The Illusions Brought by Various Lenses

Magnifying glasses, concave and convex lenses, distorting mirrors, and microscopes all operate on the same principle as nearsighted glasses and reading glasses: they all serve to alter the outer representation of material sense-objects transmitted by the tathāgatagarbha, and then these altered sense-objects are transmitted into the gross physical sense organs and the supreme faculties. In this way, the inner material sense-object within the black box is formed through successive transformations by multiple layers of media. So, what reality is there to speak of in the material sense-objects that sentient beings perceive through these lenses? How far do they deviate from the original state of the essential object in the external world? What substantial appearance is there to be touched or used?