Viewing the Problem of Sentient Beings' Consciousness through the Example of Mistaking a Rope for a Snake

When a person sees a rope, what the eye consciousness sees should be the rope's colors, which is material sense-object; the rest—the rope's length, thickness, material, texture, and so on—is form subsumed under the Dharmāyatana, the mental sense-object seen by the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses, and all of these contain the seeds of the four great elements. What falls into the eye consciousness is a real object-aspect, and what falls into the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses is a semblance of a borrowed-characteristic object. The two combine to complete the discrimination of the rope, arriving at the conclusion that a normal worldly person should arrive at, which counts as being a normal worldly person. The subsequent handling of the rope should also be the way a normal person would handle it.

If, due to certain causes, this person's mind consciousness becomes deranged, they may see the rope as a snake. The eye consciousness sees the rope, and it may still be the rope's colors—the material sense-object unchanged—but the mind consciousness, seeing the rope's mental sense-object, forcibly discriminates the image and appearance of a snake, altering the mental sense-object. This altered mental sense-object is called an Image-Only object\: the mind consciousness discriminates it alone, without the eye consciousness discriminating it together with the mind consciousness. The more and the greater the alteration of the mental sense-object, the more severe the mind consciousness's derangement; the less of the rope's substance it carries, the less it accords with fact, and the more frenzied the mind becomes. The more and greater the rope's substance it carries, the closer it is to fact, and the closer the mind is to normality.

In the process of seeing the rope, the rope's mental sense-object and the Image-Only Object may coexist, but as one wanes the other waxes. If it is entirely an Image-Only Object, the rope is completely taken to be a snake, the person is completely deranged, and will be so frightened as to turn and flee. If only a portion of the mental sense-object has been altered into the Image-Only Object of a snake, the person, though afraid and trembling, will have doubts in mind and not fully believe it, and so will, while fearful, go on to carefully discriminate and observe. When it becomes clear that it is truly a rope, the Image-Only Object completely reverts to the mental sense-object, the fear disappears, and the person can face the rope normally. If, however, due to the influence of strong psychological suggestion, after careful observation the person confirms it is a snake, the mental sense-object will completely become an Image-Only Object, and the person may bolt and run.

As ordinary beings in the Sahā world, those with deranged mind consciousness are everywhere; all have some degree of mental derangement, and almost none are completely normal. Why? The afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion and karmic obstructions cause the mind to be chaotic and unsettled; mistaken cognitions are everywhere, and one cannot normally and correctly judge the people, affairs, objects, and principles one encounters—one does not recognize the truth of facts, but only recognizes the Image-Only Object engendered by wrong views, whether with substance or without, whether grounded or ungrounded.

The better a person's psychological constitution and the more normal their mental state, the more subdued their mind, the more calm and peaceful, the smaller their reactions, and the more free of turbulence. Conversely, the mind will surge with waves, and the greater its influence—or one might call it destructive power—on the surrounding environment, the more it can provoke disorder among the people and affairs around, leading to unrest in the group. The phenomenon of an entire group being mentally deranged is not rare, and will become more and more common in the future: mainly it is the derangement of one dominant person that taints and influences the whole group, causing everyone in the group to have deranged mind consciousness and disordered minds. When the group's problems grow ever more numerous and ever larger, with problems emerging one after another, it will lead to the point where fire cannot be wrapped in paper, and the group is not far from destruction.

As long as you are not an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva, nor a first-bhūmi bodhisattva, then everyone is subject to being perfumed and influenced. What kind of influence one should receive, and what one should be perfumed into becoming—each person has the right to choose; this right belongs to oneself and cannot be taken away by others. Therefore, choice involves wisdom, and also involves the questions of karma and merit. If one can make a correct, error-free choice, it shows that one has wisdom, that one's karmic obstructions are slight, and that one has merit. Some influences are not limited to a single lifetime; they may manifest as perfumed habitual tendencies over many lifetimes, even life after life. Choosing one's environment and choosing the people, affairs, objects, and principles one comes into contact with is also extremely important.