Guide to the Cultivation and Realization of the Manas: Part One

Chapter 9: The Manas and Meditative Concentration

1. How to Cultivate Samādhi Meditative States

Observe an image of the Buddha for ten seconds, then look at a white wall, and the image of the Buddha will appear. Without meditative power, the image will disappear in a moment. How does this state arise? This is the phenomenon of visual persistence—it is the memory function of the eye consciousness and mind consciousness, which has not yet penetrated to the manas. The manas has not remembered it; if the manas remembered it, the image would remain for a long time. If the eye consciousness and mind consciousness observe for a long time, they will influence the manas; once the manas remembers, the image will appear anytime and anywhere—this is a samādhi meditative state. Visual persistence dominated by the eye consciousness is brief, while visual persistence dominated by the mind consciousness lasts longer, and one can still see it after closing and reopening the eyes.

What is photographic memory? Content memorized by the mind consciousness alone is forgotten before long, whereas what the manas remembers is very hard to forget—it may even surface involuntarily, or even become impossible to dispel. Photographic memory is the result of deep concentration of the manas, so that instantaneous memory is very firm; if the manas's concentration is shallow, what is memorized is also quickly forgotten. Therefore all meditative states are induced by the manas; the mind consciousness cannot induce a lasting meditative state and can only produce some state very briefly. If we wish to accomplish the various samādhis, we must penetrate to the manas and have the manas induce the states.

If one frequently observes the same image of the Buddha, the manas will remember it, and meditative concentration will arise. See whether the image of that Buddha always appears before your eyes? If it can, then can we cultivate concentration? Can we cultivate the recollection-of-the-Buddha samādhi (buddhānusmṛti-samādhi)? Can we cultivate the contemplation of the white bones? Can we cultivate the Contemplation Sutra of Amitāyus? Visualize the land of bliss (sukhāvatī) in the West; the mind consciousness practices diligently until the manas reaches the point of not forgetting. Then at the time of death, whatever the circumstances, as long as the mind thinks of the land of bliss, the manas can abide in the land of bliss, the land of bliss will manifest, and rebirth there is certain. When practicing diligently, whose diligence is more effective? The manas's diligence is effective; only the manas's diligence is true diligence. If you want the image of the land of bliss to appear, then let the manas recollect the Buddha, with the manas and mind consciousness together visualizing the land of bliss.

2. Eradicating the View of Self Requires the Support of Meditative Concentration

The model for eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) was established long ago by the Buddha; none of these models can be separated from the power of meditative concentration—all involve contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and reflection within meditative concentration. Even when the Buddha taught the Dharma, he required disciples to listen with a concentrated mind and to be able to reflect. The Buddha always said: "Listen well, listen well, and reflect upon it skillfully." People in those days, being simple-minded, all had varying degrees of meditative concentration; they could reflect while listening to the Dharma and all could engage in contemplative practice, so attaining realization seemed very easy.

We people today do not have very good merit; our minds are not simple, full of scattered thoughts, without meditative concentration. Due to limitations of environmental conditions, we cannot cultivate meditative concentration well, so even when the Dharma is taught in great detail, we still cannot engage in contemplative practice, and questioning doubt still does not arise. If one has some meditative concentration, contemplative practice can arise just by looking at the text, questioning doubt will appear, and one will doubt more and more; a person with strong resolve for the Path will give up some worldly affairs, determined to resolve the questioning doubt. Without meditative concentration, contemplative practice is impossible, one cannot penetrate to the manas, the manas cannot exert force, and even though the answer lies right there ready-made, it cannot be obtained.

The Great Mindfulness Sutra (Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna) taught by the Buddha contains methods with both meditative concentration and wisdom; combining concentration and wisdom, eradicating the view of self is fastest. Those methods of reflection were taught by the Buddha very clearly and in great detail; as long as one applies effort and cultivates according to those methods, eradicating the view of self is not too difficult. The Great Mindfulness Sutra is an excellent method of practice, suitable for everyone—it is just that many people are unwilling to put in the effort.

3. The Manas Can Also Have Meditative Concentration

Question: Does the manas constantly engage with all dharmas and never focus on a single dharma?

Answer: The manas indeed has the function and nature of engaging with all dharmas, but He may not be able to engage with all dharmas simultaneously, may not be willing to engage with all dharmas simultaneously, and may not have the energy to engage with all dharmas simultaneously. When the manas is very scattered and engaging with many dharmas at once, if the mind consciousness is unwilling to follow Him in engaging with them, the manas knows that such indiscriminate engagement is useless, and so stops engaging with the dharmas the mind consciousness is not interested in; He will gradually settle down, energy will gradually become concentrated, and thus He subdues His own scattered mind, and meditative concentration arises. This is the result of cultivating concentration, the result of the mind consciousness's wisdom permeating, the result of the mind consciousness's restraint.

Therefore the manas can have meditative concentration; He can subdue His own tendency toward broad engagement, His mind can become more and more concentrated, to the point of focusing more and more on certain dharmas or certain aspects of dharmas. When His attention has emphasis and priority, and the dharmas engaged with are selected, the manas has concentration. For matters the manas is very interested in, without the mind consciousness's restraint, He can naturally concentrate and focus, and the six consciousnesses will be drawn by the manas to focus on what interests the manas. Therefore, to cultivate meditative concentration well, the mind consciousness should select some dharmas the manas is very interested in for the manas to engage with; once the manas becomes focused in this way, meditative concentration will appear, and samādhi can be quickly accomplished.

4. The Functions of the Six Faculties Can Be Transferred

Deaf-mute people have exceptionally sensitive eye faculties; if language ability is poor, hands-on ability will be strong; those who can talk well often cannot do; animals have poor reasoning ability but exceptionally keen intuition. What do these phenomena show? People with extraordinary brains and people with special talents share a common characteristic: painters, musicians, various artists, and scientists—anyone who becomes a master of some kind—share the common feature of having certain defects, differing from worldly people, whether physiological or psychological defects, being somewhat at a loss in worldly life, not harmonizing with worldly people, and often acting contrary to convention and common sense. Why is this?

One master valve controls seven faucets; close one faucet, and the flow of the other six increases; close two, and the flow of the other five increases further; close three, and the flow of the other four increases again; close six faucets, leaving one, and the flow is greatest, its force fierce.

The six faculties follow the same principle: close the eye faculty, and the functions of the other five faculties increase; then close the ear faculty, and the functions of the other four increase; then close the tongue faculty and nose faculty, and the body faculty and manas increase in function; finally close the body faculty, and the manas's function is greatest. If the manas is also closed, there is nirvāṇa—no more water flows. Cultivating concentration means having the manas reduce the dharmas engaged with and concentrate the mind; then meditative concentration will appear, mental power will be strong, and special talents and genius in certain areas will manifest.

5. Why Closing the Eyes Nourishes the Spirit

"Spirit" (shen) means mind consciousnesses: first, the eye consciousness; second, the mind consciousness; third, the manas. The eighth consciousness needs no nourishing—it neither consumes energy nor ever tires.

Can the manas tire? Since beginningless kalpas, the manas, like the eighth consciousness, has never rested; although not always willingly bearing hardship, He grasps at all dharmas and worries about everything. When does He finally become unwilling to worry? Only when the manas realizes that some dharmas truly cannot be obtained does He have to give up and stop worrying. The manas also has times of weariness, boredom, and fatigue; He cannot be consistent from beginning to end. So the manas also needs rest, shifting attention to relatively relaxed and pleasant matters, no longer engaging with troublesome matters. When there is too much engagement, unable to bear the load, He also knows to temporarily set things down.

What most needs nourishing is the mind consciousness, because when the mind consciousness moves, it needs to consume nutrients, especially brain cells. When material energy is insufficient, the mind consciousness feels fatigued. When there is much thinking, the mind consciousness's train of thought cannot keep up; then rest is needed, no longer discriminating, distinguishing, discerning, or deliberating.

Does the eye consciousness need nourishing? When the eyes look at things a great deal, they become fatigued, sore, and painful, vision declines, things are seen unclearly, the head feels dizzy and the brain swollen, and so on. But this is not a problem of the eye consciousness; rather, the eye faculty being fixed on one object for a long time without moving causes neural fatigue. The eye faculty's material form belongs to a part of the body faculty; a problem with the eye faculty is a problem of the body faculty. Feeling fatigue and soreness is tactile sensation, content discerned by the body consciousness.

Because the eye faculty spends a long time looking at things, more energy needs to be consumed; the manas's attention and the mind consciousness's attention both shift onto one object, requiring the consumption of brain cells, which also causes fatigue and weariness. If the optic nerves being constantly taut posed no problem, then it would not matter how long the eye consciousness looks at things. The optic nerves connect to the liver meridian; prolonged looking fatigues and damages the liver meridian, and the liver will develop problems. Problems with the liver affect the mind consciousness's thinking and discrimination. The material body influences the mind consciousnesses, and the mind consciousnesses also influence the material body—body and mind are interdependent.

In fact, the mind consciousnesses never have problems; the issue lies in whether the body's material energy can be supplied sufficiently. For the mind consciousnesses to function normally, the six sense objects must appear normally and the brain cells must be able to function normally. If material form is consumed excessively or supplied insufficiently, the operation of the mind consciousnesses will be affected, and they cannot perform their discriminating function normally.

Closing the eyes to nourish the spirit can also be described as regulating the nervous system's activity, not letting the nervous system be excessively or overly active—especially not engaging in constant, unidirectional, rigid activity—so that the body is not damaged.

6. When the Manas Has Meditative Concentration, Contemplative Practice Can Be Focused

Engaging in contemplative practice every day is an elevation of wisdom for both the mind consciousness and the manas, and of course meditative concentration will also be strengthened. At the beginning of contemplative practice, the components of non-valid cognition and inference are greater; toward the end, the component of direct perception becomes greater and greater, and the mind increasingly can affirm the falsity and unreality of the world of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha). Contemplative practice has a certain process; as the power of concentration strengthens, the wisdom of contemplative practice also strengthens, and strengthened wisdom in turn promotes strengthened meditative concentration. For dharmas brought forth through contemplative practice, confirmation by the mind consciousness is relatively easy, but not so for the manas. Confirmation by the mind consciousness alone brings no change in body and mind whatsoever; to whatever degree the manas confirms, to that degree there is transformation.

If the manas can apply effort single-mindedly in contemplative practice, uninterested in everything else, not overly grasping at body nor at dharmas, meditative concentration will appear, and phenomena such as tranquility (praśrabdhi) and comfort will arise in the body. As long as the mind is fairly focused and has meditative concentration, the Dharma principles that the mind consciousness contemplates and observes are easily accepted by the manas; once the manas accepts them, observation and realization become easy, there will be changes in one's level of understanding, various meditative concentrations will appear—this is the state of samādhi.

7. Can the Manas Engage with a Single Dharma?

The manas cannot engage with only one or two dharmas, but the dharmas He engages with must have priorities and emphases—some He cares about, some He does not; some He applies mind to, some He does not. In this way the key points can be highlighted, letting the six consciousnesses discriminate the key parts—this is concentration.

The mind consciousness also cannot engage with only one dharma; often it must exceed two or three dharmas and so on. For example, when the mind consciousness is within the recollection-of-the-Buddha samādhi, it primarily engages with the Buddha's name and the thought of the Buddha, yet the mind consciousness also knows day and night, knows walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, knows east, south, west, and north, knows the surrounding situation, knows what to avoid—not like a fool who knows nothing but reciting the Buddha's name—yet the mind consciousness is within the samādhi of concentration. When the eye consciousness is within concentration, it attends only to one object before it, but the eye consciousness also knows brightness and darkness and so on.

This shows that concentration is not called concentration only when engaging with a single dharma; when attention is gathered and focus is sufficient, that is the state of concentration. Some people with strong concentration have strong focus and can handle several things at once well, without being distracted toward useless things.

Although the manas has the nature of universal engagement, He does not necessarily have to engage simultaneously with all dharmas and every dharma; His energy is insufficient, so there must be a certain selectivity. What He currently feels is important and meaningful, He engages with; dharmas He is habituated to engaging with, due to the force of habit, He must engage with, but not necessarily allocating much energy and attention to them—the mind need only lightly touch them. For example, I have the authority to manage five hundred people, but at any given moment, I may not have the energy and interest to attend to all five hundred; at each moment, there is selection. The manas is the same: authority is authority, ability is ability, interest is interest. Because the manas's power of meditative concentration and energy are insufficient, and its power of wisdom is also insufficient.

The eighth consciousness, however, is different. With that incomparable Śūraṅgama great samādhi and that supreme great wisdom, at the same time He can engage universally with all dharmas and also process all dharmas at the same time; regardless of far or near, past or present, without any barrier of time and space, He can bless and process them all. Therefore the eighth consciousness has both concentration and wisdom, utterly beyond what the concentration and wisdom of the seven consciousnesses can compare with, and beyond the imagination of bodhisattvas before the bhūmis.

8. Only Those with Concentration Have the Mental Factor of Concentration in the Manas

The manas corresponds with the mental factor of concentration (samādhi-caitta), but the manas of the vast majority of people does not have concentration; only those who have cultivated meditative concentration have the mental factor of concentration in their manas; those without meditative concentration have no mental factor of concentration in the manas. If it were said that even a person with meditative concentration has no mental factor of concentration in the manas, then how could his six consciousnesses be held in concentration?

For example, if the manas is interested in the violets before Him, letting the six consciousnesses appreciate them, and at the same time is interested in the birdsong nearby, the six consciousnesses must divide their attention to listen to the birds; in a while the manas becomes interested in a person, and the six consciousnesses must divide their attention to observe and appraise that person. In this way, how could the six consciousnesses have concentration? The concentration of the six consciousnesses is the result of the manas's concentration; if the manas is not concentrated, the six consciousnesses cannot be concentrated.

9. When the Manas Reduces Its Engagements, There Is Concentration

When the mind consciousness is in concentration, is it truly focused on a single dharma? For example, when recollecting the Buddha, can the mind consciousness focus only on the Buddha's name, unaware of other things? If so, this person could not work, would not know whether it was dark or light, and would not know the directions. Even when entering concentration in seated meditation, one cannot have only a single thought; besides recollecting the Buddha, one still knows one is sitting in meditation, still knows day and night—this is not a single thought, yet it is still called entering concentration.

Therefore the manas also has concentration. When the manas is concentrated, of all the dharmas He contacts, He does not necessarily apply feeling, perception, and volition (vedanā, saṃjñā, cetanā) to all of them, but selectively applies feeling, perception, and volition to only a small portion of dharmas—this is concentration. If the manas had to apply feeling, perception, and volition to all dharmas, then the mind consciousness would have to arise and discriminate all dharmas; not only would the mind consciousness have no concentration and collapse, the manas also could not bear it.

For example, if there are a hundred people in front, the manas can contact them all; if the manas had to apply feeling, perception, and volition to all hundred people simultaneously, whose manas has such great energy? The mind consciousness would be even more unable to cope. If someone had such ability, then give him a hundred tasks to complete simultaneously—one person's workload would equal a hundred people's workload; such a person would be a genius. In reality, this is impossible.

10. Only When the Mind Consciousness Reverses the Manas's Scattered Engagements Can There Be Concentration

The mind consciousness's scatteredness and the appearance of solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) are induced by the manas; if the manas is not scattered, the mind consciousness fundamentally cannot become scattered. If the manas does not dwell on people and affairs of the past, the mind consciousness cannot recall people and affairs of the past. How to subdue the manas's scattered engagement? The mind consciousness must first awaken and first understand the principles, and be able to detect in which areas the manas has habits of engagement and what dharmas He likes to engage with; then analyze the arising-ceasing, changing, impermanent nature of these dharmas, letting the manas know that deluded thoughts are also useless and how constant engagement is bad; then frequently lead the manas to engage with a single dharma, so as to reverse the manas's habit of scatteredness. The manas will gradually stop engaging, deluded thoughts will decrease, and the mind will settle into concentration.

11. The Time from the Manas's Decision to the Mind Consciousness's Arising Is Extremely Brief

In one kṣaṇa, 81,000 seeds of consciousness arise and cease; in one finger-snap there are 90 kṣaṇas, and one finger-snap is at most one second. After the manas contacts the mental sense object, for Him to have the mind consciousness arise, contact the mental sense object, and discriminate it requires not even 0.01 seconds, not even half a kṣaṇa. In such a short time, presumably instruments cannot measure it; only in very, very deep meditative concentration, when the mind consciousness is extremely subtle, can it be perceived; before the eighth bhūmi, bodhisattvas fundamentally have no way to perceive it. Therefore, there are extremely many truths of reality that cannot be realized without profound meditative concentration; wanting to realize any Buddha-dharma without cultivating meditative concentration is impossible. Without meditative concentration, everything relies on inference, guessing, and conjecture; what is derived through inference and analysis has no merit or benefit and cannot sever doubt.

12. Meditative Concentration Prompts the Manas to Deliberate Focusedly

Why is it that when sitting in meditation, one easily thinks things through clearly, and the manas is easily permeated? Because when sitting in meditation, the mind consciousness settles down, no longer has deluded thoughts, rarely produces discriminations of non-valid cognition and inference, and the component of direct perception predominates. In this way, it is easy to permeate the manas, and it also leads the manas to deliberate (manasikāra/manana) on the Dharma principles together; it is easy to understand the principles, and the principles are quickly penetrated.

13. Meditative Concentration Is the Prerequisite for Personal Realization

The manas's wisdom is shallow because the dharmas He engages with are too broad, making focused, detailed discrimination and deliberation impossible; moreover, His own afflictive habits are heavy, engaging everywhere and unable to focus. But in a state of meditative concentration, the manas can maintain focus to the greatest degree, thereby increasing the power of wisdom (prajñā-bala) in deliberation; the mind consciousness also easily observes with direct perception, and the probability that the manas endorses the mind consciousness's conclusions from direct perception is higher, more easily leading to the emergence of realization results.

In summary, personal realization is necessarily the product of many factors coming together, including the condition of meditative concentration, the mind consciousness's direct perception, the manas maintaining focus, and the manas's deliberation being powerful before final confirmation can occur. Among these many factors, meditative concentration is the prerequisite. Without meditative concentration, the mind consciousness does not easily observe with direct perception, the manas does not easily focus, cannot deliberate focusedly, and will not easily endorse the mind consciousness's observations. Therefore, in the process of personal realization, meditative concentration plays a crucial role. The prerequisite for meditative concentration is keeping the precepts, keeping the mind from wandering; the prerequisite for keeping the precepts well is having merit; none of the bodhisattva's six pāramitās can be lacking.

14. Only with Meditative Concentration Can the Manas Naturally Realize the Fruits

Question: All realization of fruits in the Great and Small Vehicles necessarily involves the simultaneous transformation of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses; if only the mind consciousness understands the principles while the manas (manas) has not transformed, at most it is the accomplishment of the wisdom of reflection, and cannot be called personal realization. Yet in Small Vehicle Buddhism, such as the Mindfulness of the Four Foundations Sutra, the various contemplative practice methods taught by the World-Honored One are clearly cultivated by the mind consciousness, with no mention of the manas. May I ask how the manas functions when realizing the fruits?

Answer: Although the World-Honored One, when teaching the Dharma, did not explicitly point out that the manas should also participate in the practice of contemplative practice, all practice includes the practice of the manas. It is only that when a person has no meditative concentration, the practice remains at the level of the mind consciousness; when there is meditative concentration, it necessarily reaches the manas. Even if one does not understand the manas or know its nature, it will naturally be implemented in the manas. It is like how all sentient beings do not know there is an eye consciousness, yet all sentient beings have always been using the eye consciousness—the two are the same principle.

When the World-Honored One taught the contemplation of the four foundations of mindfulness, as long as sentient beings earnestly cultivated according to this teaching, meditative concentration would appear; and as long as there is meditative concentration, the contemplative practice will be implemented in the manas, and the manas will engage in contemplative practice and realize the fruits together with the mind consciousness. Afterwards, the manas will transform body, mind, and world, abiding in the samādhi of purity of the dharma eye. If one does not earnestly cultivate according to what the World-Honored One taught, harboring a mentality of opportunism, meditative concentration certainly will not appear, the manas will not be permeated, will not engage in contemplative practice along with it, will not realize the fruits, and the samādhi state of purity of the dharma eye will not appear.

15. How Can One Prove That the Manas No Longer Engages?

When the manas does not engage, the mind is in concentration. As long as there is concentration, it shows that the manas's engagement has weakened. In the second dhyāna and above, there is only the faint discrimination of the mind consciousness, showing that the manas engages even less. The reduction and disappearance of the mind consciousness's functions both show that the manas no longer relies on the mind consciousness to discriminate mental sense objects, and the manas has little engagement left. Concentration without the mind consciousness is the attainment of no-perception (asaṃjñi-samāpatti); reduction of the mind consciousness's functional mental factors is the neither-perception-nor-non-perception concentration (naivasaṃjñānāsaṃjñāyatana); when the manas has reduced even His own functional mental factors, that is the cessation attainment (nirodha-samāpatti). When the manas has completely and thoroughly ceased engaging, He will enter Nirvāṇa without remainder (Anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa).