The worlds of the ten directions are just the one true dharmadhātu

Zhu Qingshi said: Our world is like this large fish tank, with a goldfish swimming inside. Suppose there are at least two video cameras—one observing the tank from the side, and one observing the tank from behind—and in another room there are two monitors. Imagine a person entering the room with the monitors: he would see two fish in the tank, and the two fish would not be the same, because one image is shot from behind the tail and the other is shot from the side. These two fish are very strange: no matter what movement one of them makes, the other immediately responds, and both are simultaneous.

The monitors are equivalent to the black box, and the person is equivalent to the six consciousnesses. The six consciousnesses, within the black box, perceive the six sense objects—this is like the person watching the images on the monitors. The monitors are monitoring one fish in the tank in another room. Clearly there is only one fish in the tank, so why can two different fish be seen on the monitors? Because the two cameras film this fish from different angles, the images captured are different, as if there were two fish, and so two fish appear on the monitors.

The monitors are equivalent to the black box. Everything in the black box consists of illusory false appearances resembling the outside world, but they are not necessarily entirely similar—there may be great error. The six consciousnesses do not know this, and still believe they have seen real appearances; the misunderstanding is enormous. If ten cameras were placed in the room at different positions, ten fish would be captured; if one hundred cameras were placed there, one hundred fish would be filmed, and from the monitors one would see ten or a hundred different fish. When the number reaches a certain point, these fish from different angles, taken together, constitute one complete fish. When the Buddha taught the establishment of the Śūraṅgama maṇḍala in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, an eight-faceted mirror was set up in the practice hall—this is precisely the same principle.

The worlds of the ten directions are just the one true dharmadhātu. Can we now understand what the one true dharmadhātu is really all about? The Buddha-dharma is precisely what dissects the false and illusory appearances of the mundane world for us; when dissected to the very end, everything is empty, and that which cannot be emptied is the formless, markless true dharmadhātu. Holography, dome-screen movies, and so on all demonstrate that the world is illusory and transformed; everything and anything we come into contact with is illusory and transformed. Holography, dome-screen movies, and so on all demonstrate that the world is illusory and transformed; everything and anything we come into contact with is illusory and transformed.

If anyone admits that all dharmas are illusory and transformed, then let us empty our minds, stand in one place, and let others revile us for seven days straight—let us see whether the mind can truly be emptied or not?