Principles of Hypnosis (Part Two)

In the second hypnosis case, the hypnotist hypnotizes a person, telling him to sleep, and the person immediately enters a sleep state and falls asleep. After entering the sleep state, the hypnotist suggests to him, "You are now very, very hungry," and his manas believes it, and so he feels very hungry. Why does the manas believe it? Because He lacks the capacity for fine discrimination—there is no mind consciousness to discern for Him what the six sense objects actually are, or whether the hypnotist's words are true and reasonable. Therefore, whatever the hypnotist says, the manas believes, and the hypnotist takes the place of his mind consciousness.

After the hypnotist suggests hunger, he asks him whether he is hungry, and he says he is. The hypnotist then says, "I'll give you an apple to eat; take two bites and you won't be hungry anymore." As a result, the hypnotist hands him an onion, not an apple, but tells him it is an apple. His manas cannot distinguish whether it is an onion or an apple, so he believes that this thing is an apple; he eats the onion yet tastes the flavor of an apple. This is delusive discrimination and delusive feeling.

Such is the delusive discrimination and delusive feeling of the aggregate of perception (saṃjñā) and the aggregate of feeling (vedanā)—there is really no reason or logic to speak of. The perceptions and feelings of all sentient beings regarding the mundane world are likewise ethereal and groundless, making birth-and-death saṃsāra utterly without real meaning. Regarding the delusiveness of the aggregate of perception, we may refer to the passage on the aggregate of perception taught by the Buddha in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra. What does the Buddha say in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra? The Buddha says that a person sitting at home thinks of climbing to a high place, imagining himself standing on the edge of a cliff—as soon as he imagines standing on the cliff, it is as if he were actually standing there—and at this moment he fears falling off, his nerves are taut, and the soles of his feet feel an intense sourness and astringency, that very feeling of fearing a fall.

Or when someone thinks of a sour plum, without eating one or seeing one, sour water flows from his mouth. He has not eaten any sour plum, so why does sour water come out? It is the result of delusives. The world of the five aggregates is like summer mirages and a mirage city over the sea.

This hypnosis case can prove the delusiveness of the aggregate of perception as taught by the World-Honored One. Therefore, every single thing in our daily lives, everything that each person experiences in every life and every lifetime, is all thought out by the aggregate of perception; it is all delusive, without any reality and without any logic. We should all study the Śūraṅgama Sūtra well—it teaches nothing but the dharma by which the World-Honored One wants us to awaken. Read carefully the passages on the delusiveness of the aggregate of perception, the delusiveness of the aggregate of feeling, the delusiveness of the aggregate of formations, and the delusiveness of the aggregate of consciousness, and then undertake actual contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā); you will then feel that all five aggregates subject to feeling are entirely delusive. It is truly the Śūraṅgama that brings enlightenment.

Sentient beings, life after life, act out plays on the stage of the three realms, living delusively. Due to all kinds ofs of feeling, perception, and formations—and these responses are also unreal.

All these unreal states are conjured up by deludeds and reactions to those delusively imagined states, endlessly, thus living and playing games without any meaning. The result is that life after life we toy with ourselves; suffering always exceeds joy, and even joy is not true joy. What, in the end, is every sentient being doing in the world of the three realms? Like a clowning buffoon or an actor, not knowing that he is in a play, not knowing that he is acting, yet acting with utter seriousness—is that not foolish? These matters and these principles we should contemplate well in meditative concentration (samādhi), pondering and experiencing them carefully with the mind; then we will feel that we are indeed far too foolish and stupid. When will we ever awaken?

If we do not awaken, we will forever fool ourselves, celebrating April Fools' Day every day, fooling ourselves into unspeakable suffering, yet still craving, still clinging without cease, still seeking something. In the great drama of birth and death we have played every kind of role, tasting all the flavors, experiencing every kind of feeling—which of these things is real? None is real; from beginning to end there is not a single real thing. The aggregate of feeling and the aggregate of perception are both unreal—deluded thoughts, wild imaginings, delusive thinking are all pathological thinking; where is there any reality? Having thought out delusive states, we must then endure the suffering of birth and death within those states—it is simply not worth it.