others explain it, it cannot be truly understood, for this is not a matter of intellectual comprehension. It must be personally verified through actual practice. Intellectual understanding is unreliable and cannot resolve the problem of birth and death.