Black Box World (Ten)

For example, when the foot is injured, if the section of the transmission nerve at the back of the head that is responsible for transmitting the contact of material sense-objects to the body faculty is pinched off, the body consciousness will not feel the pain. Even if the foot is completely severed, the body consciousness will not perceive it and will not feel pain, and at that time there is no body consciousness in existence. Because the transmission nerve at the back of the head is severed, the external contact sense-object cannot be transmitted through the body faculty's transmission nerve there, so the eighth consciousness cannot manifest the inner object-aspect of contact within the black box of the supreme faculty, and thus cannot produce the body consciousness and mind consciousness to discern any condition of the foot. Since there is no body consciousness or mind consciousness, the contact sense-object there cannot be discerned, and therefore there is no sensation of pain in the foot.

One of the channels through which the contact sense-objects of the body faculty pass to the supreme faculty is the area at the back of the neck. If this area is accidentally severed, the entire body will become paralyzed, the head will droop down, and the head can no longer be held upright. If the supreme faculty at the back of the head is damaged, the channels for the external five sense-objects will be cut off, the eighth consciousness cannot produce the corresponding inner object-aspects, the five consciousnesses will not arise, and the five sense-objects cannot be discerned; bodily and verbal actions can no longer be produced, and only the faint awareness of the mind consciousness sustains the existence of the living being—but perhaps it cannot be sustained for long. If the external eye faculty is damaged, it cannot receive external form sense-objects; if the internal eye faculty (that is, the eye's supreme faculty) is damaged, the inner form sense-object cannot be formed, and thus no eye consciousness will arise to discern form sense-objects, and one cannot see forms. The same applies to the other faculties; therefore, what we discern are the inner object-aspect images within the black box.

As long as a person is alive, the damage to the supreme faculty cannot be total; it can only be partial. If it were totally destroyed, the inner five faculties could no longer be used, and none of the five sense-objects could arise. In that case, not only would the five consciousnesses fail to arise, but the mind consciousness would also fail to arise and could not discern the dharma sense-objects upon the five sense-objects. Then the manas would know that the body's five aggregates can no longer be used, and He would certainly decide to leave the physical body and seek a new physical body for His own use. It is precisely because the supreme faculty is not totally destroyed and a portion remains usable that a person becomes a vegetative patient or a paralyzed patient.

If we carefully observe vegetative patients, we will find that their bodies can still exhibit some activities and have some sensations. Because of this, the manas considers that this body can still be made do, and He will not leave the physical body. From beginningless kalpas, the manas has always craved and clung to the physical body; because of craving for the physical body, He is unwilling to abandon it, and only when there is truly no other way will He let it go. These examples show that the six sense-objects we discern are images within the black box of the supreme faculty—inner object-aspects formed by the external five sense-objects being transmitted through the transmission nerves—and are not real. However, merely knowing that they are not real is not enough; the habitual clinging of the manas is very difficult to change, and we need to cultivate the corresponding power of meditative concentration to gradually subdue the manas's nature of self-grasping.