The Right Understanding of Manas

Chapter 7: The Relationship Between the Manas and the Tathāgatagarbha

1. The Tathāgatagarbha's Discernment of the Mental Activities of the Manas

When the mental activities of the manas manifest, the tathāgatagarbha immediately knows them, and in coordination with the manas, outputs the corresponding seeds to give birth to the six consciousnesses, so that the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses all conform to the mental activities and thoughts of the manas. The manas is born from the consciousness seeds flowing forth from the tathāgatagarbha; it is born after the fact. The operation of the manas is random, and the tathāgatagarbha works closely with the manas, discerning the manas's various mental activities at all times and places. At the stage of the consciousness seeds, there is no manas yet, and therefore there are no mental activities of the manas; the tathāgatagarbha cannot discern the manas's mental activities. Only after the manas has manifested, with the mental factors assisting its operation, can mental activities arise, and only then can the tathāgatagarbha discern them.

The mental activities of the manas are manifested in the form of mental factors, among which the five universal mental factors are attention (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), and volition (cetanā). Whatever dharma the manas attends to, the tathāgatagarbha can know at any time, because the manas cannot leave the tathāgatagarbha and is held by the tathāgatagarbha. The volition mental factor is the deliberation (manasikāra) and decision-making nature of the manas; whatever the manas deliberates on and whatever decisions it makes, the tathāgatagarbha can know. After the tathāgatagarbha discerns the content of the manas's deliberation and its decisions, it cooperates with the manas, outputs the seeds of the six consciousnesses, and gives birth to the six consciousnesses upon the dharmas attended to by the manas, in order to complete the manas's decisions, and the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses are thereby created. Of course, the six consciousnesses act upon the dharmas attended to by the manas, and their actions all conform to the mental activities of the manas, determined by the manas's decisions.

The mental activities of the manas are also related to karmic seeds; karmic seeds determine the mental activities of the manas. Karmic seeds can be pure or defiled, accompanied by ignorance or by enlightenment. The tathāgatagarbha can know all these karmic seeds, and according to them allows the mental activities of the manas to manifest. After the volition mental factor of the manas operates, there arise deliberation, decision-making, and determination, which contain purity and defilement. After the tathāgatagarbha knows this, it cooperates by outputting the corresponding consciousness seeds, producing the six consciousnesses, and the bodily, verbal, and mental actions manifest. The tathāgatagarbha first discerns the karmic seeds; only after outputting the seeds can the mental activities of the manas appear before it, and only then can the tathāgatagarbha discern the manas's mental activities. If the seeds do not manifest, no mental activities appear.

The tathāgatagarbha's discernment of the manas's mental activities is extremely fast; to sentient beings there seems to be almost no time lag, but a Buddha would notice the time gap. Why can the tathāgatagarbha discern the manas's mental activities? Because the tathāgatagarbha outputs consciousness seeds for the manas, and while the consciousness seeds are running, the tathāgatagarbha must continuously cooperate with the manas's operation. When the manas operates, the consciousness seeds are output by the tathāgatagarbha moment by moment, and then the consciousness seeds return moment by moment into the tathāgatagarbha; thus the tathāgatagarbha knows all of the manas's mental activities completely, without missing a single thread.

2. Without cause and condition, the tathāgatagarbha does not give birth to the myriad dharmas; karmic seeds are one kind of condition. When karmic seeds mature, the tathāgatagarbha must run them out; only when karmic conditions are complete can the tathāgatagarbha accord with conditions to give birth to the myriad dharmas. Without causes and conditions, the tathāgatagarbha will not actively give birth to any dharma. The tathāgatagarbha itself possesses the seeds of the seven great elements—earth, water, fire, wind, space, consciousness, and cognition—and outputs them upon encountering conditions. As long as the manas exists without perishing, the tathāgatagarbha must supply it with consciousness seeds so that it can exist and function; if the tathāgatagarbha does not output consciousness seeds, the manas disappears, and then there would be no sentient beings at all—all would enter nirvāṇa without remainder.

Without cause and condition, no dharma is born; all dharmas can only be born with both cause and condition. The cause is the tathāgatagarbha, and there are many kinds of conditions. The birth of all dharmas cannot be separated from the manas; the manas is the motive force for the arising of the dharmas of the three realms. Whatever dharma it wants to attach to, the tathāgatagarbha must accord with conditions and manifest that dharma. But whatever the manas wants to do, if the conditions are not complete, the tathāgatagarbha has no way to accomplish it. For example, if the manas wants to get rich, but the conditions are not complete, or the person did not cultivate merit in past lives, the tathāgatagarbha cannot manifest wealth to make this person rich.

3. As long as the manas exists constantly, the tathāgatagarbha must supply it with consciousness seeds for the manas to manifest and act; afterwards the seeds return into the tathāgatagarbha, and thus the tathāgatagarbha knows the manas's mental activities. Whatever the manas deliberates and considers, the tathāgatagarbha can discern; after discerning it, the tathāgatagarbha must accord with and cooperate with the manas. This is the accordant nature of the tathāgatagarbha; it is not that the manas commands and orders the tathāgatagarbha what to do. The tathāgatagarbha does not obey any commands either; it does not know commands.

Moreover, because sentient beings have ignorance, they do not know there are eight consciousnesses. The manas does not know which one is itself, which is the mind consciousness, which is the tathāgatagarbha, or what functions and roles each has, so the manas does not have the mental activity of commanding and ordering the tathāgatagarbha. The first six consciousnesses and the tathāgatagarbha naturally cooperate with the manas's operation, without the manas's orders and commands; this is also the dharma-nature as it is—it has always been so. It is not a rule created by anyone, and it can never be changed. If one can know which one is the tathāgatagarbha, then one has seen the mind and attained enlightenment; then the manas can deliberately make use of the tathāgatagarbha, observing whether the tathāgatagarbha can cooperate with itself. After seeing the mind, one can observe the accordant nature of the tathāgatagarbha. For example, when the manas wants to go east, the mind consciousness observes the tathāgatagarbha's response; when the manas wants to look at forms, one then observes the tathāgatagarbha's response. After observing, the mind consciousness discovers that the tathāgatagarbha is extremely filial—never defying itself (the manas) in anything at any time, completely docile and obedient.

But these things are not something the manas can command. If the manas could command, it would tell the tathāgatagarbha: "Manifest a mountain of gold for me!" No matter how the manas commands and threatens, the tathāgatagarbha pays no heed. Likewise, the six consciousnesses also accord with and cooperate with the manas; they are not something the manas can command and direct, although objectively this is so. The eight consciousnesses are closely interconnected and cooperate seamlessly; this relationship is extremely complex and the cooperation extremely swift, difficult for ordinary people to discover. The manas can attach to all dharmas; the tathāgatagarbha can manifest all dharmas and discern all dharmas, but does not know what all dharmas are. He has immeasurable, countless functional natures that we need to explore and know. When we have fully realized the natures of all eight consciousnesses, we become Buddhas.

4. When the Ālayavijñāna abandons the material body and the eighteen dhātus, upon whose power of mindfulness does it ride? It is the power of mindfulness of the manas. The manas wants to leave the body; the manas wants a material body in the next life; the Ālayavijñāna accords with all of this and performs all its tasks. The power of mindfulness of the manas is the function of the manas's volition mental factor. The manas grasps at the body and at self, and necessarily has the power of mindfulness, wanting to make arrangements for its own five-aggregate body. The Ālayavijñāna, like an attendant, serves the manas, trying its best to satisfy the manas's needs and wishes. Deciding to die, deciding to enter the womb—these are all the power of mindfulness of the manas. Why is the manas's mindfulness powerful? Because behind it there is a big boss who can satisfy its wishes—a powerful backer. If the mind consciousness has mindfulness, it must pass the manas's review and approval; only when the manas decides can the Ālayavijñāna cooperate to satisfy the manas, indirectly fulfilling the mind consciousness's wishes.

5. Robots, without the flowing forth of consciousness seeds and without the eight consciousnesses dwelling within, can still have behavioral activities. A robot's activities are the result of human-programmed control, the effect of electric current plus programs; just as a computer also runs around human-designed programs, there is no autonomy of the robot or computer. The activities of sentient beings' five aggregates follow the same principle as the activities of robots; they likewise have no autonomy, all being the result of the tathāgatagarbha operating according to some operating mechanism. The five-aggregate body itself has nothing to do with it. It is only that sentient beings themselves are not awakened and grasp at the five aggregates' activities as real; taking them as real, they are bound, unable to end birth and death, unable to be at ease.

6. Question: The movements of the body faculty in a human are accomplished through the cooperation of the body consciousness, mind consciousness, manas, and the eighth consciousness. Without the mind consciousness and body consciousness, only the seventh and eighth consciousnesses cannot accomplish the activities of the body faculty. But the first seven consciousnesses are all in the head, while body faculties such as hands and feet are so far from the head; that is to say, the first seven consciousnesses are not in the hands—so why can the hands move?

Answer: Pulling one hair moves the whole body. The brain is the general headquarters, and the manas is the commander-in-chief. When the manas moves, the command is issued by the brain's central nervous system and rapidly transmitted to the nerve tissues throughout the body, and the whole body moves. In fact, when the manas moves, the tathāgatagarbha gives birth to the six consciousnesses; the six consciousnesses then move, and subsequent behaviors appear. All of this is secret dharma, involving the tathāgatagarbha's general-characteristic wisdom, specific-characteristic wisdom, and seed-wisdom; each person needs to investigate Chan themselves to figure it out—one cannot expect others to state it explicitly.

7. The manas and the tathāgatagarbha enter the womb together; the tathāgatagarbha is passive, merely according with and cooperating with the manas, being led along by the manas. Although the manas is active and capable of movement, it also has no thought of "I will take the tathāgatagarbha to enter the womb." It does not know that it is the tathāgatagarbha that enters the womb and manifests the material body, and instead thinks it is all its own capability, not seeing the tathāgatagarbha's capability. Therefore it is entirely mistaken knowledge and mistaken perception—this is ignorance.

The manas does not know that it is the tathāgatagarbha cooperating with its own thoughts that allows it to gradually leave the material body and die; does not know that it is the tathāgatagarbha cooperating with its own craving and grasping at the material body that allows the antarābhava (intermediate body) to be manifested; does not know that only when the tathāgatagarbha enters the fertilized egg can there be its own five-aggregate body in future lives. This is ignorance, which is what is called the manas's non-valid cognition. Once the manas knows these principles and fully realizes them, ignorance is destroyed, and it is no longer non-valid cognition.

8. The manas takes the perceiving-aspect (darśana-bhāga) of the tathāgatagarbha as its own view of self; this is an enormous misunderstanding. The perceiving-aspect of the tathāgatagarbha belongs to the functional operations of the tathāgatagarbha, not to the functional operations of the seventh consciousness, the manas. The manas should not think that what the tathāgatagarbha sees and does are its own functions; it should not have this thought—this constitutes stealing. It is like taking the fruits of another's labor as one's own, claiming them as one's own achievement—this is absolutely impermissible.

Because the seventh consciousness, the manas, grasps at the tathāgatagarbha's functional operations as its own functions, delights in the tathāgatagarbha's functions, takes pleasure in and clings to the tathāgatagarbha's functions, it becomes the "Ālaya of delight," the "Ālaya of love," the "Ālaya of pleasure," the "Ālaya of joy." In this way, the true functional operations of the tathāgatagarbha are covered and obscured; it does not know true from false and does not discern true from false—this is precisely the root of birth-and-death and saṃsāra. To sever this ignorance and wrong view of the manas, the seventh consciousness, requires cultivating through three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas, in order to completely sever the manas's grasping at self and grasping at dharmas, and all ignorance and mistaken understanding, and to liberate the manas from the bonds of immeasurable births and deaths. Then sentient beings will have neither segmented birth-and-death (pariccheda-maraṇa) nor transformational birth-and-death (parināma-maraṇa), will be ultimately liberated, and will perfectly become Buddhas.

9. The relationship between the manas and the tathāgatagarbha is extremely close. The more tranquil (praśama) the mind, the more one can perceive the karmic seeds within the tathāgatagarbha, and one can also actively use the tathāgatagarbha, employ the tathāgatagarbha, letting Him serve oneself. Because whatever the tathāgatagarbha knows, the manas can know, and whatever the manas wants to do, the tathāgatagarbha can accord with and cooperate with—thus the manas can, like one who holds the emperor hostage to command the feudal lords, accomplish everything it wants to do. But the karmic seeds known by the manas are difficult for the mind consciousness to discern clearly; the mind consciousness can only know the information transmitted by the manas, not the content within the information. Only when the mind consciousness becomes pure and has meditative concentration (samādhi) and wisdom can it correctly and accurately interpret the information transmitted by the manas.

The manas can directly perceive the karmic seeds in the tathāgatagarbha and the dharmas the tathāgatagarbha is about to manifest, as well as the events that are about to unfold; the mind consciousness must rely on thinking and guessing, relying heavily on non-valid cognition. If the mind consciousness has cultivated supernatural powers, it can clearly know the content of the information the manas sees from the tathāgatagarbha. The manas is extremely important; its importance lies in being the intermediate link connecting the first six consciousnesses and the tathāgatagarbha. Although all dharmas are born from the tathāgatagarbha, without the manas as this linking function, the first six consciousnesses could not discern the dharmas born from the tathāgatagarbha. The manas is the bridge communicating between the tathāgatagarbha and the five aggregates and six consciousnesses. The dharmas discerned by the six consciousnesses are all dharmas the manas learned of from the tathāgatagarbha and attached to; the discernment and creation of the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the five aggregates and six consciousnesses must, through the manas, be stored in the tathāgatagarbha as karmic seeds and kept there.

10. The meaning of "the manas, according with conditions, grasps at self, and its cognition is non-valid" is that the manas can, moment by moment, attach to all the dharmas transformed and manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, making its own discernment following the seeing-nature of the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha can see the underlying object (essence realm), and then, based on the underlying object, manifests a similar image like a mirror reflecting; the manas follows the tathāgatagarbha in seeing this image, and takes the tathāgatagarbha's image-manifesting function as its own function, taking the tathāgatagarbha's seeing-nature function as its own seeing-nature. This is a mistaken view, and is non-valid cognition. "According with conditions" means making discernment following all the dharmas manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, and the seeing-nature arises, not knowing that all dharmas are manifested by the tathāgatagarbha and do not belong to oneself, that the tathāgatagarbha's functions are not one's own functions. This mistaken discernment is called non-valid cognition.

If the seventh consciousness realizes the tathāgatagarbha, then severs afflictions, and after transforming consciousness into wisdom, can clearly know that all dharmas are born from the tathāgatagarbha, are all functions of the tathāgatagarbha, and have nothing to do with oneself—all dharmas are not oneself and do not belong to oneself—then, knowing this, no longer grasping at the tathāgatagarbha's functions as one's own, it is no longer non-valid cognition but direct perception.

After eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), the manas's discernment is no longer entirely non-valid; there is an element of direct perception. Knowing the principle that the five aggregates are not self, its grasping at the five aggregates will gradually lessen. When cultivation reaches the fourth fruit, there will be no grasping at all. This shows that the manas's discernment of the five aggregates is no longer non-valid but direct perception—correct discernment. After seeing the mind and seeing the nature, the manas also knows that the tathāgatagarbha is the true self, and the five aggregates and seven consciousnesses are not self and have no autonomy. This discernment and cognition is also not non-valid but direct perception—correct cognition and correct discernment—and afterwards one can gradually sever grasping.

Even before eradicating the view of self and before seeing the mind and seeing the nature, the manas has made extremely many correct, wisdom-based discernments and decisions, giving sentient beings wisdom. Otherwise, sentient beings could not encounter the Buddha-dharma, could not cultivate, could not gain wisdom and liberation, and could not ascend to heavens to enjoy blessings. It is only that the correctness of those decisions is relative and hierarchical. Truly absolutely correct discernment and decision belong to the manas at the Buddha-stage; the manas of bodhisattvas is not absolutely correct, absolutely direct-perception discernment. Therefore the manas still needs to transform consciousness into wisdom again, until wisdom is ultimately perfect.

11. What Is Meant by Self-Healing Power

The characteristic of the manas is that at all times it acts in ways unknown to the mind consciousness, unwilling to remain idle. Everything it does is mainly for itself, for its own sake, safeguarding all its own interests. It always finds ways to satisfy its own needs and solve its most pressing problems. It has great energy and can realize its goals and achieve its aims, because behind it the tathāgatagarbha provides protection; when conditions permit, its needs and demands can be satisfied as much as possible.

Since the manas has such great energy and can find ways to achieve its aims, then we must make the manas believe that its body will surely become healthy. If the manas believes this, it will find ways to make itself healthy. Whether the body has a deficiency illness or a substantial illness, He will find ways to solve it and resist stubbornly. If the manas is unwilling to remain ill with a deficiency illness, it will resist to the end; when karmic obstructions subside somewhat and merit strengthens, the deficiency illness will recede.

If it is a substantial illness and the manas wants health, the tathāgatagarbha will exercise its nature of the great elements' characteristics, transmitting harmonized seeds of the four great elements, letting the material body slowly recover—this is what the secular world calls the body's own self-healing power. The manas can also, behind the scenes, seek out various opportunities to change the body's condition, and then the material body will have many chances to regain health.

The key is to make the manas confident that it can become healthy, that it has no illness, that everything will get better; then the manas will strive in that direction and ultimately solve the problem. Suggesting to the manas and encouraging the manas is blessing oneself; ultimately it is all the blessing of the self-nature Buddha—one delivers oneself, one saves oneself.

A contrary example: when a patient learns that his illness is serious, he shows fear and restless anxiety, and his body grows weaker day by day—this is precisely caused by the manas believing the doctor's diagnosis. The manas believes its illness is grave; because of grasping at itself, it becomes extremely fearful, to the point of listlessness, causing body and mind to change according to the manas's thoughts. If the manas relaxes and does not care about the body's condition, then the material body also turns for the better following the manas's relaxation. That is, the information the mind consciousness obtained from the doctor is processed and transmitted to the manas; the manas believes it, and then has its own ideas; the tathāgatagarbha accords with the manas and manifests the material body's healthy or wretched condition.

If one curses others, then the curser's manas emits a kind of energy; the manas should have thoughts and wishes, and his own tathāgatagarbha cooperates with the manas, causing the cursed person to fulfill the curse's wish. But we must not curse others, must not bring suffering to others, and even less should we form evil karmic bonds. We should do more dedication of merit (pariṇāma), more hoping and wishing that everything goes well for others, and others will naturally be well. In this way we also form good karmic bonds, and in future lives, upon meeting, we will feel close to each other and be able to help each other in friendship.

12. When Sentient Beings Die, How Does the Seventh Consciousness, the Manas, Leave the Material Body?

If the manas feels there is no hope for the body and life, it will want to leave the material body. When the intention is too strong—for example, utterly disheartened, holding no hope whatsoever for the material body—it will leave the material body, and the tathāgatagarbha will inevitably leave together with it, and then the person dies. If it is a normal death, the manas learns various information from the tathāgatagarbha indicating that the lifespan is about to end, and will make preparations and engage in activities. When the tathāgatagarbha displays the state of the five-aggregate material body, the manas, attaching to the object-aspect (nimitta) of the five aggregates, will discern the condition of the material body. It will deliberate: can this body still be used? Is there any hope? When the manas determines that this body is truly finished—the five faculties no longer function, the five consciousnesses have already ceased, the mind consciousness is growing ever fainter and about to cease—He knows the six consciousnesses can no longer be used by Himself, and so decides to leave.

When this volition mental factor of the manas is discerned by the tathāgatagarbha, the tathāgatagarbha will cooperate, also generating a volition mental factor, withdrawing all the seeds of the four great elements, leaving the material body, no longer holding the material body. Pulled by karmic force, the tathāgatagarbha chooses from which part of the body to withdraw first, and finally leaves from that part of the body; where it goes after leaving—the tathāgatagarbha knows all of this. He does all these things by knowing the karmic seeds and according with the karmic seeds, without any subjective views of His own, because He is without the nature of self.

At the moment of death, the "position of imminent death," after the first six consciousnesses have ceased in sequence, the manas will leave the material body; the tathāgatagarbha leaves together with the manas and enters the antarābhava (intermediate body), and the person dies; this material body becomes a corpse. Then, because the manas grasps at itself and does not want to extinguish itself, still wanting a material body, the tathāgatagarbha will manifest an antarābhava. In the antarābhava, the manas discovers that the antarābhava perishes every seven days, that this antarābhava is unreliable, and so wants to enter the womb; thus it enters the womb together with the tathāgatagarbha, and there is a next period of life—the five aggregates and nāma-rūpa are born.

13. The Manas Is the Coexistent Basis (sahabhū-āśraya) of the Ālayavijñāna

For the Ālayavijñāna to operate within the worldly dharmas of the three realms, the manas must exist. Only when the manas wants a five-aggregate body can the Ālayavijñāna cooperate with the manas to manifest the five-aggregate body, manifest the eighteen dhātus, and participate in manifesting the universe's vessel-world of the three realms. If the manas severs grasping and does not want a five-aggregate body, does not want to live in the world of the three realms, then at the end of life the manas will cease, and the manas will no longer exist; then the Ālayavijñāna has no reason or basis to operate within the worldly dharmas of the three realms, no reason to manifest the five-aggregate body. Therefore the manas is the coexistent basis of the Ālayavijñāna. But without the manas, the Ālayavijñāna still exists by itself and will not perish; it simply no longer manifests the worldly dharmas of the five aggregates.