The Six Sense-Object Realms Are False and Illusory

The Śūraṅgama Sūtra, when discussing the delusory nature of the aggregate of perception (saṃjñā), says that if you imagine yourself standing at the edge of a cliff, the soles of your feet will feel sore and tingly; when you think of sour plums, saliva flows in your mouth. These are all delusive thoughts—we have been deceived by sense objects. We take the six sense objects we come into contact with as our own, and as a result we are bound and obstructed by them, unable to attain freedom. Since beginningless kalpas, we have been fooling ourselves and deceiving ourselves, and the outcome has been miserable. Since beginningless kalpas, we have taken the physical body as the self, and as a result the physical body binds and obstructs us so that we are not free, with boundless suffering. It is all delusive thoughts at work—vainly living and wastefully dying.