The Black Box World (32)

The fragrant sense-objects (gandha) smelled along the way are just like this: the places experienced are different, and the scents given off at each place are different. This shows that the outer fragrance sense-objects are constantly undergoing transformation. The fragrance sense-objects are transmitted through the nose faculty, entering the supreme faculty (rūpa-prasāda), where they form inner fragrance sense-objects, becoming images inside the black box. Our nose consciousness and mind consciousness thus smell the inner fragrance sense-objects, transmitted one scent after another; as the places we pass through differ, the scents transmitted also differ, and the scents (fragrance sense-objects) we smell also differ. Yet the scent we perceive is exactly identical to the outer one, so we believe that what we smell is the outer fragrance sense-object, and it seems so real—coming from such-and-such a place, from a restaurant, from flowers, from trees, from a certain person's body—as if all were real physical scents. In fact, they are all inner fragrance sense-object scents inside the black box.

When the mouth eats food, as the outer taste sense-objects change with the food and drink, the inner taste sense-objects felt by our tongue consciousness and mind consciousness also change constantly, and so we believe we have eaten real food and tasted real flavors of sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy, feeling as if everything were real. In fact, these are all inner taste sense-objects inside the black box, all shadows/images. We feel the images are very real because they are identical to the outer taste sense-objects, and we cannot perceive their falseness.

The touch sense-objects perceived by our body—the blowing of the breeze along the way, the shining of the warm sunlight, and touch sense-objects of other kinds—are constantly changing, and what we feel are all inner touch sense-objects inside the black box. Because the outer touch sense-objects are constantly changing, as the sun moves the warmth may increase, or the temperature may drop lower and lower, becoming cooler and cooler. In one place there is a light breeze, in another the wind is a bit stronger, and in yet another there is no wind at all. The hand may touch flowers, or trees, or some other object—these outer touch sense-objects are constantly undergoing change.