Coarse Five Sense-Objects and Subtle Mental Sense-Objects

If there were no coarse five sense-objects of form, sound, smell, taste, and touch, there would be no subtle mental sense-objects produced from these five sense-objects. The subtle mental sense-objects produced from the coarse five sense-objects are called form subsumed under the Dharmāyatana; they also belong to material form, but are subtler than the coarse five sense-objects. The coarse five sense-objects are formed from actual particles of the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, whereas the form subsumed under the Dharmāyatana manifested from the coarse five sense-objects is extremely subtle. This degree of subtlety can be illustrated by an analogy: our physical body is formed from the coarse four great elements, while the physical bodies of the neutrino-body (antarā-bhava), ghosts and spirits, and devas are formed from the subtle four great elements. There is a great difference between a physical body formed from the subtle four great elements and one formed from the coarse four great elements: the coarse physical body feels coarse, heavy, and weighty; it cannot float or fly, and it has no superknowledge and no superknowledge of traveling at will. The subtle physical body is just the opposite. This is analogous to the difference between visible form and the form among the five sense-objects (form subsumed under the Dharmāyatana).

For example, a mirror—whatever objects are placed before it, it can manifest them one by one. A mirror cannot be used as an analogy for the supreme faculty, but it can be used as an analogy for the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha is like a mirror: whenever any of the five sense-objects arrive, He can "reflect" them. For instance, the sense-object of form before one's eyes, whether near or far; sounds from all directions; the surrounding sense-objects of smell, whether coarse or fine, fragrant or foul, near or far—the tathāgatagarbha simultaneously grasps them all and can "reflect" them all. The five sense-objects of form, sound, smell, taste, and touch, as well as the countless varieties of the five sense-objects—if they come into contact with us, the tathāgatagarbha can simultaneously receive them all, reflect them all, and simultaneously form images of them all. This is the function of the tathāgatagarbha.