Black Box World (48)

Devas see a river as lapis lazuli, humans see the river as water, and hungry ghosts see the river as raging fire. The same river appears differently to each of the three. All three kinds of sentient beings participate in manifesting that river; because their karmic seeds differ, their shares differ, and so, drawing dividends according to their shares, what each obtains and sees differs. Therefore, the defiled Saha world is spoken of from the perspective of sentient beings; from the perspective of Śākyamuni Buddha, the Saha world is exceedingly adorned, no different from the land of bliss (sukhāvatī) — this is what is taught in the Vimalakīrti Sūtra. This shows that the world the Buddha participates in manifesting is one for which the karmic seeds He outputs are extremely sublime, and the external object-aspects (nimitta) and internal object-aspects He attracts differ greatly from those of sentient beings — just like a joint-stock company: the shares differ, so the benefits received differ.

For the Buddha, the external object-aspect and the internal object-aspect are completely identical; the Saha world the Buddha sees is exactly the same as the land of bliss, so the external object-aspect of the Saha world that the Buddha contacts is likewise so beautiful and adorned. Though living in the same Saha world, the Buddha's robes have never been stained by dust, and His body and skin are never stained by dust either; dust represents the ignorance of the mind, and since the Buddha has no ignorance, He cannot attract any dust.

Only sentient beings who possess the supreme faculty (indriya) have internal object-aspects; without the supreme faculty, there are no internal object-aspects. Only those who have the physical eye but no supernatural powers must cognize internal object-aspects. Those who have the divine eye and supernatural powers do not necessarily have to cognize internal object-aspects, and those whose six faculties interfunction and interpenetrate need not cognize internal object-aspects at all. For the doubly-liberated arhats and the great bodhisattvas of the eighth bhūmi, when cognizing the realms of the six sense-objects, they need not use the six consciousnesses to cognize them, but can directly use the manas to cognize them; what they cognize is then no longer the internal object-aspects. The devas of the formless realm have no material body, so they have no supreme faculty and no internal six sense-objects; when they cognize the mental sense-object (dharma-viṣaya), it is not the inner mental sense-object (inner dharma-viṣaya) that they cognize.