The Black Box Is the Stage

Amid all the changing realms, our mind has actually never moved and has gone nowhere; it has always remained within the black box, watching the coming and going of various realms and their unfathomable transformations, while at the same time making rambling responses. Just like in animated films and movie scenes, there is no actual movement or stillness of scenery and characters—only numerous pictures being projected and played in rapid succession. Likewise, within the black box, neither the mind consciousness nor the realms have moved or stopped; it is merely that various pictures and images flash by rapidly. The director of this is the manas, the producer is the tathāgatagarbha, and the six consciousnesses are the actors and the audience. Therefore, everything we watch is an animated film, a drama—nothing is real. Even the act of watching, this behavior of the five aggregates, is also directed: the six consciousnesses act however the director makes them act. Yet the director too is not in control—at most he is merely the lead performer of the play, and when the play ends and the music fades, he too will exit the stage.