Mental Factors of the Mind base\: A Practical Compass (Second Edition) (with over 30,000 additional words, reorganized)

Preface

Modern science, including psychology, is all based on hypotheses combined with experiments, using logical reasoning, deduction, and induction. When the conclusions of deduction and induction finally match the experiments, results are produced. This still involves hypotheses and experiments unrelated to religion; of course, if they have religious beliefs, that would be another matter. With religious beliefs, perhaps such results could never be produced at all, because they would be bound hand and foot by thousands of years of religious worship. Religion does not allow one to surpass one's predecessors; once someone is regarded as a master, that person becomes the absolute standard, forever correct—right even when wrong. Later generations can only prostrate themselves at that person's feet, suppressing all their own wisdom, sealing off their talents and insight. Their views and ideas absolutely must not differ from those of the great masters of the past, let alone surpass or break through them.

The reason why virtuous and aspiring people outside of religion have achieved abundant results is precisely that they are not constrained by authority. Western psychology not only has clear and profound theories but also emphasizes application, applied to sociology, theology, medicine, physical and mental development, and so on, with astonishing results. But our Buddhist community is not like this. The Buddhist community has always valued fame and authority. As long as someone has gained a great reputation, they have a secure position and prestige, and sentient beings will worship them as deities, no longer using their heads rationally to think about anything. Blind worship imprisons and seals off their own minds, making breakthrough realization impossible. In this way, the errors of predecessors will continue into future lives, causing sentient beings, whose wisdom is already insufficient, to become even more foolish.

Regarding the section on the manas and mental factors (caittas) in Yogācāra, because the vast majority of people have no realization whatsoever and cannot directly observe the manas, they lack the ability to discern the profound dharma meanings. Having vaguely absorbed some theoretical knowledge from various places, they feel they already understand it, and they set up the theories they have learned—right or wrong—as levers and measuring standards, measuring everywhere, cutting the feet to fit the shoes, making the essence of the Yogācāra theory of the Buddhadharma even more obscure, blinding the eyes of many people so that no one can walk out of the error zone. The direct contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of Yogācāra and the manas is the wisdom realm of bodhisattvas who have attained the bhūmis. Even enlightened bodhisattvas at the three stages of the virtuous positions (tridaśa-bhūmi) cannot achieve direct contemplative practice and can only understand it somewhat similarly, let alone ordinary beings who are who knows how far from realization—they certainly cannot directly observe the functioning of the manas.

The mental factors of the manas are extremely difficult to verify, but some content, after a long time of study and practice, once one can distinguish the differences between the mind consciousness and the manas, combined with meditative concentration (samādhi), should not be too difficult to directly observe a small portion of the manas' functions. Although this belongs to the part concerning the seed-wisdom of Yogācāra, as long as someone can provide correct guidance, with correct theoretical guidance, plus meditative concentration and contemplative wisdom, realization is still possible. Secular psychology scholars possess a certain observational wisdom and have reached relatively reasonable conclusions—how much more so should we Buddhist disciples who study the Mahāyāna Dharma.

Those with relatively deep meditative concentration and wisdom, who are unwilling to be imprisoned by authority, can also, under the guidance of good spiritual friends (kalyāṇamitra) who possess the wisdom of direct perception, contemplate and observe a portion of the mental activities of the manas. As long as one has grasped the basic concepts and principles, and has strong meditative concentration, by observing one's own and others' psychology, one can clarify the mind consciousness and the manas—this is not a very difficult matter. The key is that Buddhist practitioners nowadays generally lack sufficient meditative power, and their wisdom is even more insufficient, which makes things rather difficult. Researchers in various fields of secular affairs, people with a spirit of inquiry, actually have quite good meditative concentration when conducting exploration, which is why they can achieve some results. If they could only have faith in and accept the tathāgatagarbha Dharma and then realize the tathāgatagarbha, their wisdom would be extraordinary. But they lack the roots of goodness and merit; they do not take refuge in Buddhism, do not take refuge in the Three Jewels, cannot have correct faith in the Buddhadharma, and thus cannot grasp the principle of neither arising nor ceasing.

Those who possess the seed-wisdom of Yogācāra can organically combine the Buddhadharma with all fields of social life, can also extract the Buddhadharma from social life, and can use Yogācāra theory to effectively solve the problems existing in real life, using the Buddhadharma to serve humanity and society. The Buddhadharma touches upon every aspect of social life, and this is especially true of Yogācāra studies—it is impossible to separate them from these secular affairs. Apart from the secular world there would be no Buddhadharma and no Yogācāra. Today's Yogācāra researchers are divorced from reality, do not correspond their study to their own and sentient beings' bodies and minds, only know how to memorize books and follow inherited theoretical knowledge, cannot even grasp their own and others' psychological states, and thus can never realize the profound Dharma of Yogācāra.