Guide to the Cultivation and Realization of the Manas: Part One
Chapter 2: The Manas and Attaining the Fruits
1. The Longer One Attained the Fruits in Past Lives, the Faster One Attains Them in This Life
During the Buddha's lifetime, sentient beings of great indriya and extremely great indriya could, at the very moment of hearing the principle that the five aggregates are without self, attain the fruit of the arhat of the fourth fruit without repeated deliberation (manasikāra/manana) and contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā); the kasaya robe would don their bodies, their hair would fall out by itself, and supernatural powers would manifest. For example, Mahākāśyapa, Śāriputra, Subhūti, and others—this was because they had attained the fourth fruit in past lives countless eons ago, even as long as three immeasurable eons; their identities may have been those of Buddhas come again, born with meditative concentration (samādhi), born with the recollection of past lives (pūrvanivāsānusmṛti), born as arhats. Naturally they could manifest attaining the fruit immediately upon hearing a single sentence. Because the manas had already attained the fruit countless eons ago, the manas had never been extinguished, had always known that the five aggregates are without self, and did not need the mind consciousness to laboriously perfume and teach the manas. Although their five aggregates in this life were new, and the mind consciousness was new, upon encountering the Buddha-dharma, with just a little deliberation by the mind consciousness, the mind consciousness attained the fruit. Attaining the fruit this way was extremely fast, because there was no need to concern oneself with the manas attaining the fruit.
If the mind consciousness has the recollection of past lives (pūrvanivāsānusmṛti), the mind consciousness likewise knows from birth that the five aggregates are without self, and need not again eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) to attain the fruit. But in order to deliver sentient beings and influence them, it can manifest attaining the fruit: in this life, upon hearing one sentence of Buddha-dharma, without deliberation, the mind consciousness can realize that the five aggregates are without self. And the manas has always known. For anyone who attained the fruits in past lives, attaining them in this life is very fast, without the mind consciousness needing to perfume and teach the manas again. The more times one attained the fruits in past lives, the faster one attains them in this life, because the manas no longer has the obscuration of ignorance. A person whose manas has been perfumed and turned around is extremely sharp; as long as the mind consciousness can understand, that suffices. If one attained the first fruit in a past life, attaining the first fruit again in this life is easy, but attaining the second fruit is not easy, because the manas only corresponds to contemplative wisdom at the level of the first fruit.
For one who attained the second fruit in a past life, attaining the second fruit again in this life is relatively easy, but attaining the third fruit is not easy, because the manas does not yet correspond to the third fruit; one must again perfume and teach the content of the third fruit before the mind consciousness and the manas can attain the third fruit. For one who attained the third fruit in a past life, attaining the third fruit again in this life is relatively easy, but attaining the fourth fruit is not easy, because the manas does not correspond to the realm of the fourth fruit; one must again perfume and teach the content of the fourth fruit before the mind consciousness and the manas can attain the fourth fruit. This is the reason those who have come again attain the fruits and see the mind faster than others.
2. Whether the Manas Attained the Fruits in Past Lives Determines the Speed of Attaining Them in This Life
Those who have come again without the mystery of crossing over the womb (the intervening womb) are born as sages, unconfused about all dharmas, knowing their own stage of cultivation and degree of wisdom. Because the manas already realized it in past lives, although the mind consciousness of this life is new, it possesses the recollection of past lives (pūrvanivāsānusmṛti); the Buddha-dharma realized in past lives is known just the same in this life, without the slightest confusion. Since neither the sixth nor seventh consciousness is confused, both possessing wisdom, and both connecting with past lives, they are born as sages and need not realize anew.
If in a past life only the mind consciousness realized it and the manas did not, the manas remains confused; then in this life the manas is confused and the mind consciousness is also confused. With both consciousnesses confused, they must together cultivate meditative concentration, contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), and deliberation in preparation for attaining the fruits. But because the manas did not realize it in past lives, it has not the slightest impression of the five aggregates being without self, and perfuming the manas is extremely difficult. The mind consciousness is also new, with no impression of past-life cultivation, and must start from scratch. In that case, a very long time of perfuming is needed, and it is extremely difficult.
Those who have come again with the mystery of crossing over the womb must, upon re-attaining the fruits and seeing the mind in this life, cultivate and study very diligently for several years before they can re-attain the fruits and see the mind. As for those ordinary beings with no foundation from past lives who, after only two or three or three to five short years of encountering the Buddha-dharma in this life, claim to have attained the fruits—there must be many misunderstandings here.
The Buddha said that the prerequisites for attaining the fruits and seeing the mind are the complete perfection of the thirty-seven aids to the path, the complete perfection of the bodhisattva's six pāramitās, and the complete perfection of precepts, concentration, and wisdom; only afterward, when the conditions are complete, can one attain the fruits. But now it is not like this; the Buddha's words no longer take effect. There is no need to laboriously cultivate the thirty-seven aids to the path and the bodhisattva's six pāramitās, nor to cultivate precepts, concentration, and wisdom; the precepts need not be received or kept, meditative concentration need not be cultivated, Chan investigation need not be investigated—just understand a little, know some shallow principle, and the fruit is in hand. The less meditative concentration one has, the heavier the afflictions, and the less able to keep the precepts, the easier it is to attain the fruits; while those who cultivate step by step honestly according to the World-Honored One's instructions find it harder to attain the fruits. This is the chaos of an inverted age.
3. The Speed of Attaining the Fruits Depends on the Length of Past-Life Perfuming
According to the sūtras, Ānanda's identity may have been that of a Buddha come again, having made the resolve to cultivate at the same time as Śākyamuni Buddha. The ten great disciples around Śākyamuni Buddha all had very special identities; according to the sūtras, they too were all Buddhas come again, protecting and supporting Śākyamuni Buddha in propagating the Dharma in the Sahā world—one Buddha appears in the world, and a thousand Buddhas support him. Not only were the identities of the ten great disciples special; the identities of the great disciples around the Buddha were all special, and even the identities of the non-Buddhists and non-Buddhist leaders were special. When one Buddha appears in the world to propagate the Dharma, the disciples all transform into various identities to protect and assist the World-Honored One, so that the great drama of delivering sentient beings in the Sahā world can be performed well.
Therefore, for those who attained the fruits throughout countless eons in past lives, attaining the fruit of the arhat at the very moment of hearing the Dharma in this life is no problem at all, requiring not even a few minutes of thought—this is indriya. It is enough that his mind consciousness understands that the five aggregates are without self; the manas has attained the fruit of the arhat life after life, so naturally there is no need to perfume it again. But for one who has never perfumed himself with the Dharma of the Four Noble Truths in past lives, it is impossible to quickly eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) and attain the first fruit in this life; he needs to be perfumed over many lives before attaining the first fruit, and the second fruit is very difficult. So do not look at the timing and speed of a person's attaining the fruits; look at how long he perfumed himself in past lives. Cultivation is a matter of many successive lives and cannot be accomplished in a single life. Do not look at others' results; look at their process—the process best reveals the truth.
4. When the View of Self Is Truly Eradicated, Each Person Eradicated Becomes Honest
Some people feel that the mind consciousness and the manas essentially never had any so-called self at all—that they are all tricks played by the tathāgatagarbha itself; neither the mind consciousness nor the manas is the self; essentially they are all the tathāgatagarbha. If someone truly has this feeling, it is still a similar understanding, mere conjecture, not realization; one must continue striving to seek verification. Because this kind of cognition is too superficial, with no evidence whatsoever; even the mind consciousness does not take it seriously, let alone the manas, which takes it even less seriously. Only when one truly realizes it does one know that neither the mind consciousness nor the manas is the self. After realizing the eighth consciousness, directly observing how the sixth and seventh consciousnesses are produced by the eighth consciousness, one truly knows that the sixth and seventh consciousnesses are essentially also the eighth consciousness. This direct observation is extremely difficult and not easy; it requires great realization-attestation and excellent meditative concentration; otherwise there is still a large component of understanding and guessing. Some dharmas, even understood for ten thousand years, may never see the conditions for realization appear. True realization requires accumulating over many successive lives the roots of goodness, merit, and all the provisions for seeing the path; it is not attained easily just by talking about it.
Some people insist that those in the Buddha's time realized enlightenment very easily. In fact, by the time they attained those fruits, they had already accumulated provisions of merit for a considerable length of time; precepts, concentration, and wisdom were all complete; encountering such great conditions as the Buddha, they realized enlightenment in one stroke. Their past-life identities were all quite special, and they cultivated with great diligence life after life. Many of them were manifestations, in order to cooperate with the Buddha's propagation of the Dharma; in that company there were people of every identity, all come from the worlds of the ten directions to cooperate with the Buddha in performing the drama.
Why is the mind consciousness's understanding and knowing not realization? For example, all Buddhist practitioners know that animals are sentient beings of one of the six paths of rebirth, that we too have all been animals in past lives, that eating animal flesh is lacking in compassion for sentient beings, is owing a debt to animals, and must be repaid doubly in the future. But what use is this kind of knowledge? Because there is no personal realization—only faith in the causal principles the Buddha taught, while personal experiences have all been forgotten—the mind remains half-believing and half-doubting, making abstaining from meat and observing vegetarian precepts so difficult. Believing is believing, doing is doing; faith without realization is hard to put to use.
It is the same with all the theoretical knowledge we now study: although the mind consciousness understands and accepts it, because there is no realization, this understanding still cannot have actual effect. On the great matter of birth and death, an extremely easy realization is impossible. Having transmigrated for countless eons and unspeakable eons, with ignorance deep beyond description—how could one attain realization just by reading books, studying a bit, and gaining some understanding? Many people harbor a fluke mentality, which is really the mentality of opportunism at work; this precisely proves that most people are still very ignorant, with deep and heavy ignorance.
When the view of self is truly eradicated, each person eradicated becomes honest; whoever eradicates it becomes honest. Because one has genuinely realized non-self, truly knows non-self, the mind immediately becomes humble, and one will no longer flaunt and show off the self, will not boast "I have attained the fruit." If there is a mind of showing off, then the view of self has not been eradicated, and moreover there is an additional self that has attained the fruit—thus two selves appear, and of course the afflictions become even heavier than before, utterly arrogant, with the conceit of self blazing. I have met many people who claimed to have attained the fruits and seen the mind who were somewhat domineering and insufferably arrogant, feeling themselves higher than heaven; the two selves in their minds, each more conspicuous than the other, while they themselves were unaware—precisely because they were harmed by the "fruit."
5. Results Derived by Inference Cannot Be Taken as Direct Perception
The method of inference is inference (anumāna), not direct perception (pratyakṣa). For example, in worldly affairs, when public security officers handle cases, they always work by going to the relevant scenes to search for evidence of the suspect's crime; they never work by sitting at a desk analyzing and inferring with the mind consciousness. Even if the inference is correct, it can absolutely not be taken as evidence. Although there is inferential activity in the process of investigation and evidence-gathering, inference is for the purpose of finding evidence as quickly as possible; if no evidence is found, such inference is voided and one starts over. Without reliable and accurate evidence, no matter how great the suspicion against a suspect, he cannot be convicted and can only be released without charge. When courts judge criminals, they rely entirely on facts and solid evidence; no court convicts a criminal by inference.
For example, suppose A says to the investigators: "Based on B's daily behavior and his habits, my gold watch must have been stolen by B." This is a deduction, not fact; B was not caught at the scene stealing the gold watch. Deduction belongs to inference (anumāna) and non-valid cognition (non-valid cognition), not direct perception (pratyakṣa). The investigators and the court cannot convict B based on A's deduction; even if A's deduction is correct, it still does not count as fact and cannot serve as the basis for conviction; even if everyone clearly knows it must have been B who stole it, B still cannot be convicted.
It is the same with realization in the Buddha-dharma: no matter how strong one's logicals in body, mind, and world? When the mind consciousness deduces that some matter is thus, versus personally experiencing that the matter is thus, what difference is there in the manas's feelings and reactions? What difference in body, mind, and world? When the mind consciousness infers from texts that the five aggregates and eighteen realms are empty and not the self, versus personally proving that the five aggregates and eighteen realms are empty and not the self, what different reactions will the manas have, what different wisdom? How great is the difference in body, mind, and world?
When the mind consciousness infers, judges, and analyzes from texts that the tathāgatagarbha functions in such a way and operates roughly thus, versus personally, through the hardship of investigating Chan in meditative concentration, finally truly seeing where the tathāgatagarbha resides and exactly how it operates—what is the difference in the influence of these two on the manas? What difference in the manas's wisdom? How great is the difference in influence on body, mind, and world?
Does what is deduced, inferred, surmised, and analyzed count as realization? Is there a process of actual cultivation within it? What is called actual cultivation? And what is called actual realization?
Imagining a murder scene versus seeing a murder scene with one's own eyes—what difference in the触动 to the mind? Imagining a kind and amiable face versus seeing a kind and amiable face with one's own eyes—what difference in inner feelings and sensations? What difference in the influence on a person? Surmising that both parents have died versus personally seeing both parents dead—what difference in body, mind, and world? How great is the difference in influence on oneself?
Imagining the Buddha teaching the Dharma at the assembly on Vulture Peak versus personally sitting in the assembly on Vulture Peak listening to the Buddha teach the Dharma—how great is the difference in effect? How great is the difference in influence on body and mind? Does what is imagined, inferred, judged, deduced, and analyzed have samādhi realization-attestation? Does it belong to the samādhi that opens wisdom? Is imagining the scene of the Vulture Peak assembly a samādhi realm? What difference is there from the samādhi of Master Zhiyi attending the Vulture Peak Dharma assembly within concentration?
In the recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti) samādhi, imagining the Buddhas of the ten directions standing before one versus personally realizing the samādhi of the Buddhas of the ten directions standing before one—how great is the difference? In the contemplation of the white bones, an imagined white-bone contemplation versus the samādhi in which the white-bone contemplation truly manifests—what is the difference? The imagined white bones are the mind consciousness's thinking and analysis; no white-bone material form appears, so it is illusory upon illusory. The white bones that spontaneously and consciously manifest are simultaneously seen and realized by the manas and the mind consciousness; the concentration-produced form (定果色) has appeared; though also illusory, it is far more real than the imagined.
The entire Buddhist world is a chaotic mess; it cannot be allowed to become more chaotic. So the Buddhist world must be rectified and contracted; it cannot continue to expand and enlarge, otherwise Buddhism will surely be destroyed. Every person and every group claims to be engaged in actual cultivation and actual realization, but where is the actuality? Who is cultivating in a down-to-earth manner? All are using the mind consciousness to play at cleverness, playing word games, playing at self—where is there anyone truly without self?
How many people have deduced that the five-aggregate world is like a dream and illusion, all claiming to have realized the contemplation of "like a dream and illusion"? Is it really so? Truly realizing the contemplation of "like a dream and illusion" is the stage of the ten dedications (daśa-pariṇāmanā), immediately about to enter the first bhūmi. Does the Sahā world have so many great-indriya bodhisattvas about to enter the bhūmis, so many long-cultivating bodhisattvas who have come again? If so, where is the meditative concentration? Do they have first-dhyāna concentration? Have the afflictions been severed? If you ask this, there will still be people claiming to have first-dhyāna concentration, to have severed afflictions, and to be in the state of nirvāṇa with remainder/nirvāṇa with residue (sopadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa). No one can do anything about such beings—they just think they can.
How many people have deduced the eighth consciousness from texts? How many have guessed the eighth consciousness? How many have analyzed out the eighth consciousness? How many have heard inquiries about the eighth consciousness? How many have been told the general functions of the eighth consciousness? What use is this? Has wisdom been developed? Is there real merit and benefit? Is there the true realization-attestation of the purity of the Dharma eye? Has the view of self truly been eradicated? How many people, years after "enlightenment," still have not eradicated the view of self, and still have a rather long road to go before eradicating it—this life may not even qualify or have the conditions to eradicate the view of self. Without attaining the eradication of the view of self at the sixth abode, can one attain the seeing of the mind at the seventh abode?
The process of investigating Chan can let the mind consciousness and the manas gradually recognize the suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self nature of the five aggregates, gradually recognize the illusory unreality of the five-aggregate body, and gradually subdue the view of the body and the view of self. Without this process—inferring from texts that the eighth consciousness may operate thus within the five-aggregate body, or deducing it, or analyzing it, or hearing inquiries about it, or being told it—neither the view of the body nor the view of self can be subdued, let alone eradicated. Then what meaning does knowing this conclusion about the eighth consciousness have for one's own body, mind, and world? What merit and benefit? Without merit and benefit, what use is knowing about the eighth consciousness? On street banners and billboards, announcing to all Buddhist learners under heaven that everyone has a true mind, the eighth consciousness, functioning thus—can those who hear it thereby eradicate the view of the body and the view of self and sever the three fetters? Can they extinguish the karma of the three evil paths? If so, with such a good thing available, why did the Buddha not adopt it?
8. Only the Wisdom Personally Realized by the Manas Represents Beings' True Wisdom
Question: When attaining the fruit means the mind consciousness has attained the fruit, does the manas still need to validate and approve it? Just like a year-end summary at a workplace, which needs the company's official seal to be acknowledged? Also, wisdom is subordinate to the mind consciousness; wisdom approved by both the mind consciousness and the manas can also be stored as seeds in the tathāgatagarbha—is the manas's wisdom then the habit-energy seeds?
Answer: The mind consciousness understanding alone is not realization; only when the manas simultaneously understands is it realization. Because the so-called "self" is the manas; the mind consciousness is subordinate to the manas as a subordinate, while the manas is the leader playing the leading role. Eradicating the view of self must be eradicating the manas's view of self; eradicating only the subordinate mind consciousness's view of self is not enough—the mind consciousness is a functional operation that obeys the self of the manas.
There is the mind consciousness's wisdom and also the manas's wisdom; only the manas's wisdom truly represents a person's wisdom. Because the mind consciousness's wisdom is temporary, unstable, and cannot be the master. Only when the manas gives rise to wisdom can there be wisdom at all times; only then is the person a person of wisdom. Only the manas's wisdom can truly store seeds and continue to function in future lives. The manas fully corresponds to the seeds, while the mind consciousness represents that portion perfumed by the later environment. The manas does have habit-energies, both wholesome and unwholesome; the manas's wisdom belongs to wholesome habit.
9. Attaining the Fruits and Seeing the Mind with the Mind Consciousness Alone Is Merely an Illusory City
When everyone's mind consciousness is clear-headed, under the mind consciousness's control, the manifestations of mental conduct are more civilized and of better character than when the mind consciousness is not clear-headed and without its control—more rational, more cultivated, upright in character and conduct; the manifestations in the two situations differ greatly. Why such a great difference? Because the mental factors and mental conduct of the manas and the mind consciousness differ greatly. The mind consciousness discerns subtly within the realms of the six sense objects, is rather clever, knows what is beneficial to itself, and knows how it should present itself before others; whereas the manas discerns the six sense objects unclearly, has heavy habit-energies, is rather stubborn, and does not know how presenting itself would be beneficial. Thus, once through hypnosis or alcohol anesthesia the mind consciousness is no longer clear-headed, the mind consciousness becomes about the same as the manas, unable to present itself or control the manas; the manas's nature is exposed, and its behavior differs drastically from when清醒, with all kinds of ugly conduct appearing.
A person's inner world refers to the manas's mental factors and mental conduct, which can be covered over by the mind consciousness's surface mental conduct; covering over the manas's mental conduct is called pretense; inconsistency between the mind consciousness and the manas is called hypocrisy. Working only on the mind consciousness has little effect. For a bodhisattva who has completed the transformation of consciousness into wisdom, whose manas has transformed into the wisdom of equality (平等性智) and whose afflictions have been severed, give him hypnosis and alcohol anesthesia—his manas remains as it ever was, about the same as when清醒. So the manas is a person's root, representing a person's true character and virtue; the mind consciousness's manifestation alone is not true virtue.
When清醒, the mind consciousness can cover over the manas's foolishness and lack of wisdom; in the neutrino‑body (antarā‑bhava), the mind consciousness is weak and can no longer continue to cover over and control the manas; the manas's ignorance, foolishness, and afflictions will manifest without any obstruction, and finally, because of the manas's ignorance and afflictions, one takes rebirth, continuing the ignorance and afflictions of future lives. Attaining the fruits and seeing the mind with the mind consciousness—in the neutrino‑body (antarā‑bhava) there is no way to maintain the wisdom of attaining the fruits and seeing the mind; the manas that has not attained the fruits and seen the mind will manifest ignorance, with the view of self and self-grasping afflictions deep and heavy, finally taking rebirth with the manas's view of self and self-grasping afflictions, continuing the view of self and self-grasping of future lives, continuing the birth and death of transmigration. Therefore, a person of true wisdom should strive to truly eradicate the view of self and see the mind, and not remain at the mind consciousness's understanding—this is an illusory city, not a true place of rest and reliance.
10. When Attaining the Fruits, It Is Certainly the Manas That Attains Them
Why was it that when Śāriputra was in his mother's womb, his mother's dialectical wisdom greatly increased? Was it the wisdom of Śāriputra's mind consciousness, or the wisdom of his manas? It was the wisdom of the manas. If the mind consciousness's function in the womb were very powerful, then everyone at birth should be equal, all having wisdom. Some children, at three or four years old, without being taught, can sit cross-legged in meditation—this is what the manas brought from past lives. The wisdom displayed by prodigy children is also the wisdom of the manas.
Why do some people insist that the manas's wisdom is very low? If the manas's wisdom were low in every respect at all times, there would be no naturally great-wise people. For example, all Buddhas and bodhisattvas, when entering the womb, dwelling in the womb, and exiting the womb, are not confused about the world of the five aggregates and all have great wisdom; and there are also some ordinary beings with special talents who from childhood have some gift, without needing to learn it from elsewhere or be taught—this is all brought by the manas; it is the manas's wisdom.
With the same mind consciousness, why did Śāriputra attain the fruit of the arhat of the fourth fruit the moment he heard the Buddha teach the Dharma, while others remained ordinary beings? Because Śāriputra's manas had already attained the fruits many times in past lives; only the mind consciousness of this life was new, so upon hearing the Dharma principles again, without needing to deliberate and contemplate from the beginning, the mind consciousness realized non-self the moment it heard the Buddha-dharma, continuing the fruit-position of the previous life. The manases of the others had never attained the fruits; when hearing the Buddha-dharma, only their mind consciousness understood a bit, and they still needed careful deliberation and contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) in concentration to attain the fruits. So when they lacked meditative concentration and could not effectively deliberate and contemplate, they could not attain the fruits and remained ordinary beings.
11. Fruits Attained by the Mind Consciousness Are Voided at Death
At the time of attaining the fruits, if it is said the manas need not attain the fruit, will that person still have the wisdom of having attained the fruit in the next life? A srotāpanna must, after seven more returns among humans and gods, attain the fourth fruit and secure nirvāṇa with no remaining aggregates (Anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa). After attaining the first fruit, he dies and ascends to heaven; then his manas has not attained the fruit, and the newly born mind consciousness has also not attained the fruit—is he, in heaven, still a srotāpanna? Clearly not. Must this person re-attain the first fruit in heaven? Of course he must again contemplate and attain the fruit, because neither the mind consciousness nor the manas has attained the fruit.
After this deva attains the fruit again in heaven, at death he is reborn into the human world; because the manas has not attained the fruit and the newly born mind consciousness has also not attained the fruit, this person must again re-attain the first fruit, and then he must again make seven returns among humans and gods; he needs to re-attain the first fruit again. In this way, this person must forever re-attain the first fruit, unable to become a person of the second, third, or fourth fruit. Once, among humans or in heaven, the conditions for attaining the fruit are not complete, he cannot even attain the first fruit and can only be an ordinary being—then when could he ever become a person of the fourth fruit and be liberated from the birth and death of the three realms? Therefore, attaining the fruit must be both the mind consciousness and the manas attaining the fruit.
12. Imagination and Inference Are Not Actual Realization
For example, in the white-bone contemplation: the imagined white bones are the mind consciousness's thinking and analysis; no white-bone concentration-produced form (定果色) appears and no samādhi is accomplished, so it is illusory upon illusory. The white bones that spontaneously and consciously manifest are simultaneously seen and realized by the manas and the mind consciousness; the concentration-produced form (定果色) has appeared; it is a samādhi realm; though also illusory, it is far more real than the imagined.
Whatever dharma the manas personally realizes has a certain reality; dharmas inferred and deduced by the mind consciousness have no reality to speak of, and therefore have almost no influence on body, mind, and world—the psychological state remains about the same as before. Both the process and the result of cultivation must transform body, mind, and world. From the beginningless eons, from first encountering the Buddha-dharma and beginning to faithfully accept and cultivate it, body, mind, and world begin to transform. Only at truly eradicating the view of self is there a clear transformation; at the third fruit the transformation is greater; afterward, transformations continue in sequence until Buddhahood, when the thirty-two marks appear, the transformation of body, mind, and world ends, and there is no further transformation.
And the transformation of body and mind is entirely brought about by the manas; however much the manas realizes, that much transforms. During the process of actually cultivating the thirty-seven aids to the path before attaining the fruits and eradicating the view of self, body and mind already begin to transform bit by bit. For some people, even when they truly believe in the Buddha but have not yet truly cultivated, body and mind transform to a certain degree—changing year by year—to the point of influencing and leading close affined people to also believe in the Buddha. It is not as some say, that body and mind only begin to transform upon attaining the third fruit. The obvious transformation of beings' body and mind begins with eradicating the view of self; at the third fruit, with first-dhyāna concentration and afflictions severed, body and mind transform considerably, quite evident before and after.
13. Forcibly Believing Oneself to Have Attained the Fruits Is a Manifestation of Heavy View of Self
The tathāgatagarbha is the true master, while the manas falsely recognizes itself as the master. This false master takes all dharmas as "I and mine," takes the functions of the eighth consciousness as its own, and takes the functions of the six consciousnesses as its own. If the view of self is to be eradicated, and this master does not eradicate the view of self, what use is it for the six consciousnesses, the followers, to eradicate the view of self? The master, the manas, all day long goes "I, I, me, mine"; not letting Him eradicate the view of self, yet letting his advisor, orderly, assistant, subordinate, and follower eradicate the view of self—what use is that?
Those who still do not get it really should check their brains—has some part rusted? Is there any way to wipe some rust remover on the brain? I have explained the principle that the manas and the mind consciousness simultaneously attain the fruits and see the mind over and over until I am weary, almost unwilling to explain it again; yet some people still insist that the mind consciousness alone attaining the fruits and seeing the mind is enough. Why exactly is the wisdom of these people so lowly that they cannot figure out such a simple question? What karmic obstructions are blocking their own minds, making them insist on guarding their false fruit-stage and refusing to advance a single step? Because attaining the fruit with the mind consciousness is easy; attaining the fruit with the mind consciousness comforts one's own mind—compared to the manas attaining the fruit, which is indefinitely far off, it still provides a little consolation.
Loving a fruit-stage, loving others looking up to and worshipping oneself, loving mutual flattery—"you are a bodhisattva, I am a bodhisattva, we are all bodhisattvas"—this is still a self. Without removing this self, can one be a person who has eradicated the view of self? This "self-mind" is much heavier than the worldly person's self; compared to the worldly person's self, there is an additional self that has attained the fruit and become enlightened, and one feels extraordinary, incomparable to worldly people. This self is even harder to戒除 than the conceit of self perfumed in worldly life.
14. Without Actual Realization, No Dharma Can Be Taken as the Eighth Consciousness
The Buddha-dharma emphasizes actual realization and requires actual realization; without it, relying only on word of mouth and inferential intellectual understanding, one is already a hundred thousand miles from the great Path. If in the mind one establishes an "emptiness" as real, as an actually existing dharma, then emptiness becomes real and becomes a dharma-bondage, and liberation is not attained. All dharmas are empty—then is this dharma of "emptiness" itself empty? If the dharma that "all dharmas are empty" is not empty, how can it be said that all dharmas are empty?
Many people have not truly eradicated the view of self; the five aggregates are not empty, yet they go on to guess and imagine the emptiness of dharmas, viewing all dharmas as the eighth consciousness. Only at the stage of the sixth and seventh bhūmi bodhisattvas can one truly manage to view all dharmas as the eighth consciousness. But even the sixth and seventh bhūmi bodhisattvas, including the eighth and ninth bhūmi bodhisattvas, cannot view all dharmas whatsoever as the eighth consciousness, because there are still so many dharmas not yet realized; dharmas not realized simply cannot be viewed as the eighth consciousness as they truly are. Even the coarsest five-aggregate body has not been realized to be produced by the eighth consciousness; without truly contemplating this point, one cannot truly and truthfully view the five-aggregate body as the eighth consciousness—otherwise one would long ago have eradicated self-grasping and entered the first bhūmi.
Many people, having never actually realized any dharma, then fabricate a cultivation method, hypothesize a cultivation route—a route map drawn so vaguely that even they themselves cannot understand it. The current propagation of the Buddha-dharma is just like this: it does not touch on step-by-step actual cultivation at all, and there is no practical and feasible method or means.
15. The Manas Needs Sufficient Evidence and Deep Deliberation to Eradicate the View of Self
The wrong view/false view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi) that takes the five aggregates as the self belongs to the mental factor of foolishness (moha). The manas innately has foolishness and ignorance, taking the five-aggregate body as the self, and the mind consciousness consequently also has foolish wrong view/false view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi). Through cultivation, the foolishness and ignorance of the two consciousnesses can be broken, thereby eradicating the view of self and attaining the fruits; afterward, the mental factor of foolishness is transformed by one portion.
Then is it the case that as long as we tell the manas that the body is false and unreal, that feelings are also not real and not the self—if we just find a way to make the manas believe that none of this is its own and none of it is real—the view of self can be eradicated? The manas's ignorance is heavy, so whatever the mind consciousness tells it, it does not necessarily believe. It needs sufficient evidential data, and then based on these data it conducts its own review and deliberation (manasikāra/manana), personally making its own judgment. When its foolishness is severe, even with conclusive evidence and ample facts, it cannot quickly confirm and is unwilling to acknowledge the fact that the five aggregates are without self. Long-term perfuming is needed, transforming bit by bit—"ice three feet thick is not the cold of a single day"; long-accumulated solid ice cannot be melted by a few days of sunshine.
Someone asks: after eradicating the view of self, can one gradually eliminate one's own awareness, no longer feeling cold and heat, pain and itch, and so on? It is not so. Eradicating the view of self only removes incorrect views; it cannot extinguish awareness. Extinguishing awareness requires extremely deep fourth-dhyāna concentration, which can be achieved even without eradicating the view of self. In fourth dhyāna, having broken through the region of the aggregate of form and the region of the aggregate of feeling, one can empty the feelings of the physical body. Otherwise, even an arhat still has various feelings in the physical body—only without grasping, the feelings are not so painful; at the very least, the mind consciousness's feelings are not so distressed, while the body consciousness's feelings are about the same as an ordinary being's.
16. Where Is the Master When There Is No Dream and No Thought?
This is the public case of the third gate of Chan. When there is no dream, there are no six consciousnesses—only the manas and the eighth consciousness. When there is no thought, there are also no six consciousnesses; only the manas and the eighth consciousness are operating together, while the mind consciousness has no awareness or knowing—there is no mind consciousness; and even if there were a mind consciousness, without profound wisdom it would not know exactly how the manas and the eighth consciousness operate together.
Then after realization, to pass the third gate of Chan—the impregnable pass of birth and death—and attain liberation, gaining the ability to leave the three realms, the mind consciousness must have great wisdom, able to directly and truthfully observe the combined operation of the manas and the eighth consciousness, thereby breaking the impregnable pass of birth and death. That requires, after realization and after developing first-dhyāna concentration, and after passing the contemplation of mirage-like appearances (阳炎观), investigating the public case of the third gate. In investigating this public case, the mind consciousness must still investigate together with the manas; and of course the eighth consciousness must also participate, otherwise the sixth and seventh consciousnesses would both cease and could not operate.
Then why is it that investigating the reality of the eighth consciousness's operation with the manas when there is no dream and no thought can break the impregnable pass and attain liberation? If, when cultivating to the third gate of Chan, one still cannot realize the manas and can only observe its operation very roughly, then one cannot investigate the public case of the third gate, cannot break the impregnable pass, cannot leave the cycle of birth and death, and does not attain liberation. At this point, the manas's self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana) will necessarily become even stronger. When the manas has self-knowledge, it will necessarily break through grasping (upādāna): not only does it not grasp the five-aggregate body and the six consciousnesses, it also does not grasp itself, nor the eighth consciousness. If it grasped the eighth consciousness, it also could not leave the three realms and attain liberation.
The more and deeper the dharmas the manas realizes, the greater the merit of liberation. If it realizes the ultimate reality of even the most subtle dharmas, then it can sever all subtle dharma-grasping, attain great liberation and ultimate liberation, accomplish the Buddha Way, and from then on need cultivate no more. So in our cultivation, what exactly is most important—the mind must be clear on this; one must not be muddled.
The Hīnayāna has not realized the eighth consciousness, so of course it does not grasp the eighth consciousness and need not pass the third gate of Chan—not a single gate need be passed. As long as one completely realizes that the five aggregates are without self, one can sever self-grasping, attain liberation, and leave the three realms. Some people insist that the manas of all ordinary beings grasps the eighth consciousness as the self—how serious this misunderstanding is. If an ordinary being's manas knew of the eighth consciousness, it would not be an ordinary being; if it does not know the eighth consciousness, how could it grasp the eighth consciousness? The Buddha, on the contrary, would wish that all ordinary beings could grasp the eighth consciousness—then they would not grasp the five-aggregate body, and there would be no segmented birth-and-death (pariccheda-maraṇa).
17. Realization Is the Function of the Self-Cognition of the Sixth and Seventh Consciousnesses
Realization is when both the mind consciousness and the manas discover the truth and the facts. The truth is the object-aspect (nimitta); discovery is the perceiving-aspect (darśana-bhāga); discovering the truth is self-cognition (svasaṃvitti), not self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana). Whether one can realize also depends on the manas's own wisdom and cognitive capacity, and on whether the manas's wrong view/false view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi) since beginningless eons is deep and heavy—not merely on the mind consciousness's ability to collect evidence and analyze and think. When the manas's habit of greed manifests, it must be expressed through the six consciousnesses; the mind consciousness sometimes has awareness and will resist, but may not necessarily succeed in resisting; sometimes the mind consciousness has no awareness and does not resist.
18. How to Apply Effort to Attain Realization
All eight consciousnesses have the function of holding the body, only each consciousness's function differs; lacking one or several consciousnesses, the state of the physical body changes. For example, without the five consciousnesses' function of holding the body, a person can neither sit still nor stand steady; if the mind consciousness also does not hold the body, one falls asleep and the body slumps this way and that.
Many people claim to have awakened, but in the dharma they claim to have awakened to, it is still the combined operation of the eight consciousnesses; unable to distinguish their respective functions, how can they claim to have realized the eighth consciousness? Taking the functions of all the consciousnesses as those of the eighth consciousness is putting Zhang's hat on Li's head. Such "awakening" is very simple—anyone who knows there is a tathāgatagarbha can "awaken"; it is not difficult. Even if one can distinguish the respective functions of the eight consciousnesses, if concentration is insufficient and one relies on logical inference to deduce the eighth consciousness's functions, it is still not realization—only understanding, without merit or benefit, unable to eradicate the view of self, unable to attain liberation.
For many matters, if a person is easily told about them, there is no触动 for that person, no effect, nothing changed. Only by letting him explore step by step himself and search for the truth of the matter will he truly believe it and be personally moved. People believe themselves and do not believe ideas forcibly imposed from outside. The manas is the same: it does not easily believe the mind consciousness's ideas, believing only what it sees with its own eyes. Therefore one has no choice but to let the manas, based on the information the mind consciousness provides, investigate and ponder by itself; only the result it ponders out itself can it truly believe, thereby severing doubt.
In the process of investigation, when the mind consciousness applies effort, the manas applies less; when the mind consciousness applies less effort, the manas applies more. Only letting the manas apply more effort leads to realization, but this requires rather deep meditative concentration; otherwise the manas cannot apply effort, and only the mind consciousness's effort remains. The mind consciousness's better functions are nothing more than inference and logical thinking, but they cannot substitute for the manas's own deliberation (manasikāra/manana) and examination. One must learn to use the manas to give birth to true wisdom—the wisdom that plays the decisive role. When one's meditative concentration is not yet good enough, do not deliberate on the fundamental dharma, do not investigate Chan, lest one understand without realizing.
19. How to Sever the Fetters of Doubt
When there exist in the mind dharmas that cannot be decisively resolved—unable to determine whether the five aggregates are truly real, whether they are arising-and-ceasing and impermanent, whether they are an indestructible self that can be relied upon, whether they can go on to future lives—being unclear about this doubt, one will be hesitant and irresolute. Because one cannot make the decision, one continues to have some reliance on and trust in the five aggregates, and the karma of the three evil paths created in dependence on the five aggregates cannot be eliminated, and one will transmigrate with that karma into the three evil paths. This doubt-view is the fetter of affliction; if not severed, there will surely be afflictions or the suffering of karma that do not cease.
How to sever the affliction of doubt-view? Someone says: "As soon as I think that the five aggregates truly have no self, my mind no longer doubts, I confirm the five aggregates are without self, and the fetter of doubt is severed." Then can the mind consciousness, by thinking a little about the suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self of the five aggregates, sever the doubt deep in the mind? Probably not. Since beginningless eons, we have had no doubts about countless matters of worldly affairs; some people even go their whole lives without doubting what they do, thinking themselves quite right and quite wise—yet before dying they may never have done a single decent thing correctly. While alive they were indeed very self-confident, but because they lacked wisdom, they did not know they were without wisdom, did not know their self-confidence was unreliable, not true self-confidence, belief without reason. So some people are very confident that they have truly accepted that the five aggregates are without self and have eradicated the view of self—but this conviction and confirmation is blind; at the end of life, when the facts are laid before them, they can only drift along with their karma, utterly unable to be master.
How can the fetter of doubt be severed? One must cultivate concentration, carefully contemplate and deliberate within meditative concentration, or follow the contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) method of the four foundations of mindfulness the Buddha taught, applying effort genuinely, without opportunism. Only by solidly cultivating the Noble Eightfold Path and the seven factors of enlightenment and giving rise to meditative concentration can one realize the samādhi of emptiness.
20. The Manas's Fetters of Doubt
When eradicating the view of self, in severing the doubt among the three fetters, one must not sever only the mind consciousness's doubt while not severing the manas's doubt. If the manas carries the doubt regarding the view of self into the neutrino‑body (antarā‑bhava), one cannot escape the three evil paths, bound by the fetter of doubt, unable to gain liberation from the three evil paths. Only by resolving the manas's doubt is ignorance broken; by resolving all the manas's doubts, ignorance is exhausted, and one becomes a Buddha. No Buddha's manas carried doubts and fetters to Buddhahood; no bodhisattva's manas carried the fetters of doubt to become a Mahāyāna bodhisattva who has broken the beginningless ignorance; still less has any sage of the liberation path's manas carried the fetters of doubt to liberation from the suffering of birth and death in the three realms.
21. Inference and Guessing Are of No Benefit to Cultivation
Truly realizing in Buddhist cultivation is not so easy; understanding can be done at will. In discussing key issues, perhaps a correct result can be discussed out, but such discussion is inference, and the result of inference is understanding—however correct, it is not realization; dharmas not realized are of no benefit to one's own cultivation. The patriarchs often said: even if one can expound the Three Treasuries and twelve divisions of the sūtras, if not enlightened, it is still the speech of Māra. Nowadays people studying Buddhism mostly use the mind consciousness's thinking, analysis, inference, and speculation; those who truly cultivate, truly investigate, truly examine, who put in hard effort, are very very few. Even if one could guess the realm of an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva, guess the realm of Buddhahood, it is all useless, having nothing whatsoever to do with liberation from birth and death; teaching the Dharma so splendidly that flowers rain from heaven is also useless, having nothing to do with liberation from birth and death; writing ten thousand books in a lifetime is still utterly unrelated to liberation from birth and death.
The result of cultivation is to break through all marks; turning around on these marks is useless and remains bondage. Studying Buddhism with a mind of acquisition and a mind of seeking, what is learned is also conditioned dharma, and conditioned dharmas are all the karma of birth and death. If one studies Buddhism not for non-self, not for liberation from afflictions, not for eliminating ignorance, then plainly it is for the worldly self and "my this and my that..."—thus one fundamentally cannot obtain the wisdom of liberation and cannot escape birth and death; this is another kind of delusion and inversion. Those who study the Dharma wanting only results and answers, not the intermediate process of cultivation, all have a mind of seeking and a mind of acquisition—that is, the mind of birth and death; studying Buddhism this way is also the karma of birth and death.
Nowadays people studying Buddhism may "awaken" however many times, but simply cannot eradicate the view of self. Why? Because they do not solidly cultivate concentration and contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), do not truly apply effort to investigate and seek realization—then it is impossible to realize the truth and impossible to eradicate the view of self. The result can be obtained by any means whatsoever, but the actual process of study and cultivation cannot be obtained by any means. On the question of cultivation, clever people are unwilling to labor diligently, while those who truly apply effort pursue it persistently like fools, caring only for plowing and not asking about the harvest—yet the cleverer the person, the more foolish. Cultivation is what fools do, not what clever people do.
