Mental Factors of the Mind base\: A Practical Compass (Second Edition) (with over 30,000 additional words, reorganized)
Section 4: The Importance and Special Nature of the Mental Factors of the Manas
1. Viewing the Mental Factors of the Manas from the Perspective of the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination
The three links taught in the twelve links of dependent origination—ignorance conditions volitional formations (avidyā-pratyayāḥ saṃskārāḥ), volitional formations condition consciousness, and consciousness conditions name-and-form—clearly reveal that the suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death of sentient beings is all caused by the ignorance of the manas. Because of the ignorance of the manas, sentient beings have wholesome and unwholesome karma and the cycle of rebirth in the six realms; thus the ignorance of the manas encompasses all afflictions and is complete with all afflictive mental factors. Because sentient beings have all afflictions, they have segmented birth-and-death (pariccheda-maraṇa) and transformational birth-and-death (parināma-maraṇa); and once the ignorance of the manas is completely eradicated, sentient beings become Buddhas. At that time the manas is complete with all wholesome mental factors, which constantly accompany the manas in its operation; previously they did not operate constantly—especially at the stage of ordinary beings, they rarely accompanied the manas in its operation.
To summarize, the manas is complete with all mental factors, no fewer than the mind consciousness. If the manas were not complete with all afflictive mental factors, the mind would not be so defiled, would create less karma of birth-and-death, and there would be less suffering of feeling; yet for immeasurable kalpas, sentient beings have been complete with all the suffering of birth-and-death and have created all kinds of karma of birth-and-death, which shows that the manas is complete with all afflictive mental factors. If the manas were not complete with all wholesome mental factors, the mind could not be completely and thoroughly pure, and one could not become a Buddha; yet all sentient beings will ultimately become Buddhas, so the manas is complete with all wholesome mental factors. It is just that these wholesome and unwholesome mental factors do not constantly accompany the manas in its operation. In the manas of ordinary sentient beings, only the four great root afflictions—the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), self-conceit, self-grasping, and self-delusion—constantly and ceaselessly accompany the manas in its operation, not departing from it for even a moment. It can be seen that these four great root afflictions are the bane of the karma and suffering of birth-and-death; from these four great root afflictions are triggered the manifest activities of other afflictions, appearing at times and hidden at other times.
Once the affliction of the view of self is severed, the other three root afflictions will also be gradually eradicated accordingly; once the four great root afflictions are severed, all other afflictions will be completely eradicated along with them, and segmented birth-and-death will then be ended. Therefore, after sentient beings eradicate the view of self, the affliction of the view of self can neither constantly accompany the manas in its operation nor intermittently accompany it; and even after the afflictions of self-grasping and self-conceit are completely eradicated, they can neither constantly accompany the manas in its operation nor intermittently accompany it, but will never again accompany the manas in its operation. The same is true of the affliction of self-delusion: once it is completely eradicated, the manifest afflictions of the manas are exhausted, and at the end of life one can depart from the three realms and enter Nirvāṇa without remainder (Anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa).
The wholesome mental factors of the manas of ordinary sentient beings are not complete and cannot constantly accompany the manas in its operation; rather, they appear at times and are absent at times, manifesting at times and hidden at other times. Once the manas eradicates its afflictive mental factors, the wholesome mental factors will gradually become complete and will constantly accompany the manas in its operation; this is then the mental activity of a noble one, not the mental activity of an ordinary being. To summarize: in the manas of ordinary sentient beings, only the four great root afflictions constantly accompany the manas in its operation, while other afflictions appear at times and are absent at times, manifesting at times and hidden at other times—this is exactly how the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra discusses it. The wholesome mental factors of the manas of ordinary sentient beings likewise appear at times and are absent at times, manifesting at times and hidden at other times; after afflictions are eradicated and one becomes a noble one, the wholesome mental factors will frequently accompany the manas in its operation, and ultimately will constantly accompany the manas in its operation.
In recent decades, many people have grossly misunderstood the mental factors of the manas. The reason is severe insufficiency in meditative concentration (samādhi) and wisdom, making them unable to observe directly the mental activities of the manas; their comprehension is also not strong, so they have misunderstood the expositions of the Bodhisattvas, and this misunderstanding has continued to the present. Since the levels of meditative concentration and wisdom of the great Bodhisattvas vary, high and low unequal, their expositions inevitably contain contradictions. When such a situation arises, one should give primacy to the expositions of Bodhisattva Maitreya, who possesses the deepest wisdom; if there are Buddhist sūtras as corroboration, the sūtras should take precedence. If there are no sūtras to corroborate, then one should take genuine realization as the standard and facts as the standard, because facts, after all, prevail over eloquent argument.
2. The Decisive Role of the Manas in the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination
That sentient beings have the great mass of suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death is entirely due to the presence of ignorance, and this ignorance is precisely the ignorance of the manas. Only when the manas has ignorance does it have the mental activity of the volition mental factor (cetanā); with the volition mental factor there is the choice to create karma, and only afterward do the six consciousnesses appear. The first two links of the twelve links of dependent origination belong to the manas, and the six consciousnesses of the third link also appear because of the manas; therefore the manas plays an absolutely dominant role in birth-and-death and a propelling role in all other dharmas. Even the karmic activities of the six consciousnesses in the third link exist in accordance with the manas, and the seeds that fall away and are deposited also exist because of the manas; therefore the name-and-form of future lives exists because of the manas. When the manas is defiled, the six consciousnesses are defiled, the seeds are defiled, and the suffering feelings of name-and-form are many—especially the sufferings of the three evil destinies.
After name-and-form grows, the six sense bases (ṣaḍāyatana) are born; the contact between the six sense bases and the six sense objects is governed by the manas. When the manas has much grasping, there is much contact and much karma of birth-and-death; when there is little grasping, there is little contact and little karma of birth-and-death. As for the feeling, craving, and grasping after contact—although the six consciousnesses have feeling, craving, and grasping, what actually plays the decisive role and can draw forth the birth of the next link is the feeling, craving, and grasping of the manas; if the manas has no feeling, craving, or grasping, the next link will not appear. The last three links—becoming, birth, and aging-and-death—appear entirely because of the grasping of the manas. Therefore, in the arising of the cycle of birth-and-death, the manas plays a decisive role.
The twelve links of dependent origination clarify that the manas is the root of birth-and-death; both liberation and downfall lie in the manas. To end birth-and-death, one must resolve the problem of the manas and break the ignorance of the manas. The manas is also the root of the Four Noble Truths of suffering, its origin, cessation, and the path: suffering comes from the ignorance-driven mental activities of the manas prompting the six consciousnesses to create karma; origin comes from the seeds deposited when the manas prompts the six consciousnesses to create karma; cessation is the eradication of the ignorance-driven mental activities of the manas; and the path is obtained through the manas realizing the Dharma.
Since the manas plays such an enormous decisive role in the cycle of birth-and-death, it must be complete with all mental factors—complete with all wholesome mental factors, afflictive mental factors, and neither-wholesome-nor-unwholesome mental factors. The mental factors of the manas determine the mental factors of the five consciousnesses and determine the mental factors of the mind consciousness. When the mental factors of the manas change, the mental factors of the six consciousnesses change, and all dharmas change accordingly. If the mental factors of the manas are not changed, then even if the mental factors of the six consciousnesses change, they will change back again. If the afflictions of the manas are not severed, then even if the mind consciousness severs its afflictions, afflictions will arise anew; if the manas lacks meditative concentration, then even if the six consciousnesses have meditative concentration, it cannot last long and will inevitably become scattered again.
3. Why Are the Mental Factors of the Manas Not Fewer Than Those of the Mind Consciousness?
In the cultivation and realization of Yogācāra, the manas is the core, because the tathāgatagarbha needs no guidance from anyone and needs no change; in practice one can only apply effort to the manas. Changing the manas changes a person—from ordinary being to a Buddha at the fruition stage; and only by changing the manas can all dharmas be changed. All ignorance resides in the manas; exhaustively breaking the ignorance of the manas one becomes a Buddha; changing the manas changes the seeds, and when all seeds are completely purified and changed, one becomes a Buddha. The ignorance of the mind consciousness all comes from the manas; only depending on the manas do the mind consciousness and its ignorance exist. The mind consciousness and its ignorance are easy to eradicate—not difficult at all; the difficulty lies in the manas. Therefore the mental factors of the manas cannot be fewer than those of the mind consciousness; they should be roughly the same as the mental factors of the mind consciousness. With severe insufficiency in both meditative concentration and the power of observation, one cannot realize the manas, much less observe the operation of its mental factors; not knowing or realizing the state of the manas's operation in any given dharma, one then dares to rashly deny the various mental activities of the manas, insisting they are the mental activities of the mind consciousness.
If the manas does not realize the Dharma, it cannot break ignorance; breaking the ignorance of the mind consciousness alone is useless and changes nothing. It now appears that no matter what is done at the level of the mind consciousness, it is useless; the cultivation and realization of all dharmas must penetrate to the manas before the fundamental problem can be solved. Once this line of thinking is clearly understood, there should be nothing more to say about the cultivation and realization of the Buddha-dharma.
4. The Relationship Between the Mental Factors of the Mind Consciousness and Those of the Manas
Question: "After the consciousness seeds are born and form the seven consciousnesses, the mental factors accompany their operation, and only then do the consciousness-minds have the three natures of wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral (avyākṛta)." These mental factors should belong to the manas, shouldn't they? Because the manas contains innate and discriminated habitual tendencies, while the first six consciousnesses, when born and formed from consciousness seeds, should all be pure, and only after being influenced by the mental factors of the manas do they acquire the three natures. Is this understanding correct?
Answer: Whichever consciousness is operating, the mental factors of that consciousness accompany it. Because the mind consciousness is regulated and directed by the manas, once the mind consciousness begins to operate, the arising of its own mental factors is inevitably influenced and regulated by the mental factors of the manas. When the manas wishes to do good, after the wholesome mental factors arise, they inevitably drive the wholesome mental factors of the mind consciousness to be born, in order to carry out the manas's directive. It is the same when unwholesome mental factors and neutral mental factors arise.
When the manas wants to practice generosity (dāna), it must direct the six consciousnesses to carry out the concrete operation; thus the birth of the six consciousnesses serves to cooperate with the manas, to execute this wholesome act of giving, so the mental factors of the mind consciousness, once born, are necessarily wholesome, consistent with the mental factors of the manas. When the manas wants to practice generosity, it must direct the six consciousnesses to carry out the concrete operation; thus the birth of the six consciousnesses serves to cooperate with the manas, to execute this wholesome act of giving, so the mental factors of the mind consciousness, once born, are necessarily wholesome, consistent with the mental factors of the manas. If the manas does not wish to give, then with respect to this wholesome act of giving, there is no birth or operation of the mind consciousness and its mental factors. That is to say, whenever the mental factors of a consciousness-mind operate, the three natures will appear; therefore, to purify the consciousness-minds, one need only purify the mental factors of the manas at the root, and the other consciousness-minds will be purified accordingly.
When the manas wants to kill and commit arson, it will give birth to the six consciousnesses to accomplish this evil deed, because the concrete operations of killing and arson can only be completed with the six consciousnesses—the manas cannot perform them—so when the six consciousnesses are born, their mental factors are necessarily unwholesome, consistent with the mental factors of the manas. Therefore, only because the manas is complete with all wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral mental factors can it enable the six consciousnesses to be complete with all mental factors to carry out bodily, verbal, and mental actions. It is not as some people say, that the manas has only a portion of the mental factors; if the mental factors of the manas were incomplete, there would be many things the manas could not take charge of and accomplish—and for matters in which the manas does not take charge, how could the six consciousnesses operate?
The mental factors of the mind consciousness are at first consistent with those of the manas, but after deliberation, if it feels the matter is wrong, it will also change its mental factors and turn back to persuade and influence the manas. There are times when the mind consciousness goes against the manas: for example, the manas wants to do something bad, but the mind consciousness hesitates and does not carry it out; after changing its thinking, it can also change the manas's thinking—this is the influence-infusion function of the mind consciousness. Changing the manas is always accomplished through the influence-infusion by the mind consciousness: through experiencing something, the mind consciousness deliberates on the pros and cons, and thus the manas comes to know the pros and cons, and thereafter will make choices in its actions. It is just that the influence-infusion by the mind consciousness is sometimes fast and sometimes slow, depending on the wisdom and skillful means of the mind consciousness.
5. What Does Practice Actually Cultivate?
In the end, does practice mean killing off the mind consciousness or killing off the manas? Killing off the mind consciousness is the cause; killing off the manas is the result. Although killing off the manas is the ultimate goal, the point of entry must still be at the mind consciousness. The mind consciousness dies every night; the mind consciousness of a person in a vegetative state is also more or less dead the whole time, yet in future lives they still cannot avoid the three evil destinies, let alone the cycle of the six realms. What does this show? It shows that the great authority over birth-and-death is held in the hands of the manas; therefore practice must be implemented at the manas—understanding the manas clearly, subduing the manas, and eradicating the ignorance of the manas. How exactly is the ignorance of the manas to be eradicated? Ignorance extends into all afflictive mental factors; then whose mental factors are the afflictive mental factors mainly? Since the ignorance of the manas leads to the suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death, which afflictive mental factor is the manas not complete with? If the manas were not complete with all afflictive mental factors, wouldn't practice then be easy and pleasant?
Some people insist that the manas is neither wholesome nor unwholesome. If that is so, do we still need to practice? Practice means eradicating ignorance and unwholesome dharmas and becoming complete with wholesome dharmas; if the manas had only dharmas that are neither wholesome nor unwholesome, sentient beings would not need to practice. The tathāgatagarbha is neither wholesome nor unwholesome, so the tathāgatagarbha never practices and does not need to practice at all. What would it cultivate, and what would He correct? He has no ignorance, no evil, and nothing deviant. If the tathāgatagarbha were to practice, it would probably go astray and become crooked. Both wholesomeness and unwholesomeness are ignorance; with ignorance there is necessarily wholesomeness and unwholesomeness. The tathāgatagarbha has no ignorance, so He creates neither wholesome karma nor unwholesome karma, responding according to conditions without applying the mind. Only with ignorance is there a mind of anger, and only then does one raise the mind to create the karma of killing; only with ignorance is there delusion, and only then does one create the karma of killing.
6. The Correspondence Between the Five Aggregates and the Eighteen Realms Shows the Importance of the Mental Factors of the Manas
What are the conceptual scope and functions of the aggregate of form, the conceptual scope and functions of the aggregate of feeling, the conceptual scope and functions of the aggregate of perception, the conceptual scope and functions of the aggregate of volitional formations, and the conceptual scope and functions of the aggregate of consciousness? And what are the conceptual scopes and functions of the six faculties (eye faculty, ear faculty, nose faculty, tongue faculty, body faculty, manas), of the six sense objects, and of the six consciousnesses? What are the correspondences? To which of the five aggregates does each of the eighteen realms specifically correspond?
The five faculties, the five sense objects, and mental sense-objects correspond to the aggregate of form. The six consciousnesses and the manas correspond to the aggregate of consciousness and to the aggregates of feeling, perception, and volitional formations. Feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness are intimately related to the seven consciousnesses; form is also related to consciousness—without consciousness there would be no aggregate of form of the five faculties. But ordinary people cannot observe the aggregates of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness of the manas; even the functions of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness of the five consciousnesses cannot be clearly distinguished by most people. Therefore, in the Hīnayāna teachings, the functions of the feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness of the manas are generally not mentioned.
The aggregate of form is accumulated from the seeds of the four great elements; the aggregates of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness are accumulated from consciousness seeds. Consciousness seeds alone cannot perform any function; they must have mental factors cooperating in their operation. Therefore the aggregates of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness are precisely the functions of the mental factors, corresponding to the feeling mental factor, the perception mental factor, and the volition mental factor among the five universal mental factors, and also including the mental factors of attention (manaskāra) and contact (sparśa). The mental factors of the six consciousnesses cannot be separated from the mental factors of the manas; if the mental factors of the manas do not operate, there are fundamentally no six consciousnesses and no mental factors of the six consciousnesses. Therefore the five aggregates and the eighteen realms should correspond one-to-one: the first five faculties and five sense objects correspond to the aggregate of form, while the manas, the mind consciousness, and the five consciousnesses correspond to the aggregates of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness. The commander-in-chief who sets all these dharmas in motion is the manas; the supreme commander is the tathāgatagarbha.
7. The Specific Mental Factors of the Manas
Anger and resentment include the false anger of the mind consciousness and the true anger of the manas; the degree of hatred shows whether it is true hatred or false hatred. The mental factors of the manas and the mind consciousness are not difficult to observe and distinguish, yet nowadays some people study Buddhism like reciting texts from memory, reciting everywhere and treating it as one hundred percent correct, without engaging in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and deliberation. If the manas lacked determination (adhimokṣa), how could it make so many correct choices? Especially the choices to eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and to see the mind and realize one's nature—without determination, how could the manas investigate together with the mind consciousness and finally break through the barrier? Only when the manas has determination regarding the great amount of information provided by the mind consciousness can it correctly discern and make decisions; otherwise all decisions would be wrong—how could sentient beings survive normally?
Even when the mind consciousness is not deliberating, if a major event occurs, the manas can immediately comprehend its seriousness and make a decision on the spot. Without determination there is no wisdom; determination is the prerequisite of wisdom. As for the volition (cetanā) of the manas, no one has been able to state precisely what its content is or how it operates; one can only say that volition means decision-making. As for the specific content of deliberation (manasikāra/manana), and how volition operates—these are even less known.
The same applies to the mindfulness mental factor of the manas: sometimes at night one wants to think about something, and then when it is time to sleep, that thing keeps turning in the mind; the mind consciousness keeps reminding: go to sleep early, stop thinking about it, otherwise you may not be able to get up tomorrow morning. But this only controls it for a while; who knows when one starts thinking about that thing again, and finally one ends up with insomnia. The characteristics of the manas—its grasping, habitual tendencies, and attachments—must ultimately be manifested in its mental factors.
8. Controversies Arise Only from Relying on Persons Rather Than on the Dharma
To observe the operation of the manas directly and as it truly is, one must have the wisdom of the seed-wisdom of Yogācāra, possessing at least the observational wisdom of a bodhisattva at the first bhūmi. It is precisely because the manas cannot be observed and cannot be truly known that there are controversies. Shallow dharmas have no controversies, because everyone can easily observe them; only what cannot be observed gives rise to controversy—otherwise, what is there to dispute? White is white, black is black; only when one cannot distinguish black from white does one dispute. As for what mental factors the manas actually has, who can actually observe and verify them? The sixth and seventh consciousnesses are both defiled with afflictions, with such heavy obscuration—what ability do they have to actually observe? If there is someone capable of verification, simply explaining the verification process would settle the controversy.
Relying on the Dharma means relying on the true characteristics of the manas's operation. If one cannot observe the manas, how can one define the manas according to its true characteristics? How can one truly rely on the actual dharma of ultimate reality? If one cannot rely on the dharma of ultimate reality, then one is relying on persons; relying on persons does not accord with the purport of Buddhist cultivation and realization, entails errors and omissions, does not accord with the Buddha's intent, and even less can one attain the Way.
9. The Unique Functions of the Mental Factors of the Manas
Entering meditative concentration through contemplation, in deep meditative concentration it superficially seems that there are no thoughts, no ideation, no deliberation; but in fact, although the mind consciousness has no thoughts or deliberation, the manas is still applying the mind and deliberating (manasikāra/manana), never having ceased its deliberation, its thoughts never having been interrupted. Therefore the manas is called the consciousness that constantly examines and deliberates; it is only that the wisdom of the mind consciousness is insufficient and cannot observe this. Therefore, what the mind consciousness does not know and the dharmas it cannot observe do not mean they do not exist.
The manas has its unique role in the operation of all dharmas; that the mind consciousness cannot observe it does not mean the manas has no function and no operation. In investigating Chan, in meditative concentration, in sleep, in coma—all the functions the manas performs, the operation of the mental factors of the manas—although the mind consciousness temporarily cannot observe them, one must by no means deny all the functions of the manas; in the future, when one possesses the seed-wisdom of Yogācāra, one will be able to directly observe the operation and mental activities of the manas.
From this it can be seen that the wisdom of ordinary beings and the wisdom of the seed-wisdom of Yogācāra are truly vastly different. Some of us have severely insufficient wisdom of meditative concentration; regarding the mental factors of the manas that we cannot understand or observe, we should not declare that they exist or do not exist, should not say yes or no—maintaining silence and harboring doubt in the mind is what the wise do. Regarding dharmas that one currently lacks the ability to observe and discern, not drawing conclusions lightly means one will not lightly create the karma of slander and will not set up obstacles for one's own progress on the Path—this is the choice of the wise. The sūtras often admonish Bodhisattvas that they should hear profound teachings without terror, hear profound teachings without slandering, and should abide in patient acceptance of the profound meaning of the Dharma.
The marvelous functions of the manas are extremely many, far exceeding our present deliberation and imagination. Only if we do not cling stubbornly to shallow personal views and are not confined by established, limited theories will it be possible in the future to observe more of the functions of the manas. In fact, the ultimate point of studying and practicing Buddhism is to fully develop and observe all the functions of the manas and the eighth consciousness; only after fully realizing them all can one become a Buddha. When all the dharmas of the manas and the eighth consciousness have been explored and realized, there is nothing left to cultivate, and one has reached the stage beyond training (aśaikṣa) of the Great Vehicle.
