The Right Understanding of Manas
Chapter 8: The Relationship Between the Manas and Karmic Seeds
1. Can the Manas Discern Karmic Seeds?
The manas of ordinary beings has the imputed nature (parikalpita-svabhāva); there is not a single dharma it does not grasp at and cling to, and it takes the seeing-nature of the tathāgatagarbha as its own seeing-nature, relying on the seeing-nature of the tathāgatagarbha to have its own seeing-nature. Whatever dharma the tathāgatagarbha conditions, the manas can condition; since the tathāgatagarbha can condition karmic seeds and can discern karmic seeds, the manas can likewise condition karmic seeds and discern karmic seeds. When a karmic seed is about to manifest, the manas can also become aware of the event that is about to occur—supernatural powers work precisely in this way.
Karmic seeds include those from past lives and those created in this life. When a relatively significant karmic seed is about to manifest and its retribution is about to appear, the manas, relying on the tathāgatagarbha, will have some perception of it. But the manas itself cannot create or do anything; it can only alert and hint to the six consciousnesses, hoping through the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses to choose whether to face it or avoid it. However, the manas has no verbal designations and cannot express things clearly for the six consciousnesses to know; it can only act through various kinds of hints. Sometimes, when the karmic retribution is too significant, the manas will try every means to hint to the mind consciousness so that it knows; the mind consciousness then feels that something is about to happen, but does not know exactly what it is or how it will happen, and thus does not know what to do. Internally, it often becomes anxious and unsettled, the mind not at peace; only after the event has occurred does the mind consciousness suddenly realize what happened.
For example, there are omens before death, omens of major events, mental premonitions, and the hints conveyed by prophetic dreams. When these omens appear, the mind consciousness can sometimes sense them and sometimes cannot, depending on whether the mind consciousness is keen. If the karmic retribution is not fixed karma, the mind consciousness may possibly understand that something is going to happen and can quickly find a way to avoid it; if it is fixed karma, the karmic retribution must be undergone, and the mind consciousness generally cannot understand what specific event is about to occur, and even if it understands, it cannot avoid it. For example, if one previously committed great evil karma such as murder or theft, and the public security authorities solved the case, then at the moment just before being arrested, the mind consciousness does not know that it is about to be arrested—if it knew, it could flee, and the karmic retribution could not be realized. But at this point the karmic conditions have ripened, the retribution must be undergone, and the power of karma leaves the mind consciousness no choice. The manas may give a moment of alert, but perhaps hindered by the power of karma, it cannot alert the mind consciousness either; and even if the manas can alert the mind consciousness, due to the power of karma, the mind consciousness still cannot understand.
There are also some karmic seeds that the manas knows about but cannot make the mind consciousness know. Some omens are displayed by the manas, while others are displayed by the tathāgatagarbha. Dreams that carry omens are definitely displayed by the manas; sometimes the mind consciousness knows and sometimes it does not, depending on the wisdom and keenness of the mind consciousness. A prophetic dream shows that the manas does know some information about karmic seeds. Because the manas cannot deliberate and adopt measures to avoid the appearance of the karmic retribution, and perhaps does not even know what specific event is going to occur, it wants the mind consciousness to know, and then take measures to avoid the evil karma manifesting.
That the manas can discern karmic seeds by relying on the seeing-nature of the tathāgatagarbha is well corroborated by the recollection of past lives (pūrvanivāsānusmṛti). With the recollection of past lives, the mind consciousness can know what will happen tomorrow, next year, and after the end of life; it can know what will happen in future lives—ten lives, a hundred lives, a thousand lives, five hundred great kalpas, or countless kalpas hence. Upon what does the mind consciousness rely to know this? It can only know by relying on the manas and the tathāgatagarbha, and moreover it is the manas that first knows and first discerns, and only then can the mind consciousness discern. The manas can discern events of future lives that have not yet occurred; these events, relative to the present, exist in the form of karmic seeds and do not yet exist as actual events—therefore the manas can also discern karmic seeds.
2. When Ghosts and Spirits Are Nearby, One's Scalp Prickles, the Body Turns Cold, or the Hair Stands on End—What Is Happening? What Are the Omens Before a Person Dies?
The various reactions of the body occur because the manas has learned of the information that ghosts and spirits are nearby, and so it controls the body, producing tense bodily reactions. All the information the manas learns comes directly from the storehouse of the tathāgatagarbha—He is the storehouse manager, able to condition all dharmas manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, to contact all dharmas manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, and to know all dharmas manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; it is just that His knowing is not very clear, because His conditioning is too broad and His wisdom is shallow. The six consciousnesses cannot see ghosts and spirits and do not know they are there, but the manas can know; and because the manas strongly grasps at the notion of self, worried that it is in danger, it controls the body faculty and directly makes the body react, in order to alert the mind consciousness to pay attention. As long as the manas has a mental reaction, it can directly bring about a corresponding bodily reaction; through contacting the brain's nerve center, the manas can move the nerves of the whole body and thereby control the body.
There are omens before a person dies; family members may have an indescribable feeling. Because before a person dies, the tathāgatagarbha knows the karmic seeds and karmic conditions, knows that the five aggregates are about to die, and will emit certain signals of death, indicating that the body of the five aggregates does not have long left in this world; the manas immediately knows this information. The manas knows that it is about to die; all of its thoughts, plans, decisions, and emotions can only be expressed through the six consciousnesses and the body of the five aggregates, so it must let the mind consciousness know this information, and then have it solve the problems on its behalf.
If there are problems the mind consciousness cannot solve and cannot know, the manas will gradually find ways to resolve them, such as sending dreams to relatives and friends. Because the manas is extremely attached to itself and also worries about certain people and matters, knowing that it is certain to die, it will find ways to tell its relatives and friends, and emit certain signals—the omens of impending death—so that the manas of others can sense them. While the body is still perfectly fine, the manas does these strange things, and the mind consciousness wonders why it is doing this, not knowing that this is the manas arranging for what comes after death. The manas knows that its life is about to end, so it directs the six consciousnesses to do certain things; the mind consciousness does not know why, yet unconsciously acts according to the manas's arrangements.
When a person is about to die, his own manas knows it, but the mind consciousness, due to ignorance, may be unable to know; so the manas has no choice but to take the tathāgatagarbha along to alert the people with whom he has karmic connections, letting them know, so that certain matters can be arranged or avoided. For example, before someone dies, he himself does not know, and the mind consciousness of his relatives does not know either, but the manas of the relatives does know; so certain special things are arranged, and the relatives themselves do not know why they arranged them this way; other relatives and friends can also sense that something is going to happen to him. This person's manas also sends dreams everywhere to his relatives and friends, hinting that a major event is about to happen to him, but the mind consciousnesses of these people simply cannot believe it and are unwilling to believe it.
The principle here is that his manas, through the tathāgatagarbha, alerts the manas of his relatives; then the relatives' tathāgatagarbha alerts the relatives' manas, and the relatives' manas arranges certain things, while the mind consciousness simply does not know why it is done this way. This is the special function of the manas: He can discern certain karmic seeds and can foresee the future without divination, but cannot express it; He himself has no bodily, verbal, or mental actions, and can only direct the six consciousnesses to perform some bodily, verbal, and mental actions to handle matters on His behalf. If the mind consciousness defies and disbelieves, He can do nothing about it and can only go along with conditions.
3. The Relationship Between the Manas and the Storage of Karmic Seeds
Whenever the six consciousnesses manifest the actions of body, speech, and mind, it is all because the manas is in charge—the manas decides and the manas directs. The manas's taking charge and making decisions is based, on the one hand, on what the six consciousnesses have discerned, and on the other hand, on its own habitual tendencies and its own karmic power. The tathāgatagarbha simultaneously knows the manas's decision, cooperates by producing the six consciousnesses to perform bodily, verbal, and mental actions, and feeds this back for the manas to know; at the same time, the consciousness-seeds of the six consciousnesses return into the tathāgatagarbha, thereby bringing the content of what the six consciousnesses discerned and did into the tathāgatagarbha, where it is stored as seeds.
On the other hand, when the six consciousnesses discern the six sense objects, moment by moment they transmit the content and information of their discernment to the manas, and the manas then knows the details of the six sense objects—so that is how it is. What the eye consciousness saw, what the ear consciousness heard, whatever the six consciousnesses discerned—the seventh consciousness, the manas, knows it all; at the same time, the manas also has its own mental activities: while discerning the information brought by the six consciousnesses, it also gives rise to its own mental activities, with feeling, perception, and deliberation (manasikāra/manana), with afflictions and habitual tendencies. When the mind consciousness and the manas give rise to mental activities, consciousness-seeds arise moment by moment and then cease moment by moment, returning into the tathāgatagarbha; in this way, all the mental activities of the seventh consciousness also fall into the tathāgatagarbha and are stored as seeds.
Among these, when the first six consciousnesses discern and act, whether there are the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion, whether they created greed, anger, and delusion, whether they were pure or impure, whether they carried a certain emotion or not—the tathāgatagarbha records and stores all of it. Then when the seventh consciousness discerns, discerning the information brought by the first six consciousnesses, whether its entire mental activity carries the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion or not, whether it is pure or defiled—the tathāgatagarbha records and stores it all faithfully.
The content discerned by the seven consciousnesses, the circumstances of bodily, verbal, and mental actions, the content of deliberation, whether it carried afflictions and defilement or was a pure mental activity—the manas records it all faithfully and registers it all faithfully. Why record? What does "record" mean? The meaning is that the tathāgatagarbha is constantly transmitting the consciousness-seeds of the seven consciousnesses; after the seven consciousnesses discern and act, the consciousness-seeds return moment by moment into the tathāgatagarbha, thereby carrying back the information discerned by the seven consciousnesses—it is as if they were brought into the storehouse. When they will be taken out is uncertain: perhaps in a moment, perhaps the next day, perhaps the next year, perhaps the next life, perhaps after many kalpas—none of this is fixed.
The more deeply a seed is stored, the more easily it manifests. The more lightly a seed is stored, the harder it is to bring out; the karmic seed does not easily ripen, and the seed does not easily manifest. That is to say, when we perform bodily, verbal, and mental actions, the more evident and the greater the mental activity, the deeper and clearer the stored seed, and the more easily the seed ripens and sprouts—showing that this seed is full and plump. If the mental activity of our actions is not strong, the seed is not plump; an unplump seed does not easily become active, does not easily take root and sprout.
If our impression of a person is not deep and we are not very interested in him, although we have had contact with him and seen him, because we are not interested in him, the discernment is slight. Slight discernment is also stored as a karmic seed, but the karmic seed is not deep; when we meet him again in the future, it is not easy to recall him, and the previous seeds do not easily manifest. If one is interested in a person, all mental activities are directed at that person—either great liking or great hatred—then this mental activity, when expressed, is stored as a seed into the tathāgatagarbha; a plump seed ripens easily, takes root and sprouts easily, and the karmic seed easily manifests. This principle seems to be the same as the principle of harvesting crops. If we perform bodily, verbal, and mental actions, performing all actions and deeds, with strong mental activity—very wholesome or very unwholesome—then this seed, when stored, is deep, and the seed easily becomes active.
For example, suppose we now study Buddhism wholeheartedly, with all our thoughts devoted to studying Buddhism—this is stored as a seed. And some people are not very interested in studying Buddhism; they study it merely as a perfunctory duty—this is also stored as a seed. But these two seeds will function differently in the future: one easily becomes active, the other does not easily become active. For the person who studies Buddhism wholeheartedly, with all thoughts devoted to studying and practicing Buddhism, the conditions for studying Buddhism in the next life will easily ripen; he will easily encounter the opportunities to study Buddhism, and when the conditions ripen, he will wholeheartedly take root in it, practice very diligently, and achieve remarkable results. Conversely, for the other person who does not put his heart into studying Buddhism, the seeds of studying Buddhism do not easily become active, and in the next life he will not easily encounter those conditions for studying Buddhism. The conditions for his studying Buddhism will ripen at some uncertain time; it is not easy for him to encounter the Buddha-dharma, and the seeds do not easily become active.
Take another example: whether our feeling toward a person is indifferent, or hatred and love—these mental activities and karma must all be stored in, but the karmic seeds stored are different; the times when they take root and sprout in the future, and whether the seeds ripen early or late, are also different, and the timing of their manifestation differs. This means that the content discerned by the seven consciousnesses is stored as seeds, and the mental activities at the time of discernment are also stored as seeds. When hating a person, that mental activity, the manas's attachment, and the anger of the six consciousnesses must all be recorded and stored.
And when loving a person, the greedy love of the manas and the greedy love of the six consciousnesses must also be recorded and stored; not a single bit of all mental activities is omitted—all are stored, and all will manifest in the future. The neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā) of the manas and the six consciousnesses—neither pleasant nor painful—must also be recorded and stored; all mental activities must be recorded and stored. But those karmic seeds differ greatly, and when the karmic seeds manifest, there are also great differences; the timing of their manifestation also differs. Since the karmic seeds are stored differently, what is transmitted out is of course also different.
For example, suppose we are in a crowd and meet a person; upon hearing him speak, the manas suddenly becomes interested and wants to look at this person. Once the tathāgatagarbha knows this decision, it will transmit the eye consciousness and mind consciousness to this person's side—that is, to the inner sense-object (inner rūpa-viṣaya) pertaining to this person within the supreme faculty (indriya); then the eye consciousness and mind consciousness identify and observe this person, and after observing, they discern the person's appearance, his bodily, verbal, and mental conduct, and his various aspects. After the two consciousnesses have discerned, on the one hand it is stored into the tathāgatagarbha, and on the other hand it is handed over to the manas; based on the eye consciousness's and mind consciousness's discernment of this person, the manas also knows what this person is like.
Having known what he is like, the manas simultaneously deliberates: should the observation continue, or should the gaze be shifted away? The mind consciousness at all times hands over the information it has discerned about this person to the manas, and the manas at all times deliberates and makes choices: whether to continue talking with him and continue observing him, or to shift the gaze away to look at other people, or listen to other sounds—the manas deliberates and decides. While the manas deliberates, it simultaneously brings its own mental activities—feeling, perception, deliberation—and the content of discernment back into the tathāgatagarbha to be stored as seeds; in the end, when the manas makes an overall decision, the tathāgatagarbha also records and stores it, and this whole series of mental activities is stored as seeds.
Take another example: after learning about this person's situation, the manas no longer wants to look at him, so the gaze shifts away, or the ear consciousness is let to listen to the sound of his voice; after listening for a while, the mind consciousness analyzes it and finds it meaningless and boring; this content is also transmitted to the manas, and after deliberation, the manas feels it is indeed boring and decides not to listen. His mental activity of feeling bored is also stored as a seed into the tathāgatagarbha. After the tathāgatagarbha discerns the manas's deliberation of not wanting to listen, it no longer manifests the ear consciousness and mind consciousness at the place where that person's voice arises, and so the speech can no longer be heard.
At this moment, suddenly a birdcall is heard; the manas finds it pleasant and continues listening. First the mind consciousness analyzes and considers the sound pleasant, then reports it to the manas; the manas deliberates and thinks: "Hmm, the birdcall is quite pleasant, keep listening." After listening for a while, the mind consciousness finds it boring and transmits this feeling to the manas; the manas knows it is boring and decides not to listen, and the attention shifts. Although the attention has shifted, the dharma of listening to the birdcall is also stored as a seed, but the seed stored is not that deep.
It is not very deep because the mind consciousness had a bit of neutral feeling, not much interest, and later felt bored, which is a kind of neutral feeling. So this seed is stored shallowly and does not easily become active. If one is interested in that person, the manas decides to continue observing him, continue talking with him, continue exploring him, or whatever; then the six consciousnesses continue to discern, and transmit this discerned content again to the manas; the manas deliberates again, and the manas records again; this entire record along with the final outcome is all completely recorded and stored. Among these, the mental activities of the manas and the mental activities of the six consciousnesses are all recorded as well.
Then, at some unknown time, this person is encountered again; the manas deliberates and lets the mind consciousness recall where and when this person was seen before, and the tathāgatagarbha transmits the previously stored seeds. The seeds, as inner mental sense-objects (inner dharma-viṣaya), confront the manas; the manas's discernment is unclear, so it is still the mind consciousness that discerns; the mind consciousness recalls some things and transmits the information to the manas, and the manas knows a bit too; but the information is incomplete, so the manas decides to recall further; the mind consciousness continues recalling, and the tathāgatagarbha continues transmitting the stored seeds from the storehouse.
After the mind consciousness discerns, it recalls: a while ago, this person was met—what the situation was, what the scene was, this person's behavior and manner—all are recalled; then it recalls what this person's name is, thinking slowly. The so-called name is also transmitted out by the manas from the storehouse of the tathāgatagarbha. While it is being transmitted, the six consciousnesses discern, and the discerned content and information are again transmitted to the manas; the manas deliberates whether to continue recalling, and He makes the decision that one must be somewhat polite to this person—shake hands and exchange pleasantries, offer greetings; once He makes the decision, the six consciousnesses come out to shake hands with him, greet him, and exchange pleasantries. At the same time, the whole series of circumstances of the six consciousnesses exchanging pleasantries and greetings with this person is also stored as seeds into the tathāgatagarbha; then this seed, added to the previous seeds, is somewhat deeper than before, with more content, and all the circumstances of this person will be linked together and stored as seeds.
The six consciousnesses' impression of this person becomes even deeper; when they meet again in a future life, the manas has the tathāgatagarbha transmit out the seeds. The sixth consciousness does not know the events of past lives, but the manas knows some; the manas is interested in this person, and the six consciousnesses feel some familiarity and warmth. The manas being interested, it lets the six consciousnesses interact with this person; then the two will interact frequently—thus karmic affinity is established.
4. When karmic seeds ripen and are about to manifest, or have partially manifested, the manas can condition them and can discern them, only it cannot confirm what they are; it knows whether they are important or unimportant, and therefore alerts the mind consciousness. When the mind consciousness is baffled, it is precisely when the manas knows something but cannot express it so that the mind consciousness knows it clearly. When the seventh consciousness, the manas, knows that something is about to happen, the mind consciousness has a vague feeling and also cannot figure out what specific event is going to occur. Sometimes, the mind consciousness feels that things are not right, knows something is going to happen, and takes some preventive measures, thereby avoiding the risk—this is the manas alerting the mind consciousness to a tiny bit of information it has discerned.
Sometimes, when some object is about to strike one, the mind consciousness has a vague feeling and instantly dodges; only afterward does one know what it was, and then one feels how dangerous it just was and how fortunate to have dodged in time—this is the result of the manas alerting the mind consciousness. Sometimes one feels that someone is acting strangely and senses what he might be about to do, and so takes precautions; looking back afterward, it turns out to be exactly so—this is also the result of the manas alerting the mind consciousness. These phenomena show that the manas has the ability to foresee the future without divination; it can correspond with karmic seeds that are about to manifest immediately and can perceive events that are about to happen.
5. Karmic Power and Going Along with Conditions
Karmic power is the habitual force of karma-making from past lives, manifested in the manas; when encountering events in this life, the manas always makes choices according to its own habitual force of past karma-making, and the mind consciousness cannot control it. Sometimes the mind clearly knows it is wrong, yet one has no choice but to do it, saying inwardly while doing it that one should not—one who has even a little awakening has this kind of inner conflict. If one practices properly, and the mind consciousness thinks correctly in accordance with the Dharma and frequently perfumes the manas, then the manas, being perfumed, can change its own habitual force; when making choices again, it will choose according to the correctly perfumed concepts, and then form wholesome habitual forces in accordance with the Dharma. Therefore, it is extremely important for the mind consciousness to contact wholesome dharmas and to attend to thinking in accordance with the Dharma.
Encountering wholesome conditions requires causes, conditions, and merit; cultivating more merit enables one to encounter more and more wholesome conditions, giving more opportunities to change oneself and more opportunities for liberation. If merit is lacking, wholesome conditions will be insufficient and unwholesome conditions will always manifest; the manas, being perfumed, will become more and more defiled, and then who knows when a wholesome condition will come to liberate one's afflictions. A person with little merit, upon encountering unwholesome conditions, can be perfumed and carried away by them; he has no ability to discern, does not even want to discern, cannot resist the unwholesome conditions, and follows along—thus unintentionally creating evil karma without knowing it himself; in this way an unwholesome habitual force is formed, and the mind remains defiled life after life.
Conditions are mostly passive, but there are also those the manas actively seeks out. If our every thought conditions toward the Buddha-dharma, we can encounter the conditions of the Buddha-dharma, and the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will also bless us from behind, letting us encounter the Buddha-dharma—this is actively sought; the same applies to unwholesome dharmas: if every thought is about getting rich, one will resort to any means, and then unwholesome conditions are everywhere. Another example: when hungry, the manas conditions toward food and drink, letting the six consciousnesses search everywhere for food and drink, and as a result they find it. If one is hungry but does not want to eat, one will not go searching, and perhaps will not encounter food and drink. A person with wholesome roots who studies Buddhism is actively conditioning, seeking liberation, and as a result encounters the dharma of liberation; after practicing for a period of time, he attains liberation. If one does not condition toward the dharma of liberation, it is impossible to ultimately attain liberation—this is active conditioning, absolutely not passively going along with conditions. If it were entirely passive, the Buddha's deliverance of sentient beings would be easy: with just a blessing, all sentient beings could attain liberation.
Some people always talk about going along with conditions, but for ordinary beings, the conditions are often mostly unwholesome; if one goes along with all of them, it is bondage in birth-and-death—when could one attain liberation? Therefore, if ordinary beings have the strength, they should as much as possible not transmigrate along with unwholesome causes and conditions. Only sages, whose minds are already pure, can go along with conditions to exhaust old karma; for ordinary beings, going along with conditions is equivalent to following the karma of birth-and-death. Because ordinary beings have heavy afflictive minds, if they always comply with their own afflictive minds, they will sink deeper and deeper into the river of birth-and-death, with more and more suffering and distress.
