Principles of Hypnosis (II)

In the second hypnosis case, the hypnotist hypnotizes a person and tells him to sleep; 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, so he feels very hungry. Why does the manas believe it? Because He lacks the capacity for detailed discrimination—there is no mind consciousness to discern for Him what the six sense objects actually are, or whether the hypnotist's words are truthful and reasonable. Therefore, whatever the hypnotist says, the manas believes, and the hypnotist substitutes for his mind consciousness.

After the hypnotist suggests hunger, he asks him whether he is hungry; he says he is. The hypnotist then says, "I'll give you an apple to eat; after two bites 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 this thing is an apple; eating the onion, he tastes apple flavor. This is false discrimination and false feeling.

The aggregate of perception and the aggregate of feeling are just such false discrimination and false feeling—there is really no reason to speak of. The perceptions and feelings of all sentient beings regarding the mundane world are likewise illusory and insubstantial, utterly without reason; their birth-and-death transmigration is entirely without real meaning. As for the falsity of the aggregate of perception, let us 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 a cliff; as soon as he imagines standing on the cliff, it is as if he were really standing there, and at that moment he fears falling, his nerves are drawn tight, and the soles of his feet feel extremely sore and aching—that feeling of being afraid of falling.

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 false imagining: when the aggregate of perception arises, states corresponding to that perception are produced. The states of the six sense objects and the body of the five aggregates are also falsely imagined; a false mind imagines false states, then makes false discriminations and false reactions. The world of the five aggregates is like the summer heat-shimmer and a mirage.

This hypnosis case can prove that the aggregate of perception is false, as the World-Honored One said. Therefore, every single thing in our daily lives, everything that each person experiences in every life and every lifetime, is all imagined by the aggregate of perception, all false, without any reality and without any reason. We should all study the Śūraṅgama Sūtra well; what it teaches is the dharma by which the World-Honored One wants us to awaken. Read carefully the passages on the falsity of the aggregate of perception, the falsity of the aggregate of feeling, the falsity of the aggregate of volitional formations, and the falsity of the aggregate of consciousness, and then undertake actual contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā); you will then feel that all the five aggregates subject to grasping are entirely false. It is truly an enlightenment-bringing Śūraṅgama.

Sentient beings, life after life, act out plays on the stage of the three realms, living falsely. Through various kinds of perception—wild imaginings, deluded thoughts, false perceptions—they imagine out of thin air a world that is unreal and nonexistent. Is the imagined world real? Absolutely not real, yet we take it as real; then even more false states appear, and we take these false states as real, whereupon false reactions of feeling, perception, and volitional formations arise—and these reactions are also unreal.

All these unreal states are imagined out; then, facing the imagined states, we make unreal reactions and responses, endlessly, thus living and playing 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, yet not knowing that he is in a play, not knowing that he is acting, and still acting earnestly—isn't that foolish? These matters and these principles we should contemplate well in meditative concentration (samādhi), ponder and experience carefully with the mind, and we will feel that we are indeed far too ignorant and far too foolish. When will we ever awaken?

If we do not awaken, we will forever fool ourselves, celebrating April Fools' Day every day, fooling ourselves until we are unspeakably miserable, yet still craving, still clinging relentlessly, still seeking something. In the great drama of birth and death we have played every kind of role, tasting all the five 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, false perceptions, all pathological forms of perception. Where is there anything real? We imagine out false states, and then must suffer the misery of birth and death within those states—so utterly not worth it.