Guide to the Cultivation and Realization of the Manas: Part One
Chapter Eleven: The Manas and Dreams
1. Are the Five Consciousnesses Present in Dreams?
The realms experienced in dreams are all exclusive mental realms, all within the realm of mental objects (dharma-dhātu). They lack the relatively substantial five sense objects (pañca-viṣaya) of the objective realm (nimitta-bhūmi). Due to the absence of these five sense objects, the exclusive mental realm is incomplete and deficient. The isolated mental consciousness (mano-vijñāna) alone discriminates mental objects, resulting in perceptions that are vague, general, and illusory. Consequently, both the mental consciousness and the manas cannot discriminate clearly, making errors unavoidable. Sometimes, errors are particularly numerous and significant, often leading to confusion, such as mistaking one thing for another.
In dreams, discrimination is primarily led by the manas. The manas lacks strong wisdom in discriminating unfamiliar realms and lacks accurate judgment, resulting in unclear and indistinct discrimination of mental objects. Only if the manas possesses concentration (samādhi) and wisdom (prajñā), or if the realm is very familiar, can discrimination be roughly accurate.
If the five sense objects were present in dreams, the five consciousnesses would participate in discrimination, making dreams no different from the waking state. In that case, there would be no dreams or sleep. For instance, in a dream where one sees a river of blood and perceives the blood as red, it should normally be the eye consciousness that discriminates the color red. Yet, since there is no eye consciousness in dreams, who perceives the redness? The *Śūraṅgama Sūtra* states that upon reaching a certain level of cultivation, the manas can substitute for the functions of the six consciousnesses. Generally, in dreams, the manas can also substitute for the functions of the five consciousnesses. Thus, the five sense objects that should be discriminated by the five consciousnesses are also perceived by the manas, resulting in a rough discrimination, such as knowing that the flowing substance is red blood. However, some people’s manas in dreams do not perceive blood or fire as red. Sometimes the manas knows what the five sense objects are; other times it does not. Sometimes dreams seem to have colors, such as red flames; other times, there are no colors, even when the dream should logically be vividly colorful.
2. Why We Do Not Realize We Are Dreaming
Sentient beings dream because the manas continuously grasps and clings to certain dharmas, and the eighth consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna) accordingly manifests the dream realm. Dreams belong to the exclusive mental realm, where the mental consciousness discriminates alone without the cooperation of the five consciousnesses. Since the manifestation of the exclusive mental realm requires fewer conditions, as long as the manas clings to or fixates on certain dharmas, the exclusive mental realm can arise. Then, when the manas contacts this realm, the eighth consciousness gives rise to the mental consciousness to discriminate the exclusive mental realm.
However, during dreams, the mental consciousness lacks sufficient thinking and judgment; its discriminatory power is relatively weak, and its capacity for recognition is not strong. It is mostly passive, being led by the dream without realizing it is a dream. Simultaneously, the introspective power of the mental consciousness is weak, and its wisdom is deficient. It does not recognize that its activities are occurring within a dream, discriminating the exclusive mental realm of the dream. Thus, it does not realize it is dreaming.
If a person has cultivated well, and the manas has been effectively influenced by the Buddha-Dharma and wholesome dharmas, it will not direct the mental consciousness to create unwholesome karma and can control the mental consciousness’s actions. Then, in dreams or during the intermediate state (antarābhava), the manas may also control the six consciousnesses to refrain from unwholesome actions, not manifesting karmic actions in response to unwholesome conditions, and instead direct the six consciousnesses to perform wholesome actions and create wholesome karma. In this way, a wholesome mind corresponds to wholesome rebirths, increasing the likelihood of rebirth in a wholesome realm. Moreover, the mental consciousness, knowing how to choose wholesome paths, may be reborn in a favorable destination.
3. The Manas and Dreams
The manas cannot distinguish between dreams and reality. Sometimes it mistakes dreams for reality; other times, it mistakes reality for dreams. While asleep, the manas is awake and, relying on the Tathāgatagarbha, can discriminate all dharmas. For example, seeing someone approach, it deems the matter important, so the mental consciousness arises and also discriminates it. The manas knows it is sleeping but gives the mental consciousness an illusion, making the mental consciousness think it is in a dream. In truth, it has not clarified whether it is dreaming or awake, so it gets up to take defensive measures. The main reason is that the manas becomes afraid, thus alerting the mental consciousness. When afraid, the mind no longer distinguishes between dream and reality.
4. Precognitive Dreams
Precognitive dreams occur when the manas allows the mental consciousness to know future events in advance, indicating that the manas can know events that have not yet happened and can extend into the future. Why is this so? Because the Tathāgatagarbha, based on karmic seeds, can know matters of the three realms (triloka) in the past, present, and future. The manas, relying on the dharmas perceived by the Tathāgatagarbha, generates its own perceptions. Since the Tathāgatagarbha can perceive all dharmas, the manas can also perceive all dharmas, though the nature of what they perceive differs. Because all dharmas are illusory, they seem miraculous, yet in truth, they are empty, and there is nothing miraculous about them.
5. Isolated Mental Consciousness in Dreams and Wakefulness
During dreams, the isolated mental consciousness perceives the dream realm. Upon waking, the mental consciousness associated with the five senses (pañca-vijñāna) awakens first, followed by the emergence of the five consciousnesses. When recalling dreams, it is the isolated mental consciousness that recalls them, but it differs somewhat from the isolated mental consciousness in the dream. Combined with memory issues, the isolated mental consciousness cannot recall dreams completely and clearly.
6. The Manas Discriminates All Dharmas in Dreams and Reality
If the dream realm connects to the waking realm, it indicates that the manas can discriminate all dharmas in both dreams and reality. Moreover, the manas first discriminates the circumstances of the waking world, pays particular attention to that realm, transforms the external realm into a dream, and involves the mental consciousness in discriminating it.
Although a person is asleep and the six consciousnesses have ceased, the manas can still rely on the Tathāgatagarbha to discriminate all dharmas. For example, the manas can hear the sound of Dharma teachings from an external recorder, but its wisdom in discerning and discriminating is not very strong. If it is interested in the teachings, it may create a dream for the mental consciousness to discriminate the teachings within the dream. However, the manas’s discrimination of the external realm is not very clear. Though the dream relates to the external realm, discrepancies remain, indicating that the manas has not fully comprehended many realms.
From this, we know that whether awake or asleep, the manas knows all dharmas within the six sense objects (ṣaḍ-viṣaya). The key lies in the level of detail and accuracy of its perception. If the manas is extremely familiar with certain matters since beginningless time, discrimination is very fast and accurate. If matters are less familiar, discrimination is slow and inaccurate, with many errors, causing the manifested dreams to differ from reality.
When I first encountered the Buddha-Dharma, one noon, a video about liberation rituals was playing at home. It showed several Tantric masters performing liberation rituals for herds of cattle awaiting slaughter in Tibet. The number of cattle was immense. The front part showed a grand ritual scene, while the rear part showed the gruesome slaughter, with rivers of blood and terrified cattle crying pitifully. The video played for about half an hour to an hour. Since I was not yet fully devoted to Buddhism, I fell asleep while it played. As I slept, I could hear the video’s sound, and dreams emerged. The dream was identical to the video’s content: wherever the video played, the dream followed. I tried to wake up midway but could not, even though I knew the video’s content. The dream presented bloody scenes and the cattle’s cries, with some cattle even kneeling before people.
This dream was entirely generated by the manas. Though asleep and unable to perceive with the six consciousnesses, the manas was very interested in the matter and created the dream, transforming the external objective realm’s images into an exclusive mental realm for the mental consciousness to discriminate. The manas simultaneously perceived both the external and internal realms: it knew the video’s content and the dream’s content. The dream vividly depicted the scenes of liberating and slaughtering the cattle, with the dream and external realms nearly identical. I was aware of the scenes changing one after another but could not wake up.
When dreams are unrelated to external reality, it indicates that the dream’s content was something the manas was interested in, preoccupied with, or focused on during the day. At night, the manas generated the dream. Thoughts by day become dreams by night: the manas’s daytime focus becomes its nighttime focus, thus producing dreams. From dreams, one can gauge a person’s level of cultivation, so some dreams do hold significance.
7. Dreams Reflect Changes in Afflictions
When cultivation reaches the manas, the reduction of ignorance (avidyā) in the manas and the growth of wisdom can transform the root consciousness, enabling increasingly perfect handling of both worldly and transcendental dharmas. Therefore, cultivation must penetrate deeply into the manas. Because the manas is the sovereign consciousness (ādhipateya-vijñāna), it determines physical, verbal, and mental actions, as well as karmic seeds and retribution. It discriminates numerous dharmas and can take charge and make decisions before events occur or as they begin, devising strategies to handle matters well. In this way, our responses to all situations become harmonious and unobstructed, increasingly harmonizing with the surrounding environment, people, affairs, and phenomena, enabling us to liberate more sentient beings.
If cultivation reaches the manas, ignorance diminishes bit by bit, and greed, hatred, and delusion (rāga, dveṣa, moha) gradually weaken, transforming the manas. As the manas’s afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion lessen and fade, this is reflected in dreams. For example, when the manas no longer wishes to cling to certain dharmas, corresponding mental activities, thoughts, and aspirations arise, and the Tathāgatagarbha cooperates by manifesting them in dreams. How are they manifested? Greed, hatred, and delusion represent the defilements of the mind. These mental defilements are represented by impure material realms. As the mind purifies and defilements decrease, the dream may show the person in a filthy environment. The greater the external impurity, the more afflictions are being expelled from the mind, indicating that the mind has become purer than before. Though the realm appears impure, it contrasts with and highlights the mind’s purity.
Thus, dreams also indicate a person’s level of cultivation: whether the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion have lessened and whether the mind is gradually purifying. Of course, the expulsion of defilements before awakening and before attaining the fruits of enlightenment differs somewhat from the subjugation and elimination of greed, hatred, and delusion after attaining the fruits. Before attaining the fruits, during the cultivation of the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment (bodhipakṣika-dharma), the practice of precepts (śīla), concentration (samādhi), and wisdom (prajñā) should indeed subdue some afflictions, making the mind purer than before. This is the result of cultivating precepts, concentration, and wisdom before awakening and attaining the fruits. Otherwise, if the cultivation of precepts, concentration, wisdom, and the thirty-seven factors does not meet the standard, the obscurations of greed, hatred, and delusion remain severe, making it impossible to attain the fruits or realize the mind.
8. The Manas in Dreams
When asleep without dreams, only the seventh consciousness (manas) and the eighth consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna) exist; the first six consciousnesses are absent. Realizing the eighth consciousness in this state enables one to pass the "prison barrier" (牢关) and attain the ability to transcend birth and death. During dreaming and sleepwalking, the sixth consciousness (mental consciousness) exists. To understand the state of sleepwalking, one must first realize the mind (明心) and possess profound wisdom in Consciousness-Only (Vijñapti-mātratā). Only when the dharmas of the manas can be realized and its operations observed can one gradually clarify what sleepwalking entails.
Sleepwalking and dreaming are directly related to the manas. When walking in a dream, the manas controls the consciousness through the hindbrain, thereby controlling the entire body. Thus, during sleepwalking, the limbs and body can move. As children, we often dreamed of searching for a toilet and ended up wetting the bed—all due to the manas. The manas discriminates the body’s condition, recognizes the need to urinate, and thus dreams of finding a toilet to resolve it. If it does not create such a dream, urination occurs directly in bed.
Before waking, the manas discriminates mental objects, albeit unclearly. Then the mental consciousness discriminates them, clarity gradually increases, and we awaken. The consciousness in dreams is the isolated mental consciousness; the consciousness upon waking is the mental consciousness associated with the five senses. Since they discriminate different realms, the waking consciousness may not know the dream realm. Sleepwalking belongs to this category.
9. The Difference Between Sleep and Coma
Sleep is a state actively chosen by the manas. Generally, it is peaceful during sleep, and the mind is at ease in the sleeping state. If the manas feels rested or has matters to attend to, it decides to wake up. Coma, however, is a passive, unwilling state. Due to severe physical trauma, the six sense objects cannot be transmitted normally to the subtle sensory faculties (indriya), preventing the six consciousnesses from functioning. The activities of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) must cease. The manas, aware of this condition of the five-aggregate body, becomes extremely anxious and unwilling, thus constantly seeking opportunities to regain consciousness. Once the body recovers slightly, it struggles to rise and move; if the body fails again, it falls back into coma. Some people may even cause their souls to leave the body to inform family members and seek help. Evidently, the manas is unwilling to be comatose and unable to use the five-aggregate body. It relies on the five-aggregate body to survive in the mundane world, thus clinging to the five aggregates and six consciousnesses, unwilling to die or remain unconscious.
10. Can Listening to Dharma While Asleep Influence the Manas?
Question: While asleep, does the seventh consciousness (manas) sleep? Can it hear the sutra being recited very softly by a sutra player beside the bed? Will the information be stored in the eighth consciousness?
Answer: The seventh consciousness never sleeps or rests. If the seventh consciousness slept, only the eighth consciousness would remain, and one would enter the remainderless nirvāṇa (nirupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa) as an Arhat. The seventh consciousness does not sleep or cease except when Arhats or Pratyekabuddhas enter the remainderless nirvāṇa.
When a sutra player is played after falling asleep, the seventh consciousness can still perceive it, though whether it understands is another matter. However, with prolonged exposure, it can be influenced. As long as the seventh consciousness perceives the sound, it will be stored in the eighth consciousness. The seeds stored differ depending on whether it is understood or not.
