Matter, Whether Observed or Not, Is Its Original State

Some people say that matter is in a different state when observed versus when not observed. But if matter is not being observed, how could one know its state when unobserved? As long as one knows the state of matter, matter has been observed; without observation, one would not know the state of matter. For example, when someone is looking at a wall and when no one is looking at that wall, does the wall itself undergo any change? If ten people look at that wall versus one person looking at that wall, is there any difference in the wall itself? Is there any difference between the house before we go out and the house after we go out? Of course, a material form, whether observed by someone or not, is arising and ceasing, changing moment by moment; the difference lies in whether we have the meditative concentration and wisdom to observe these changes.

The material forms of the universe's vessel-world (the inanimate environment) are produced by the tathāgatagarbha of sentient beings who share common karma, in accordance with their shared karmic seeds. When all sentient beings have vanished, the karmic seeds are gone too; when karmic conditions end, the material forms will gradually disappear, and this takes a certain amount of time. If one knows that a material form has changed, and knows the state after the change, that is a result — this is self-cognition (svasaṃvitti). Where there is self-cognition, there must be an object-aspect (nimitta), and there must be a perceiving-aspect (darśana-bhāga); where there is a perceiving-aspect, observation has certainly occurred. Without observation there would be no observed result of self-cognition, and then one would know nothing at all.

If a person were locked in a sealed, uninhabited space where no one observes him, could his body turn into fluctuating waves? You can experiment: run into an uninhabited mountain where no one observes you, and at that time experience for yourself whether your body turns into waves. If that were the case, who would dare to leave a child alone at home? Science and experiments are not necessarily true science; perhaps there are many phenomena that science cannot answer in accordance with reason and reality, or perhaps it answers them wrongly. Whatever is inconsistent with the Buddhadharma and cannot be explained through the Buddhadharma must contain errors and omissions. No matter what methods or instruments scientists use to conduct experiments, in the end they must use the eyes to identify and recognize, and such recognition is the joint operation of the eye consciousness, the mind consciousness, the manas, and the eighth consciousness. Therefore, once the result is known, observation has certainly occurred; there is no such thing as being unobserved.

All material forms originally have no obstructive, impeding function — everyone who has attained the supernormal power of psychic transformation (ṛddhi) has proven this. Why, then, are those without the supernormal power of psychic transformation obstructed by material forms? It is due to the misapprehension of the mind consciousness and the manas, which take all dharmas as real; the mind is stagnant and blocked, and therefore matter has an obstructive effect. If the mind were not stagnant and blocked, the body could immediately pass through walls, high mountains, deep seas, and even Mount Sumeru; two bodies could completely overlap without any sensation of being squeezed. Because matter is particulate in nature, and also wave-like in nature, being originally so, matter has energy and has momentum.

The physical body is formed by the manas' solidified false thinking; the manas' delusions are all solid and hard to change, and therefore all dharmas are stagnant and blocked, and only then does the mind experience all kinds of dissatisfaction and all kinds of setbacks. Change the mind, and one can change all dharmas.