The Black Box World (Seventeen)

In fact, there is no such thing as "energy." What is called energy is merely material particles composed of the four great elements—particles such as photons, electrons, neutrons, and protons. They are constantly arising and ceasing, changing; as one ceases, another arises, linked one after another, so it seems as if there is energy. Moreover, these particles arise and cease moment by moment along certain orbits, as if matter were moving along trajectories. In the surface movement of the particles, the seeds of the four great elements are constantly changing, and when we observe this, we perceive it as a transformation of energy. Yet the function that the tathāgatagarbha performs within all this, we do not know and do not see; we only know the surface phenomena—this is ignorance (avidyā).

Sound, as these particles of the four great elements, can pass through walls and through various obstacles; walls and other obstructions cannot block the propagation and penetration of these particles. These particles are drawn in by the tathāgatagarbha from a sound at a distance, then transmitted all the way to the ear faculty and the eardrum, continuing on to the supreme faculty at the back of the brain, where a relatively coarse sound is first formed. Facing the inner ear faculty, the ear consciousness is born, and it is the ear consciousness that discerns this coarse vibration. Afterward, on the basis of this coarse sound object, a subtle mental sense-object of sound is further combined and manifested; it makes contact with the manas, and the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to the mind consciousness, which then discerns it.

The subtle dharmas of various sounds—their content, nature, attributes, distance, agreeableness or disagreeableness, and so on—are called mental sense-objects. Once the mental sense-object has formed, whether the manas directs its attention to it depends on whether He is interested in that mental sense-object. If He is interested, He decides to discern it, and the tathāgatagarbha will manifest the mind consciousness to discern it together with the ear consciousness. If the manas is not interested, He decides to avoid it and not discern it; the tathāgatagarbha then does not produce the mind consciousness to discern it, and the ear consciousness also ceases, so the sound is not heard. Therefore, even though there is sound, we may not hear it: in a state of meditative concentration, or while focused on other matters, or in a state of no-mindedness, and so on, a certain sound goes unheard.