The Aggregate of Perception Belongs to the Interpenetrating Delusion

The aggregate of perception belongs to the deluded thinking of fusion and communication. Because deluded thoughts conjure up certain states, the body undergoes changes in accordance with those deluded thoughts. The body has not actually come into contact with the states conjured up by deluded thinking; merely by thinking of them in the mind, the body undergoes changes. This shows that the body moves in accordance with the mind's thoughts and is directed by the mind. How false and unreal is such involuntary bodily movement! Who is it that directs and controls the body, as if a magician were conjuring and manipulating it? It is the manas. The body and the conscious mind are interconnected and can merge with each other; the power of mental intention can drive the body and determine its movements. Which mind has such great and powerful mental intention? It is the mental intention of the manas that can act as the master, that has power, and that can change the physical body. The mental intention of the mind consciousness can only influence and change the manas; it cannot directly move or change the physical body.

The aggregate of perception mainly refers to the thinking of the mind consciousness, and the thinking of the mind consciousness is, on the one hand, governed and determined by the manas, and on the other hand, can govern and influence the manas. What is merely thought through and understood does not count as realization. Many principles can be thought through and understood, but that still does not count as actual realization; therefore, after understanding something through thinking, one still needs to realize it in actual practice. When one is happy, one dances with joy; or when one devoutly prostrates in worship—what is the relationship between the body and the mind? When the conscious mind recalls sad events, why do the eyes shed tears? When one recalls things that make one angry, why does one clench one's fists and why does one's heart pound? When one is depressed and gloomy, why does the body fall ill? When one is happy and cheerful, why does the illness get better? All of these aspects of the aggregate of perception belong to the deluded thinking of fusion and communication, and also belong to random, idle thoughts—extremely false and unreal, with nothing real to them. There was never anything amiss in the world; it is only fools who trouble themselves over it.