Why Are There More Fish on the Monitor Than Actual Fish

Zhu Qingshi said: Our world is like this large fish tank, with a goldfish swimming inside. Suppose there are at least two 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 these two fish would not be the same, because one image is shot from the tail end and the other 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, see the objects of the six sense objects, which is equivalent to the person seeing the images on the monitors. The monitors are monitoring a single 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, making it seem as if there were two fish, and thus two fish appear on the monitors.

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