"Those with overt fixation on external objects may entertain the following thought: “No one can deny the presence of material objects, such as mountains and all the other things that we collectively observe. For this very reason, outer objects do indeed exist.”

This, however, is not the case. Let us take as our subject a mountain or another object that appears collectively as an externally apprehended object. Such an object is not established by virtue of its own essence as an external, material object that is something other than the inner consciousness that perceives it.

Why? Because it is the very inner apprehending awareness of those whose active habitual tendencies correspond with one another that appears as various outer objects, just like the imagery in dreams.

Therefore, there are no external objects apart from consciousness. What we refer to as “collectively observed external objects” are appearances that manifest collectively to various individuals with distinct streams of being and, hence, nothing more than the perceptions of individual streams of being.

If we carefully analyze these so-called “collectively observed phenomena,” we will find that the reason for positing them as such is that they appear in a similar manner to distinct mind streams. Nevertheless, while these appearances may be similar, this does not necessitate there being a single, collectively experienced outer object that causes their appearance, just as people whose vision has been distorted by a magician’s spells may have similar experiences.

For those beings whose active habitual tendencies correspond with one another, the abode and other such factors may appear in a similar manner so long as the potency of these habitual tendencies has not run out.

However, no cause of these corresponding appearances truly exists outside [of the minds that perceive them]. Just as each of the six classes of beings perceives the same water differently, in accord with its karmic perceptions, it should be understood that such appearances are nothing more than the self-appearances of one’s own inner mind."

Ju Mipham Rinpoche