Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (173)

How should we recognize and understand that the five aggregates are as illusory and unreal as a dream?

This must be recognized and contemplated through two parts: the physical body and the conscious mind. The physical body is a fleshly body, like a piece of wood, constantly arising and ceasing, changing moment by moment. If there were no conscious mind operating on the physical body, the body would have no activity or functional operation whatsoever. The first seven consciousnesses that function on the physical body arise and cease, cease and arise, without stop—arising and perishing like a whirling fire-wheel. The seven consciousnesses are not real; only when the tathāgatagarbha transmits seeds of the conscious mind, one after another, can the seven consciousnesses function. If the tathāgatagarbha does not transmit seeds, the seven consciousnesses do not operate, and there is then no functional operation of the five aggregates—the body of the five aggregates is just a block of wood. The body of the five aggregates as a whole is something assembled together, composed of form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness; it is not real. If any one thing is missing, it is incomplete. A living being aggregated together from various causes and conditions is a false dharma—and it is false in the very present moment; there is no need for us to deliberately think of it as false.

In the activity of the five aggregates in any single instant, if the Ālayavijñāna does not transmit the seeds of consciousness, the activity of the five aggregates stops immediately, and there are no signs of life. Such is the falsity of the physical body. The body of the five aggregates is like a robot controlled by the Ālayavijñāna; if the raw materials in the seed storehouse are not supplied in a continuous stream, the machine stops running. If the switch of the power source—manas—is not turned on, the raw materials cannot be delivered to the physical body, and the body of the five aggregates still cannot operate. Such an illusory physical body has not the slightest bit of reality; its existence in appearance merely dazzles the eyes and deludes the mind. Although ordinary beings and bodhisattvas are reluctant to let go of these illusory marks of constant arising and ceasing, they likewise cannot be grasped—just like illusory scenes in a dream. The mark of self, the mark of others, the mark of sentient beings, and the mark of a life span—these four marks likewise have no real appearance, like things in a dream. Real life and a dream are the same: there is no real "I" as this person, nor you as this person, no him, no sentient beings, no life span—all of these are entirely false, illusory appearances. When one genuinely recognizes and realizes this from within the mind, one attains realization of the fruit. Why are so-called real life and a dream the same? If one realizes this principle, one has cultivated to the bodhisattva fruit of the tenth dedication stage.