The Right Understanding of Manas

Chapter 8: The Relationship Between Manas and Karmic Seeds

I. Whether Manas Can Discern Karmic Seeds

The manas of ordinary beings possesses the nature of pervasive conceptualization and attachment; there is no dhamma it does not grasp or cling to. It mistakes the seeing nature of the Tathagatagarbha for its own seeing nature. Depending on the seeing nature of the Tathagatagarbha, it has its own seeing nature. Whatever dhamma the Tathagatagarbha conditions, the manas can also condition. The Tathagatagarbha can condition karmic seeds and discern karmic seeds; therefore, manas can also condition karmic seeds and discern karmic seeds. When karmic seeds are about to manifest, manas can also perceive what is about to happen; supernatural powers operate in this way.

Karmic seeds include seeds from past lives and seeds created in this life. When relatively significant karmic seeds are about to manifest and karmic retribution is about to appear, manas, depending on the Tathagatagarbha, will have some perception. However, manas itself cannot create anything; He can only alert and hint to the six consciousnesses, attempting to choose through the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses whether to welcome or avoid the karma. But manas lacks conceptual language; it cannot express itself clearly for the six consciousnesses to know, it can only function through various hints. Sometimes, when the karmic fruit is too significant, manas will try every means to hint to the mental consciousness (mano-vijñāna), so the mental consciousness feels something is about to happen, yet does not know specifically what it is or how it will happen, and thus does not know what to do. Often, internally, it feels anxious and unsettled, the mind is not peaceful. Only after the event occurs does the mental consciousness suddenly realize.

For example, premonitions before death, omens of significant events, inner feelings, and the hints in dreams with premonitions – the appearance of these omens, the mental consciousness can sometimes sense them, sometimes not, depending on whether the mental consciousness is sensitive. For karmic fruits that are not fixed karma (niyata karma), the mental consciousness might understand what is about to happen and can quickly find a way to avoid it. If it is fixed karma, the karmic fruit must inevitably be endured; the mental consciousness generally cannot understand specifically what is about to happen, and even if it does understand, it cannot avoid it. For example, after previously committing major evil karma like killing or stealing, when the public security organs solve the case, even at the moment before arrest, the mental consciousness does not know it is about to be arrested. If it knew, it could escape, and the karmic fruit could not be realized. But at this time, the karmic conditions have ripened, the karmic retribution must be endured, and the force of karma causes the mental consciousness to have no choice. Manas might alert it briefly, but perhaps hindered by karmic force, it cannot alert the mental consciousness. Even if manas can alert the mental consciousness, due to the influence of karma, the mental consciousness cannot comprehend it.

There are also karmic seeds that manas can know but cannot make the mental consciousness know. Some omens are displayed by manas, and some omens are displayed by the Tathagatagarbha. Dreams with premonitions are definitely displayed by manas; sometimes the mental consciousness knows, sometimes it does not, depending on the mental consciousness's wisdom and sensitivity. Having a premonitory dream indicates that manas still knows some information about karmic seeds. Because manas cannot deliberate on what measures to take to avoid the karmic fruit appearing – perhaps it doesn't even know specifically what will happen – it needs to let the mental consciousness know and then take measures to avoid the evil karma manifesting.

Manas can discern karmic seeds depending on the seeing nature of the Tathagatagarbha; the supernatural power of knowing past lives (pūrva-nivāsānusmṛti) is strong evidence for this. When possessing the knowledge of past lives, the mental consciousness can know what will happen tomorrow, next year, after the end of this life, what will happen in ten, a hundred, a thousand future lifetimes, five hundred great kalpas, or innumerable kalpas. What does the mental consciousness depend on to know this? It depends on manas and the Tathagatagarbha to know, and moreover, manas knows and discerns first, then enables the mental consciousness to discern. Manas can discern things that have not yet happened in future lives; for the present, these things exist in the form of karmic seeds, the events themselves do not yet exist. Therefore, manas can also discern karmic seeds.

II. What causes the scalp to tingle, the body to feel cold, or hairs to stand on end when ghosts or spirits are nearby? What are the premonitions before a person's death?

The various bodily reactions occur because manas learns the information that ghosts or spirits are nearby and then controls the body, producing tense bodily reactions. All the information manas obtains comes directly from the Tathagatagarbha's storehouse. He is the storehouse manager, capable of conditioning all dharmas manifested by the Tathagatagarbha, contacting all dharmas manifested by the Tathagatagarbha, and knowing all dharmas manifested by the Tathagatagarbha, only the knowing is not very clear because its conditioning is too broad, so its wisdom is shallow. The six consciousnesses cannot see ghosts or spirits and do not know they are present, but manas can know. Because manas heavily clings to the self, worrying about danger to itself, it controls the body sense faculty (kāyendriya), directly causing bodily reactions to alert the mental consciousness to pay attention. As long as manas has a psychological reaction, it can directly cause a bodily reaction along with it. Manas, by contacting the brain's central nervous system which affects the nerves throughout the body, can control the body.

There are premonitions before a person's death; family members may have an indescribable feeling. Because before a person dies, the Tathagatagarbha discerns the karmic seeds and conditions, discerns that the five aggregates (skandhas) are about to die, and will emit some signals of death, indicating that the five-aggregate body will soon depart from the world. Manas immediately discerns this information. Manas knows that it is about to die. All its thoughts, plans, decisions, and emotions need to be expressed through the six consciousnesses and the five-aggregate body. Therefore, it needs to let the mental consciousness know this information so it can solve the problem on its behalf.

If the mental consciousness cannot solve or discern the problem, manas will gradually try to find solutions, such as sending dreams to relatives and friends, etc. Because manas is very attached to itself and also concerned about some people and matters, knowing death is inevitable, it will try to inform its relatives and friends and emit some signals – the signs of impending death – for others' manas to sense. While the body is still fine, manas does these strange things, and the mental consciousness wonders why it is doing this, not knowing that manas is making arrangements for after death. Manas knows its life is ending, so it directs the six consciousnesses to create some actions. The mental consciousness doesn't know why, yet unconsciously follows manas's arrangements.

When a person is about to die, their own manas can know. The mental consciousness, due to ignorance, may be unable to know. Therefore, manas has to take the Tathagatagarbha to alert people with whom it has karmic connections, letting them know to facilitate arrangements or avoid some matters. For example, before someone dies, they themselves do not know, and their relatives' mental consciousnesses also do not know, but the relatives' manas knows. It then arranges some special things, yet the relatives do not know why they are making such arrangements. Other relatives and friends can also sense that something is about to happen to them. This person's manas also sends dreams everywhere to their relatives and friends, hinting that something significant is about to happen, but the mental consciousnesses of these people simply cannot believe it and are unwilling to believe it.

The principle within this is that their manas alerts the relatives' manas through the Tathagatagarbha. Then the relatives' Tathagatagarbha alerts the relatives' manas, and the relatives' manas arranges some matters, while the mental consciousness simply does not know why it is doing this. This is the special functional role of manas. He can discern some karmic seeds, can foresee the future with foreknowledge, but cannot express it. He himself has no bodily, verbal, or mental actions; He can only direct the six consciousnesses to perform bodily, verbal, or mental actions to handle matters on His behalf. If the mental consciousness disobeys or disbelieves, He can do nothing but follow conditions.

III. The Relationship Between Manas and the Storage of Karmic Seeds

If the six consciousnesses manifest bodily, verbal, or mental actions and creations, they are all governed by manas, decided by manas, and directed by manas. Manas's governance and decisions are based, on the one hand, on the discernment of the six consciousnesses, and on the other hand, on His own habitual tendencies, inertia, and karma, to govern and decide. Simultaneously, the Tathagatagarbha discerns manas's decisions, cooperates in producing the six consciousnesses, creates bodily, verbal, and mental actions, and feeds back to manas for His discernment. At the same time, the seed consciousnesses (vijñāna-bīja) of the six consciousnesses return to the Tathagatagarbha. In this way, the content discerned and created by the six consciousnesses is brought into the Tathagatagarbha and stored as seeds.

On the other hand, while the six consciousnesses are discerning the six sense objects (ṣaḍ-viṣaya), moment by moment, they transmit the discerned content and information to manas. Manas then knows the detailed situation of the six sense objects – what it originally was like this. What the eye consciousness saw, what the ear consciousness heard, what the six consciousnesses discerned – the seventh consciousness, manas, then knows. Simultaneously, manas also has its own mental activities (citta-saṃskāra). While discerning the information brought by the six consciousnesses, it also gives rise to its own mental activities: there is feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), deliberation (cetanā), afflictions (kleśa), and habitual tendencies (vāsanā). When the mental consciousness and manas give rise to mental activities, seed consciousnesses arise moment by moment, and moment by moment, they cease and return to the Tathagatagarbha. Thus, all the mental activities of the seventh consciousness also fall into the Tathagatagarbha and are stored as seeds.

Among these, when the first six consciousnesses are discerning and creating, whether there are afflictions like greed, hatred, and delusion, whether they are creating actions with greed, hatred, and delusion, whether they are pure or impure, whether they carry certain emotions or not – the Tathagatagarbha records and stores all of this. Then, when the seventh consciousness discerns, discerning the information brought by the first six consciousnesses, whether its entire mental activity carries greed, hatred, and delusion, or does not carry them, whether it is pure or defiled – the Tathagatagarbha makes truthful records and stores it.

The content discerned by the seven consciousnesses, the situation of bodily, verbal, and mental actions, the content of deliberation, whether carrying afflictive defilements or having pure mental activities – manas will record them truthfully, document them truthfully. Why record? What does recording mean? This means that the Tathagatagarbha moment by moment transmits the seed consciousnesses of the seven consciousnesses. After the seven consciousnesses discern and create, the seed consciousnesses return moment by moment to the Tathagatagarbha. Thus, the information discerned by the seven consciousnesses is also brought back, equivalent to being brought into the storehouse. When they will be brought out is uncertain – perhaps in a moment, perhaps the next day, perhaps the next year, perhaps the next life, perhaps many kalpas later; it is all uncertain.

The more deeply seeds are stored, the more easily they manifest. The more lightly seeds are stored, the harder it is to bring them out; karmic seeds are harder to mature, seeds are harder to manifest. That is to say, when we engage in bodily, verbal, and mental actions, the more obvious the mental activity, the stronger the mental activity, the deeper the stored seeds are, the clearer they are, the easier the seeds are to mature, the easier they are to sprout, indicating that these seeds are full. If our mental activity during creation is not intense, the seeds are not full. Seeds that are not full are not easy to manifest, not easy to take root and sprout.

If our impression of a person is not deep, if we are not very interested in them, although we have contact with them and see them, because we are not interested, the discernment is slight. Slight discernment also stores karmic seeds, but the karmic seeds are not deep. In the future, when encountering them again, it is not easy to remember; the previous seeds are not easy to manifest. If one is interested in a person, all mental activities are directed towards that person – either liking them very much or hating them very much – then this mental activity manifests and is stored as seeds in the Tathagatagarbha. Full seeds are easy to mature, easy to take root and sprout, and karmic seeds easily manifest. This principle seems similar to the principle of harvesting crops. If we engage in bodily, verbal, and mental actions with strong mental activity, either very virtuous or very evil mental activity, to create all actions, these seeds, when stored, are deep and easy to manifest.

For example, if we now study the Buddha Dharma with single-mindedness, all our thoughts are used in studying the Dharma, this is stored as seeds. Some people are not very interested in studying the Dharma; they study it perfunctorily. This is also stored as seeds. However, the future functioning of these two seeds is different: one is easy to manifest, the other is not. The person who studies the Dharma single-mindedly, using all thoughts for studying and practicing the Dharma, in the next life, the conditions for studying the Dharma easily mature; they easily encounter the opportunity to study the Dharma. When the conditions ripen, they will single-mindedly immerse themselves, practice very diligently, and achieve significant results. Conversely, another person who does not study the Dharma diligently, the seeds of studying the Dharma are not easy to manifest; in the next life, they are not likely to encounter the conditions for studying the Dharma. The conditions for them to study the Dharma may ripen at an uncertain time; it is difficult to encounter the Buddha Dharma; the seeds are not easy to manifest.

Furthermore, for example, whether our feeling towards a person is indifferent, or hatred and love – these mental activities and karma are all stored, but the stored karmic seeds are different. The time for them to take root and sprout, the earliness or lateness of the seeds maturing, are also different; the timing of their manifestation is different. This means that the content discerned by the seven consciousnesses is stored as seeds, and the mental activity at the time of discernment is also stored as seeds. When hating a person, this mental activity, the clinging of manas, and the hatred of the six consciousnesses are all recorded and stored.

When loving a person, the greed and attachment of manas and the greed and attachment of the six consciousnesses are also recorded and stored. All mental activities, every bit, are not omitted; everything is stored and will manifest in the future. The neutral feeling (upekṣā) of manas and the six consciousnesses, neither pleasant nor painful, is also recorded and stored. All mental activities are recorded and stored. But those karmic seeds have great differences. When the karmic seeds manifest, there are also great differences. The timing of manifestation also differs. These karmic seeds are stored differently, so what is transmitted out is naturally different.

For example, suppose we are in a crowd and meet a person. When hearing them speak, manas suddenly becomes interested and wants to look at this person. The Tathagatagarbha knows this decision and will transmit the eye consciousness and mental consciousness to the vicinity of this person. That is, it transmits them to the part of the superior sense faculties (indriya) related to this person's internal manifestation aspect (pratibimba). Then the eye consciousness and mental consciousness recognize and observe this person. After observing, they discern the situation of this person's appearance, their bodily, verbal, and mental situation, and their various aspects. After the two consciousnesses discern, on the one hand, they store it in the Tathagatagarbha; on the other hand, they hand it over to manas. Manas, based on the eye consciousness and mental consciousness's discernment of this person, then knows what this person's image is.

Knowing what the image is, simultaneously manas deliberates: should it continue observing, or shift its gaze away? The mental consciousness constantly hands over the discerned situation of this person to manas. Manas constantly deliberates and makes choices: to continue talking with them, continue observing them, or shift its gaze to look at others, or listen to other sounds. Manas deliberates and decides. While manas deliberates, it simultaneously brings its own mental activities – feelings, perceptions, thoughts, and discerned content – back to the Tathagatagarbha to be stored as seeds. Finally, when manas makes an overall decision, the Tathagatagarbha also records and stores it. This series of mental activities is stored as seeds.

Another example: after understanding this person's situation, manas no longer wants to look at them, so the gaze shifts away. Or, it lets the ear consciousness listen to their speech. After listening for a while, the mental consciousness analyzes it and finds it meaningless and boring. This content is also transmitted to manas. After manas deliberates, it finds it indeed boring and decides to stop listening. His feeling of boredom is also stored as seeds in the Tathagatagarbha. After the Tathagatagarbha discerns manas's deliberation of not wanting to listen, it no longer manifests the ear consciousness and mental consciousness at the place where that person's sound is arising, so the speech can no longer be heard.

At this moment, suddenly hearing a bird call, manas finds it pleasant and decides to listen further. First, the mental consciousness analyzes and considers this sound pleasant, then reports it to manas. Manas deliberates and thinks: "Hmm, the bird call is quite pleasant, listen more." After listening for a while, the mental consciousness finds it boring and transmits this feeling to manas. Manas knows it is boring and decides to stop listening; attention shifts. Although attention shifts, the act of listening to the bird call is also stored as seeds, but these seeds are stored less deeply.

It is not very deep because the mental consciousness had a bit of neutral feeling, not very interested; later finding it boring is a kind of neutral feeling. Therefore, the seeds are stored shallowly and are not easy to manifest. If interested in that person, manas decides to continue observing them, continue talking with them, continue exploring them, or whatever. Then the six consciousnesses continue discerning and transmit this discerned content back to manas. Manas deliberates again, manas records again, and this entire record, including the final outcome, is all recorded and stored. Among these, the mental activities of manas and the mental activities of the six consciousnesses are also recorded.

Then, at some unknown time, encountering this person again, manas deliberates and lets the mental consciousness recall where and when it met this person before. The Tathagatagarbha transmits the previously stored seeds. The seeds, as mental objects (dharma-āyatana), come into contact with manas. Manas discerns unclearly, so it is still discerned by the mental consciousness. The mental consciousness then recalls some things and transmits the information to manas. Manas also knows some, but the information is incomplete. Manas decides to recall further. The mental consciousness continues recalling, and the Tathagatagarbha continues transmitting the stored seeds from the storehouse.

After the mental consciousness discerns, it recalls: when it encountered this person previously, what the situation was, what the scene was, this person's behavior and demeanor – it all comes to mind. Then it tries to recall this person's name, thinking slowly. The so-called name is also transmitted out by manas from the Tathagatagarbha's storehouse. While transmitting, the six consciousnesses discern moment by moment. The discerned content and information are transmitted back to manas. Manas then deliberates whether to continue recalling. He makes a decision: must show some politeness to this person, shake hands, exchange pleasantries, greet them. As soon as He makes this decision, the six consciousnesses come out to shake hands, greet, exchange pleasantries. Simultaneously, the series of situations where the six consciousnesses exchange pleasantries with this person are also stored as seeds in the Tathagatagarbha. Then these seeds, added to the previous seeds, become slightly deeper than before, the content also increases a bit, and all the information about this person is linked together and stored as seeds.

The six consciousnesses' impression of this person deepens further. In the next life, when encountering them again, manas lets the Tathagatagarbha transmit the seeds. The sixth consciousness (mental consciousness) does not know things from past lives, but manas knows some. Manas is interested in this person, so the six consciousnesses feel somewhat familiar and close. Manas becomes interested, so it lets the six consciousnesses interact with this person. Then the two people will frequently interact; karmic connections (pratyaya) are established in this way.

IV. When Karmic Seeds Ripen, Are About to Manifest, or Have Partially Manifested, Manas Can Condition Them and Discern Them, Only Cannot Confirm What They Are; Knowing Importance or Unimportance, It Therefore Alerts the Mental Consciousness.

When the mental consciousness feels inexplicably strange, it is precisely when manas knows something but cannot express it clearly for the mental consciousness to know explicitly. When the seventh consciousness, manas, knows something is about to happen, the mental consciousness has a vague feeling but cannot figure out specifically what will happen. Sometimes, the mental consciousness feels uneasy, knows something is about to happen, and quickly takes some preventive measures, thus avoiding the risk. This is manas alerting the mental consciousness to the small amount of information it discerned.

Sometimes, when something is about to hit oneself, the mental consciousness has a vague feeling, instantly dodges, and only afterward knows what it was. Then it feels how dangerous it was just now, fortunate to have dodged in time. This is the result of manas alerting the mental consciousness. Sometimes, feeling that someone is acting strangely, knowing what they might do, and thus taking precautions; afterward, seeing that it was indeed so. This is the result of manas alerting the mental consciousness. These phenomena indicate that manas has the ability to foreknow the future, can correspond to karmic seeds about to manifest immediately, and can perceive events about to happen.

V. Karmic Force and Following Conditions

Karmic force (karma-bala) is the habitual momentum from creating karma in past lives, manifested in manas. When encountering events in this life, manas always makes choices based on its own past karmic habits, which the mental consciousness cannot control. Sometimes, the mind clearly knows it is wrong, yet it has no choice but to do it; while doing it, the mind says it shouldn't. People with a little awakening have such internal contradictions. If cultivation is proper, the mental consciousness contemplates correctly according to principle, constantly influencing manas. Manas, being influenced, can change its habitual momentum. When making choices again, it will choose according to the correct principles it has been influenced by, then forming wholesome, principle-conforming habitual momentum. Therefore, it is very important for the mental consciousness to contact wholesome dharmas and contemplate with proper attention.

Encountering wholesome conditions requires causes, conditions, and merit (puṇya). Cultivating much merit enables one to encounter increasingly more wholesome conditions, providing more opportunities to change oneself and more opportunities for liberation. If merit is lacking, wholesome conditions are insufficient; unwholesome conditions frequently manifest. Manas, being influenced, becomes increasingly defiled, and then it is unknown when one can have wholesome conditions to liberate oneself from afflictions. People with little merit, when encountering unwholesome conditions, can be influenced by them. They themselves lack the ability to discern and fundamentally do not want to discern; unable to resist the unwholesome conditions, they follow along. Thus, unintentionally, they create unwholesome karma without even realizing it. This can form unwholesome habitual momentum, defiling the mind life after life.

Conditions (pratyaya) are mostly passive, but some are actively sought by manas. If we single-mindedly seek the Buddha Dharma, we can encounter conditions related to the Dharma. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will also support from behind, enabling us to encounter the Dharma. This is actively sought. Unwholesome dharmas are likewise. For example, if one single-mindedly wants to get rich, one will stop at nothing; then unwholesome conditions are everywhere. Another example: when hungry, manas seeks food and drink, causing the six consciousnesses to search everywhere for food, and as a result, finds it. If one is hungry but doesn't want to eat, one won't search, and perhaps won't encounter food. People with wholesome roots for learning the Buddha Dharma actively seek, seeking liberation, and as a result, encounter the Dharma of liberation. After practicing for a period, they attain liberation. If one does not seek the Dharma of liberation, it is impossible to ultimately attain liberation. This is active seeking; it is absolutely not passive following of conditions. If it were entirely passive following of conditions, the Buddha's task of liberating sentient beings would be easy; just by bestowing a little blessing, all sentient beings could attain liberation.

Some people always talk about "following conditions" (suíyuán), but the conditions for ordinary beings are often mostly unwholesome. If one follows them all, it is bondage to birth and death (saṃsāra). When then can one attain liberation? Therefore, if ordinary beings have the strength, they should try not to follow unwholesome causes and conditions and drift along. Only saints (ārya), whose minds are already pure, can "follow conditions" to exhaust old karma. For ordinary beings, "following conditions" equates to following the karma of birth and death. Because ordinary beings have heavy afflicted minds, if they always follow their own afflicted minds, they will sink deeper and deeper in the river of birth and death, and suffering will increase.