The Black Box World (IX)

After all people discern the six sense objects, they believe that what they have discerned are the real six sense objects, believing these six sense objects to be real. Consequently, they give rise to feelings such as craving and aversion toward the six sense objects; after feelings arise, they begin deliberation (manana), and after deliberation, they make choices, generating a decisive mind that determines how to act. This entire series of mental factors is thus produced, and moreover, they must continue to operate repeatedly, because the objects of experience are taken as real. After the five universal mental factors are produced in sequence, the order among them will change, and they will also repeat; the transitions among these mental factors are very complex, depending on whether one is interested in the six sense objects being contacted, whether the six sense objects are easy to discern clearly, whether the six sense objects are important, and so on.

Not only are the material sense objects we see and the sounds we hear all inner representations—images within the black box—everything our body feels is also an inner representation, a shadow. What is known by the body consciousness, and even what the mind consciousness is able to know, are all shadows of inner representations, all six sense objects within the black box, all images transformed forth by the eighth consciousness, all illusory and without real substance. For example, what the body consciousness knows: when sitting on a bed, one knows whether the bed is soft or hard; when sitting on a sofa, one knows whether the sofa is soft or hard, and whether the body feels comfortable. These tangible sense objects we take to be real are in fact not real at all; they are all discriminations of shadows, all activities taking place within the black box. As for the outer representation, only the eighth consciousness can contact it—it is not within the black box.