Guide to the Cultivation and Realization of the Manas: Part One
Chapter Two: Manas and Attainment of Fruition
I. The Longer the Attainment of Fruition in Past Lives, the Faster the Attainment in This Life
During the Buddha’s time, beings of great and supremely great faculties could attain the fourth fruition of arhatship upon hearing the principle of the non-self of the five aggregates, without the need for repeated contemplation and practice. Their monastic robes would spontaneously adorn their bodies, their hair and beard would fall off, and spiritual powers would manifest. Examples include Mahākāśyapa, Śāriputra, and Subhūti. This was because they had attained the fourth fruition countless kalpas ago—even three immeasurable kalpas ago. Their identities might have been buddhas returning, born with meditative concentration and the power of recollecting past lives, born as arhats. Naturally, they could manifest attaining fruition immediately upon hearing a single phrase. Since their manas attained fruition immeasurable kalpas ago, it has never ceased and has always known the non-self of the five aggregates, without the need for the present consciousness to laboriously instruct or influence the manas. Although their present five aggregates and consciousness are new, upon encountering the Buddha’s teaching, the consciousness need only reflect slightly to attain fruition. Thus, attainment is extremely swift because there is no need to address the manas’ attainment of fruition.
If the consciousness possesses the power of recollecting past lives, it would likewise know the non-self of the five aggregates from birth, without needing to extinguish the view of self to attain fruition. However, to guide and influence sentient beings, it may manifest attaining fruition. The present consciousness, upon hearing a single phrase of the Dharma without contemplation, can realize the non-self of the five aggregates. Yet the manas has always known it. Anyone who attained fruition in past lives will attain fruition very quickly in this life, without the consciousness needing to influence or instruct the manas again. The more times fruition was attained in past lives, the faster it is attained in this life, because the manas is no longer obscured by ignorance. A manas that has been influenced and transformed is exceedingly sharp; it only requires the consciousness to comprehend. If one attained the first fruition in a past life, attaining it again in this life is easy, but attaining the second fruition is difficult because the manas only corresponds to the contemplative wisdom of the first fruition.
For those who attained the second fruition in past lives, attaining it again in this life is relatively easy, but attaining the third fruition is difficult because the manas does not yet correspond to the third fruition. The content of the third fruition must be taught and influenced anew for both consciousness and manas to attain it. For those who attained the third fruition in past lives, attaining it again in this life is relatively easy, but attaining the fourth fruition is difficult because the manas does not correspond to the state of the fourth fruition. The content of the fourth fruition must be taught and influenced anew for both consciousness and manas to attain it. This is why those who return attain fruition and realize the mind faster than others.
II. Whether Manas Attained Fruition in Past Lives Determines the Speed of Attainment in This Life
Returning beings without the obscuration of rebirth are born as saints, unconfused about all dharmas. They know their own level of attainment and degree of wisdom because their manas attained it in past lives. Although their present consciousness is new, they possess the power of recollecting past lives and know all the Dharma realized in previous lives without any confusion. Since both the sixth and seventh consciousnesses are unconfused and possess wisdom, connecting seamlessly with past lives, they are born as saints without needing to realize it anew.
If only the consciousness attained it in past lives while the manas did not—meaning the manas remained confused—then in this life, both the manas and consciousness are confused. Both consciousnesses must then cultivate meditative concentration, contemplation, and reflection together to prepare for attaining fruition. However, because the manas did not attain it in past lives, it has no impression of the non-self of the five aggregates, making it extremely difficult to influence. The consciousness is new and has no impression of past cultivation; it must start from the beginning. Thus, it requires prolonged influence over many lifetimes and is very challenging.
Returning beings with the obscuration of rebirth still need to diligently study for several years in this life to reattain fruition and realize the mind. For ordinary beings without such foundations in countless past lives, claiming attainment after merely two, three, or five years of encountering the Dharma surely involves much misunderstanding.
The Buddha stated that the prerequisite for attaining fruition and realizing the mind is the perfection of the Thirty-seven Aids to Enlightenment, the Six Pāramitās of the bodhisattva, and precepts, meditative concentration, and wisdom. Only when conditions are complete can fruition be attained. But now it is not so. The Buddha’s words no longer hold sway. There is no need to diligently cultivate the Thirty-seven Aids or the Six Pāramitās, nor to cultivate precepts, concentration, and wisdom. Precepts may be disregarded, meditative concentration may not be cultivated, and meditation need not be practiced. Merely understanding a superficial principle suffices, and fruition is obtained. Those with less meditative concentration, heavier afflictions, and greater inability to uphold precepts find it easier to attain fruition, while those who diligently follow the World-Honored One’s instructions step by step find it harder. This is the chaos of the degenerate age.
III. The Speed of Attainment Depends on the Duration of Past Influence
According to scripture, Ānanda’s identity may be that of a returning buddha who began cultivating alongside Śākyamuni Buddha. The identities of the Buddha’s ten great disciples are all extraordinary. Scripture records that they too are returning buddhas supporting Śākyamuni in propagating the Dharma in the Sahā world. When one buddha appears, a thousand buddhas support him. Not only are the ten great disciples’ identities special, but so are those of the Buddha’s other major disciples, even including leaders of non-Buddhist paths. When a buddha appears to propagate the Dharma, disciples manifest in various identities to support and assist the World-Honored One, enabling the grand drama of liberating sentient beings in the Sahā world.
Thus, those who attained fruition throughout immeasurable kalpas in past lives will attain arhatship upon hearing the Dharma in this life without any issue, without even minutes of contemplation. This is their faculty. It suffices for their consciousness to understand the non-self of the five aggregates; since their manas attained arhatship life after life, naturally there is no need for further influence. Those who never engaged with the Four Noble Truths in past lives cannot quickly extinguish the view of self and attain the first fruition in this life. They require influence over many lifetimes to attain the first fruition, and the second fruition is even more difficult. Therefore, do not focus on when or how quickly someone attains fruition, but on how long they cultivated in past lives. Cultivation is a matter of countless lifetimes, not achievable in a single life. Do not look at others’ results; examine their process, for the process reveals the truth.
IV. When Genuinely Extinguishing the View of Self, One Extinguishes It and Becomes Genuine
Some believe that consciousness and manas fundamentally lack any so-called self, being merely the play of the tathāgatagarbha, and that neither consciousness nor manas is the self, both being essentially the tathāgatagarbha. If someone truly feels this way, it is merely a semblance of understanding, speculation, not realization, and requires continued effort to verify. Because this cognition is too superficial, lacking any evidence, even the consciousness does not take it seriously, let alone the manas, which takes it even less seriously. Only upon genuine realization does one know that neither consciousness nor manas is the self. After realizing the eighth consciousness, one directly perceives how the sixth and seventh consciousnesses are born from the eighth consciousness, truly knowing that they too are fundamentally the eighth consciousness. This direct perception is extremely difficult and rare, requiring great realization power and strong meditative concentration; otherwise, it remains mostly conjecture. Some principles may be understood for ten thousand years without the conditions for realization arising. Genuine realization requires accumulating roots of virtue, merit, and all provisions for realizing the path over countless lifetimes; it is not attained easily through mere discussion.
Some insist that those during the Buddha’s time realized it very easily. In truth, when they attained that fruition, they had already accumulated merit and virtue over considerable time, perfected precepts, concentration, and wisdom, and encountered the great condition of the Buddha, enabling instantaneous realization. Their identities in past lives were quite special, and they cultivated diligently life after life. Many among them manifested to support the Buddha’s Dharma propagation; the group included identities from all walks of life, all coming from the ten directions to assist the Buddha in this grand play.
Why is the consciousness’s understanding and knowing not realization? For example, all Buddhists know that animals are sentient beings in one of the six paths of rebirth, and that we were animals in past lives. Eating animal flesh is unkind to sentient beings, incurring karmic debts that must be repaid manifold in the future. But what use is this knowledge? Because it lacks experiential verification, merely trusting the Buddha’s teaching on cause and effect, while forgetting personal experiences, leads to half-hearted faith, making abstaining from meat so difficult. Faith is faith, action is action; faith without experiential verification is hard to apply.
All theoretical knowledge learned now is the same. Although the consciousness understands and accepts it, without experiential verification, this understanding still lacks practical effect. In the great matter of birth and death, easy realization is impossible. Having cycled through immeasurable and inexpressible kalpas, with ignorance deep beyond description, how could reading books, studying, or learning constitute realization? Many harbor wishful thinking, driven by opportunistic mindsets, precisely proving that most remain ignorant, deeply obscured.
When genuinely extinguishing the view of self, one extinguishes it and becomes genuine. Whoever extinguishes it becomes genuine because, having truly realized non-self, the mind immediately becomes humble, no longer flaunting the self or boasting of attainment. If there is a heart that boasts, the view of self has not been extinguished, and an additional “I” that has attained fruition appears. With two “I’s,” afflictions inevitably worsen, leading to utter arrogance and intense conceit. I have encountered many who claimed to have attained fruition or realized the mind yet were somewhat domineering and arrogant, feeling higher than heaven, with two “I’s” increasingly obvious yet unnoticed—precisely because they were harmed by the fruition.
V. Inferred Results Cannot Substitute for Direct Perception
Inference is a method of inference (anumāna), not direct perception (pratyakṣa). For example, in worldly affairs, law enforcement personnel investigate by gathering evidence at crime scenes; they do not rely on conscious analysis and inference at their desks. Even if inference is correct, it can never serve as evidence. Although inference occurs during investigation, its purpose is to expedite the search for evidence. Without evidence, the inference is void and must be discarded. Without reliable, accurate evidence, no matter how strong the suspicion, the suspect cannot be convicted and must be acquitted. Courts judge cases solely based on facts and solid evidence; they do not convict through inference.
For instance, A tells investigators: “Based on B’s daily behavior and habits, B must have stolen my gold watch.” This is inference, not fact. Without catching B in the act, inference belongs to anumāna and non-valid cognition (abhāva), not pratyakṣa. Investigators and courts cannot convict B based on A’s inference. Even if A’s inference is correct, it is not fact and cannot serve as the basis for conviction, even if everyone knows B stole it.
The same applies to realization in the Dharma. No matter how strong the logical reasoning or how correct the inference, it is not fact and does not constitute realization. During inference, one cannot negate oneself to extinguish the view of self because the manas has not witnessed the fact nor experienced a physical and mental impact; thus, it cannot negate the self of the five aggregates and cannot extinguish the view of self. Without extinguishing the view of self, there can be no realization, though intellectual understanding is permitted. Such understanding lacks meritorious function; it cannot purify the Dharma-eye or give rise to a liberated mind. The experiential verification of the Dharma strictly reflects objective laws, more rigorous than worldly laws, tolerating not the slightest error. Without conclusive factual basis, the manas cannot realize it—this is unavoidable.
For whom does the consciousness infer? It infers for the manas, to make the manas understand. For whom does the consciousness analyze? It analyzes for the manas, to make the manas understand. Because the manas cannot infer or analyze, it often hesitates when encountering matters. After the consciousness infers and analyzes, it understands some matters and can make judgments and decisions.
VI. What Is Transmitted Orally or Inferred by Manas Are All Counterfeits
Inference can never substitute for direct experiential observation. If it could, the Buddha could have explained all his inner realizations to us bit by bit. Then, after decades of understanding, memorizing, and elaborating, mastering it thoroughly, wouldn’t we become buddhas? Spending decades to equal the Buddha’s wisdom—what a convenient cultivation method! Why didn’t the Buddha teach us this? Why cultivate precepts, concentration, and wisdom with such hardship? Becoming a buddha in one lifetime this way would be no difficulty. Why then did all buddhas cultivate for three great asamkhyeya kalpas? Memorizing the Buddha’s words is infinitely easier than cultivating precepts, concentration, wisdom, and the Six Pāramitās. If the Buddha revealed all the secrets of Dharma realization, couldn’t we all realize all-wisdom and swiftly become buddhas?
The true principle is: what is transmitted orally does not come from one’s own insight; it is forever counterfeit, unable to withstand storms. Overuse of conscious inference renders the manas ineffective—this is what Chan patriarchs most opposed, calling it “inferring under the mind” (yixia boduo) and “emotional intellectual understanding” (qingsi yijie), not true skill. Excessive use of the conscious mind prevents the manas from functioning, making realization impossible. When one wanes, the other waxes. Whose knowing and witnessing is best?
The manas’s leading role is the foundation of experiential verification. If realization does not involve the manas, saints could be everywhere, deeply afflicted. Realization through the manas is attainable only by those with great roots of virtue and merit cultivated over long periods—such individuals are exceedingly rare. Each eats his own meal; the knowing and realization of consciousness cannot substitute for the manas. The manas must itself know and realize to resolve doubts and settle the matter of birth and death. To enable the manas to realize, meditative concentration is indispensable because experiential verification is samādhi. All samādhis depend on meditative concentration; without concentration, there is no samādhi; without samādhi, there is no experiential verification. To enable the manas to give rise to wisdom, at critical moments requiring realization, cultivate concentration to let the manas investigate deeply, not superficially recite or ponder words.
Such is the principle. Knowing any number of esoteric meanings is useless; it cannot resolve doubts. In myself, I can clearly feel: what wisdom is like with concentration, what the body and mind are like; what wisdom is like without concentration, what the body and mind are like—it is very evident. Thus, without meditative concentration, the manas cannot function effectively, there is no actual realization, and afflictions cannot be subdued.
The prerequisite for experiential verification is meditative concentration, plus rational contemplation, to have wisdom and give rise to it. Meditative concentration is a necessary condition, not the sole condition. But without concentration, there is certainly no genuine wisdom; there may be “dry wisdom” (śuṣka-vidyā), which does not solve practical problems. Adopting the meditative concentration of non-Buddhist paths and combining it with our contemplative wisdom enables deep realization of the Dharma. Separated, there is no experiential verification. This also includes the Six Pāramitās and the Thirty-seven Aids to Enlightenment—all must be cultivated without omission. Only when these conditions are fulfilled can experiential verification occur.
VII. The Vast Gap Between Conscious Inference and Manas’s Direct Realization
From “a good memory is not as reliable as a poor pen,” consider the differing functional influences of consciousness and manas on body, mind, and world. For worldly matters—someone or something—what difference in inner feeling and impact exists between what the consciousness infers, deduces, or analyzes and what is directly seen, heard, or experienced? For the dharmas of the five aggregates and eighteen elements, or the tathāgatagarbha dharma, if the consciousness infers, deduces, or analyzes a result from text, what effect does it have on body, mind, and world? If the manas directly realizes it, what effect would it have?
What different reactions would the manas have if the consciousness infers that someone might be insulting me versus hearing it directly? What different responses in body, mind, and world? If the consciousness deduces that an event is thus versus experiencing it directly, what difference in the manas’s feeling and reaction? What difference in body, mind, and world? If the consciousness infers from text that the five aggregates and eighteen elements are empty and not-self versus directly proving it, what different reaction and wisdom would the manas have? How great a difference in body, mind, and world?
If the consciousness infers, judges, or analyzes from text that the tathāgatagarbha functions thus, operating approximately so, versus diligently investigating in meditative concentration and finally truly seeing the location of the tathāgatagarbha and how it specifically operates, what difference in impact on the manas? What difference in the manas’s wisdom? How great a difference in impact on body, mind, and world?
Does what is deduced, inferred, speculated, or analyzed count as experiential verification? Does it involve actual practice? What is called actual practice? What is called experiential verification?
What difference in inner impact exists between imagining a murder scene and witnessing one directly? Between imagining a kind face and seeing one directly? What difference in inner feeling and sensation? What difference in influence on a person? Between inferring that one’s parents have died and seeing it directly? What difference in body, mind, and world? How great a difference in impact on oneself?
How great a difference in effect exists between imagining the Buddha teaching at Vulture Peak and sitting there personally? How great a difference in influence on body and mind? Do inference, judgment, deduction, and analysis possess the realization power of samādhi? Do they belong to the samādhi that opens wisdom? Is imagining the scene at Vulture Peak a samādhi state? How does it differ from the samādhi of Master Zhiyi participating in the Vulture Peak assembly in concentration?
What difference exists between the Buddha-recitation samādhi imagining all buddhas standing before one and the samādhi of directly seeing them? Between an imagined contemplation of skeletons and the samādhi where skeletons truly appear before one? Imagined skeletons are the functioning of the conscious mind’s analysis; no form of skeletons appears, thus they are doubly illusory. Skeletons that spontaneously appear are witnessed simultaneously by manas and consciousness; a concentration-produced form appears, which, though still illusory, is far more real than imagination.
The entire Buddhist world is chaotic and disordered beyond measure. Thus, Buddhism must be rectified and contracted, not expanded further; otherwise, Buddhism will surely perish. Every individual and group claims to be practicing and realizing, but where is the actuality? Who is diligently practicing? All are using the conscious mind to play clever, engage in word games, and indulge the self—where is the genuine non-self?
How many have deduced that the world of the five aggregates is like a dream or illusion and claim to have realized it? Is it truly so? Genuine realization of the contemplation of dreamlike illusion belongs to the tenth stage of the bodhisattva path (daśa-bhūmi), immediately before entering the first ground (prathama-bhūmi). Are there so many great-faculty bodhisattvas nearing the first ground in the Sahā world? So many long-cultivated returning bodhisattvas? If so, where is their meditative concentration? Do they possess the first dhyāna? Have they eradicated afflictions? If asked, some will still claim to have the first dhyāna, eradicated afflictions, and abide in the state of remainderless nirvana. No one can do anything about such beings; they alone believe they can.
How many have deduced the eighth consciousness from text? How many have guessed it? Analyzed it? Heard of it? Been told of its general functions? What use is this? Has wisdom been developed? Is there genuine meritorious function? The actual realization power of the purified Dharma-eye? Has the view of self truly been extinguished? How many, years after claiming awakening, still have not extinguished the view of self and remain far from doing so, lacking the qualifications and conditions in this life? Without attaining the extinction of the view of self at the sixth abiding stage, can one realize the mind at the seventh?
The process of meditative investigation enables consciousness and manas to gradually recognize the suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self nature of the five aggregates, to gradually recognize the falsity and unreality of the five-aggregate body, and to gradually subdue the view of the body and self. Without this process, deducing from text that the eighth consciousness operates thus within the five-aggregate body—whether deduced, analyzed, heard of, or told—cannot subdue the view of the body and self, let alone extinguish them. Then what meaning does knowing this conclusion about the eighth consciousness have for one’s body, mind, and world? What meritorious function? Without meritorious function, what use is knowing the eighth consciousness? If banners across streets announced to all Buddhists that everyone has a true mind, the eighth consciousness, functioning thus, could those who hear it extinguish the view of the body and self, sever the three fetters, and eliminate karmic retribution in the three evil paths? If so, why didn’t the Buddha adopt such a beneficial method?
VIII. The Wisdom Directly Realized by Manas Truly Represents a Being’s Wisdom
Question: Does attaining fruition mean that after the consciousness attains it, the manas must still confirm it? Like an annual work summary requiring the organization’s official seal for acknowledgment? Also, wisdom belongs to the consciousness. After being recognized by consciousness and manas, can it be stored as seeds in the tathāgatagarbha? Is the wisdom of manas itself habitual seeds?
Answer: The consciousness alone understanding does not constitute realization; the manas must simultaneously understand for it to be realization. Because the so-called “I” is the manas. The consciousness is subordinate to the manas; the manas is the leader, playing the dominant role. Extinguishing the view of self must be extinguishing the manas’s view of self; extinguishing only the subordinate consciousness’s view of self is insufficient. The consciousness is a functional capacity subordinate to the manas-self.
There is wisdom of consciousness and wisdom of manas. The wisdom of manas truly represents a person’s wisdom because the wisdom of consciousness is temporary, unstable, and non-autonomous. Only when the manas gives rise to wisdom can there be wisdom at all times; such a person is truly wise. The wisdom of manas can truly store seeds, enabling continued function in future lives. The manas fully corresponds to seeds, while the consciousness represents the part influenced by the acquired environment. The manas has habits—both wholesome and unwholesome. The wisdom of manas belongs to wholesome habits.
