The Right Understanding of Manas

Chapter 12: The Manas and Sleep (2)

Fifteen: When asleep without dreams, how can things like pulling the blanket when cold or scratching an itch occur?

When asleep without dreams, although the six consciousnesses are absent, the tathāgatagarbha still manifests the six sense-objects through the six faculties into the supreme faculty (indriya) as usual. The manas knows that the physical body must rest in order to recover from fatigue, so it does not wish to discern these six sense-object realms, and does not give rise to the mental volition (manasikāra) to discern them; consequently, the tathāgatagarbha does not give birth to the six consciousnesses to perform specific discernment. However, the manas still contacts the various mental sense-objects (dharma-viṣaya) as usual, and because its discerning wisdom is weak, it does not quite understand the specific content of the mental sense-objects. When a major change occurs in the mental sense-objects, the manas wishes to discern what the situation actually is. The tathāgatagarbha knows the manas's mental volition, and in accordance with it gives birth to the mind consciousness to discern, and one of the five sense consciousnesses must also emerge to discriminate together with the mind consciousness; only in this way can one handle some matters in a half-asleep, half-awake state.

When the tactile sense-object of cold in the room becomes colder and colder, the manas contacts it and feels it must be dealt with. The tathāgatagarbha then manifests the body consciousness and the mind consciousness to discern the cold tactile object; the two consciousnesses transmit the specific content of their discernment to the manas, and the manas decides to cover with the blanket. The tathāgatagarbha, in accordance with the manas, manifests the body consciousness and mind consciousness to cover up with the blanket. When the body itches, the principle is the same: it is all a case of the manas discerning a special situation of the body faculty that needs to be dealt with and resolved; since it cannot resolve it itself, it can only rely on the six consciousnesses, and the tathāgatagarbha, in accordance, manifests the body consciousness and mind consciousness to deal with the problem of the itchy body. After the matter is handled, the manas knows the body has not rested well, does not wish to do anything more, and the mind consciousness and body consciousness cease, and sleep continues.

Sixteen: What is called sleeping? Who is sleeping? If we say the six consciousnesses can sleep, the six consciousnesses have ceased; if we say the manas can sleep, the manas is nonetheless active just as in the daytime; if we say the tathāgatagarbha sleeps, the tathāgatagarbha nonetheless never undergoes change, and at all times must continuously manifest the six sense-objects and output the seeds of the manas and consciousnesses; if we say the body sleeps, the body is like a piece of wood—how can wood sleep?

The phenomenon of sleeping is a dharma produced by the tathāgatagarbha, in accordance with the needs of the manas and in cooperation with the manas; it is false and unreal, and in fact there is no person who sleeps. The manas knows the body is fatigued and needs rest, so it decides not to discern the six sense-objects and not to let the six consciousnesses create bodily, verbal, and mental actions, letting the physical body rest, in order to replenish the energy the body needs and to consume less energy. Then the five sense consciousnesses cease, the mind consciousness gradually ceases, the body's metabolism slows, activity weakens, the physical body obtains rest and nourishment, and only then can the body continue to work the next day.

Let us further consider: do the six consciousnesses need rest? Is mental fatigue the fatigue of the six consciousnesses? The six consciousnesses do not need rest, because the six consciousnesses do not consume energy, are not generated from the four great material elements, and do not need replenishment of the four great material elements. The consciousness-seeds of the six consciousnesses are continuously transmitted by the tathāgatagarbha moment after moment without interruption; as long as the manas needs them, the tathāgatagarbha will always output the consciousness-seeds to sustain the existence of the six consciousnesses, provided the karmic seeds permit, the physical body's conditions permit, and karmic conditions permit. Mental fatigue is not the fatigue of the six consciousnesses themselves, but rather some condition arising in the physical body—the four great elements out of harmony—so that the six sense-object realms manifested by the tathāgatagarbha in the supreme faculty are obstructed, affecting the normal operation of the six consciousnesses.

When the manas discerns this condition, it decides to rest or sleep, thereby consuming less or none of the four great material elements. After resting well, when the four great elements have been adjusted and are relatively sufficient, the six consciousnesses arise and can operate normally, and only then does one appear full of energy and vitality. Because the body's four great elements are out of harmony and the required nutrients are insufficient, the transmission of the five sense-objects is obstructed, the manifestation of the six sense-objects is not smooth, and the operation of the six consciousnesses is abnormal. Externally it appears to be mental fatigue, but in fact it is that the physical body's material needs cannot keep up. When this situation arises, the manas decides not to let the physical body continue operating, and decides to rest, or sleep, or replenish material energy needs.

Seventeen: The functions of the manas within and outside of dreams

In dreams the manas's role is very prominent, and its various functions are relatively obvious. During the day the mind consciousness is very active, and this often masks the manas's various psychological operations. People with weak powers of observation find it very difficult to observe the manas's deep-level activities; they can only observe the surface activities of the mind consciousness, and often mix the activities of the two together without being able to distinguish them. After falling asleep, when there is no dream there is no mind consciousness, and all psychological activity is the activity of the manas, yet it is not easily known by the mind consciousness. The mind consciousness of ordinary people cannot think about or observe the manas's activities; here we set aside for now the enormous functions of the tathāgatagarbha.

When there is a dream, although the mind consciousness has activities of thinking and discerning, its force of operation is very weak, so the manas's habitual tendencies, mental activities, imputed nature (parikalpita-svabhāva), deliberative nature (manasikāra), and other functions can prominently manifest; the manas's inherent habits, grasping nature, and afflictive nature all leap forth vividly into the dream. At this time the mind consciousness's power of thought is weak and cannot control the manas, so the manas's mental activities are unmasked. Especially for those whose manas has heavy afflictions and grasping, everything is fully displayed in dreams; even the manas's daytime preoccupations can be expressed in dreams.

The manas, like the tathāgatagarbha, never rests and is always working. But what work exactly does He do? Ordinary Buddhist practitioners do not know and cannot observe it, and so they think the manas is rather idle and cannot do much—that good and bad things are all done by the mind consciousness. They do not know to actively investigate the manas's psychological activities, do not aspire to the precious Buddhadharma, and only memorize some terms and concepts.

Eighteen: Someone dreams that their car was crushed and completely vanished, and in the dream feels heartbroken to death; after waking, the heart still aches. Which one's heart aches? Which mind's feeling is so grasping and solid? In the dream, heartache wakes one up; fear wakes one up; joy wakes one up. Why can this happen? Whose feeling is it? Is the mind consciousness in the dream the same as the mind consciousness outside the dream?

What can make the heart ache is the manas. The manas is the continuous consciousness, the same in past and present lives, in dreams and outside dreams, always present. If the heart aches in the dream and likewise aches outside the dream, it must be the manas whose heart aches, because the manas can trigger changes that stir body and mind. When the mind consciousness aches, it is very slight, like a breeze gently brushing the sea surface, without ripples, not provoking reactions of body and mind. In the dream, the manas, through the discernment of the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta), takes the dream as reality, as a truly existing realm, not knowing it is dreaming; therefore it grasps at the dream very strongly, to the point of stirring body and mind, producing the phenomenon of heartache, even to the point of aching awake. After waking, the manas is deeply affected, as if still immersed in the dream, not knowing it has awakened from the illusory dream, so much so that the heart still aches.

Although the solitary consciousness in the dream has already transformed, the manas still grasps at the dream, and the solitary consciousness must recall the dream scenes and also has feelings. Among these, the manas's feelings are relatively deep and subtle, deeply rooted and hard to change, while the mind consciousness's feelings are relatively shallow and superficial, easy to change, and upon encountering objects it is readily influenced by them.

From this we can see that the manas's feeling is not neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā); otherwise it would not cause such great fluctuations of body and mind—would not ache awake, rejoice awake, or cry awake—and it would be impossible, after waking, to keep crying, keep rejoicing, keep aching. Eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), eradicating feelings, eradicating awareness—eradicating the manas's view of self, feelings, and awareness—is the most difficult; eradicating all the mind consciousness's views, feelings, and awareness is comparatively easy.

Nineteen: When asleep, the tathāgatagarbha still contacts the external six sense-objects, and through the five faculties transmits and manifests the inner six sense-objects in the supreme faculty. The manas, relying on the tathāgatagarbha, can see and contact all dharmas manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; therefore all dharmas, whether great or small, important or unimportant, can be seen and discerned by the manas. It can not only perceive major mental sense-objects, but can also perceive extremely subtle ones—for example, the sound of the heartbeat, the sound of breathing, where the body is unobstructed, where it is blocked, where it hurts, where it itches, and so on—the manas can discern and know all of these. Only if it cares and considers them important does it let the mind consciousness come out to handle them; otherwise it continues sleeping quietly.

But the manas can only discern all dharmas roughly, not in detail or clearly. This rough, coarse discernment allows the manas to judge whether something is important and whether the six consciousnesses need to come out for detailed discernment and handling. While sleeping, if the manas discerns that the mental sense-objects are no different from usual, it judges them unimportant, knows the body needs rest, does not wish to let the six consciousnesses come out to discern, has no driving force toward the six consciousnesses, and lets the body continue sleeping. When the mental sense-objects are rather special or major, the manas will decide they should be specifically handled. The tathāgatagarbha then discerns the manas's mental volition and cooperatively gives birth to the mind consciousness; the mind consciousness appears and discerns the mental sense-objects the manas wishes to discern, and one of the five sense consciousnesses must also emerge to discern together, in order to discern clearly; when all five sense consciousnesses appear, the person is fully awake.

The tathāgatagarbha can discern the body faculty and also the first five faculties; the manas, by means of the tathāgatagarbha, can also discern the condition of the five faculties, and thus has a driving force over the five faculties and can direct their operation. The manas can also determine the vitality of the five faculties; if the manas decides to abandon the five faculties, then after leaving them, the five faculties instantly become no different from wood.

Twenty: When having a nightmare, is it the manas or the mind consciousness that struggles desperately to escape the dream?

The manas's control over the physical body can only be achieved under certain conditions; if conditions do not permit, the manas has no way to manipulate its own body. At such times the manas is governed by karmic force, and the five-aggregate body is likewise controlled by karmic force. If the manas could fully control the body faculty, there would be no death, no suffering of illness, no aging, no adverse conditions, no poverty, no disasters. Even the Buddha, although He has no force of evil karma, when His manas wishes to liberate sentient beings and liberate them all, if conditions are insufficient, even the Buddha can do nothing and must wait for conditions to ripen.

Dreams are produced by the manas's攀缘 (attaching to), keeping in mind, dwelling upon, and grasping; they correspond to karmic force, are related to the manas's mental activities, and are related to the manas's mental volition. Within the dream, the mind consciousness thinks, analyzes, and judges whether the dream is real or not, whether it is good or bad; then the manas makes a choice, deciding to break free from the dream. Without the mind consciousness's thinking and judgment, there would be no decision by the manas to break free from the dream, because the manas does not necessarily know the dream's influence on itself, does not necessarily know the dream's good or bad aspects. What struggles is definitely the manas, though perhaps there is also the mind consciousness's activity, because the manas is the consciousness that takes charge and has the power of choice; it regards the five-aggregate body as itself and has grasping and control over the five-aggregate body.

The manas's force of operation is far greater than the mind consciousness's force of operation. If the manas wishes to attain liberation, it is the result of the mind consciousness's cultivation and perfuming. When the manas decides to struggle against karmic force, cultivation is about to break through to a higher level, and the power of the Path is about to increase.

Twenty-one: Waking up is decided by the manas as the master

A: The mind consciousness in the dream knows it is dreaming and wants to wake up—how can it wake? The manas cannot discern that it is dreaming; if the manas knew this was a dream, the dream would end, the mind consciousness would no longer continue discerning and creating, and one would not even dodge if someone were chasing to kill. The mind consciousness roams freely in the dream, but since the five sense consciousnesses are not activated, it is a kind of light sleep; when the five sense consciousnesses activate, one is fully awake.

B: The terrifying scenes and delightful scenes in the dream—the manas cannot discern them, but knows the dream realm is too unusual, and lets the mind consciousness discern it; then the solitary consciousness in the dream transforms into the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna), and one wakes up; afterward the mind consciousness recalls the dream.

A: It seems this can be explained. The sign of waking must be the appearance of the consciousness accompanied by the five senses; the solitary consciousness will not do. Then how does the solitary consciousness in the dream become the consciousness accompanied by the five senses?

B: This requires the direction of the manas; whether one wants to wake up is the manas's affair. In ordinary dreams, the solitary consciousness does not easily transform into the consciousness accompanied by the five senses and directly wake up; only when the dream disappears, or some other major matter outside the dream appears, can the manas let the consciousness accompanied by the five senses appear, thereby waking up; or when the fixed time to get up arrives, the manas can let the consciousness accompanied by the five senses appear, thereby waking up. Or if the dream realm is too terrifying, the manas is frightened and lets the mind consciousness come out to flee, but the mind consciousness cannot act alone—one of the five sense consciousnesses must appear together, and then one must wake. There are very many examples of being startled awake by nightmares; waking from excessive joy is the same. For example, with "ghost pressing the body" (sleep paralysis), the mind consciousness clearly knows, but just cannot wake up, because waking up is decided by the manas as the master.

Twenty-two: When asleep, the five faculties are still in contact with the five sense-objects, but the manas does not attend to or decide to discern the five sense-object realms, so the five sense consciousnesses do not arise; at this time the five sense consciousnesses do not exist—they have ceased. Whether there is a dream or not, there are no five sense consciousnesses; otherwise one would be awake, not asleep. While asleep, the manas still contacts the mental sense-objects and discerns them along with the five sense-objects. Because the manas knows the body should rest and the six consciousnesses should not discern the six sense-objects, the manas does not give rise to mental volition toward the six sense-objects and does not wish to specifically discern them. If the manas attaches heavily to some dharma, deliberates heavily on it, and keeps dwelling on it, the tathāgatagarbha will inevitably comply, giving birth to the solitary consciousness to discern what the manas is deliberating and dwelling upon—this is the dream state.

Twenty-three: A child dreams in the middle of the night of urgently needing to urinate, and as a result wets the bed. At this time there are not only the sixth, seventh, and eighth consciousnesses, because when wetting the bed bodily and mental actions occur, and a weak body consciousness and mind consciousness arise—so four consciousnesses are operating. While dreaming, the mind consciousness feels the urge to urinate; the manas lets the mind consciousness find a place to handle it, and because the child is used to urinating anywhere, not distinguishing time or place, the result is bedwetting. The tathāgatagarbha discerns the manas's mental volition, first awakening the consciousness accompanied by the five senses to arise—the solitary consciousness is replaced by the consciousness accompanied by the five senses—and then the body consciousness arises, and bodily actions such as bedwetting, scratching an itch, turning over, and so on appear. When these things occur in the middle of the night, sleep is not very sufficient. If there are many dreams and they last a long time, the quality of the night's sleep is poor.

Twenty-four: How do dreams appear?

Dreams come from the manas's attaching to and grasping at things experienced and things not experienced; the tathāgatagarbha, in accordance with this attaching nature, manifests the dream. The manas's attaching and grasping nature belongs to the manas's imputed nature (parikalpita-svabhāva). All of the manas's mental activities are known by the tathāgatagarbha; after knowing them, it complies with the manas's mental intentions and karmic force to manifest the dream, letting sentient beings continue attaching and grasping in the dream. If the manas does not attach and grasp, the tathāgatagarbha will not actively manifest dreams.

Therefore, after some people's cultivation becomes effective, their dreams gradually change from turbid to pure, and from many dreams to few dreams; this is because cultivation has already subdued the manas, and after being perfumed, the manas's ignorance lightens and its grasping nature diminishes. Arhats' manas, having completely severed the afflictions of grasping at self and eliminated attachment to worldly dharmas, rarely has dreams appear.

Within a dream, three consciousnesses—the sixth consciousness, the seventh consciousness, and the tathāgatagarbha—are actively operating; the first five consciousnesses are absent, so the images in dreams are very hazy, different from when awake. When awake, the five sense-object realms are all clear and distinct, whereas in dreams the five sense-object realms are not clear and distinct. Although after waking one feels the eyes saw material sense-objects, one cannot see the colors of people and things; although one can feel colors, feel spaciousness, feel light and dark, that is only the mind consciousness's feeling, not the eye consciousness truly seeing these scenes. The realms seen in dreams differ greatly from those seen when awake.

For example, seeing people from past lives, or seeing people from other worlds—these cannot be seen by the eye consciousness. The eye consciousness absolutely cannot see people from past lives or other worlds; otherwise all sentient beings would have the divine eye. Without supernormal powers and the divine eye, the eye consciousness cannot possibly see people and things of past lives, cannot see people and things of future lives, and cannot see people and things of other worlds. If the eye consciousness could see them, the eye faculty could face those material sense-objects; in fact, the eye faculty cannot face those material sense-objects and cannot reach those material sense-objects. Otherwise the eye faculty could go to past lives and other worlds, and the body faculty could also go to other worlds; in fact, the body is still sleeping in bed and has gone nowhere.

The dream is a solitary realm, a mental sense-object realm manifested by the tathāgatagarbha's direct transmission of seeds; only the manas and the sixth consciousness can reach it, and the one that can truly discern clearly is only the sixth consciousness. The manas transmits out karmic seeds and manifests the mental sense-object realm in the dream because the manas has the nature of attaching and grasping (upādāna); when the manas attaches, the tathāgatagarbha complies and manifests the dream. "What is thought of by day is dreamed of by night" illustrates this principle: precisely because of what the manas's mental volition thinks and considers, the manas manifests the dream.

Twenty-five: Who decides sleep?

Sleep is also decided by the manas. When He knows the body needs rest, He decides to sleep and no longer wishes to discern the six sense-objects; at this time the discernment of the five sense consciousnesses and the mind consciousness is cut off, and one enters the sleep state. Of course, in sleep there are no six consciousnesses, only the manas and the tathāgatagarbha—so who is it that sleeps? If the manas craves the six sense-object realms and always wants to discern them, unwilling to stop, then it does not decide to sleep, and the six consciousnesses must continuously discern and create. The mind consciousness feels that without sleep the body is uncomfortable, but if the manas's interest is too strong, the six consciousnesses must remain energetic, craving the six sense-object realms without ceasing. Therefore, sleeping is decided by the manas. During sleep, when the manas discerns that the physical body has recovered its energy and is no longer fatigued, it decides to discern the six sense-objects, and so one wakes up; therefore, waking up is also decided by the manas.

The manas universally attaches to all dharmas; there is no dharma it cannot attach to. If the manas does not attach to some dharma, the mind consciousness cannot discern that dharma, because only with mind (manas) and dharma as conditions does the mind consciousness arise.

Twenty-six: When asleep, does the manas know that it is sleeping?

While sleeping, the manas is very clear that it is sleeping, because sleeping is decided and brought about by the manas. He must look after the physical body so it does not become overly tired and fatigued; when sleep is needed, the manas decides not to discern the six sense-objects, and the tathāgatagarbha accordingly no longer gives birth to the six consciousnesses; the six consciousnesses cease, and one falls asleep. Moreover, during the process of sleep, the manas does not pay excessive attention to the six sense-object realms, reduces interest, and tries not to create, in order to ensure the body rests well. Unless special matters arise that the manas cannot handle, it lets its six-consciousness tools handle them, and then one wakes up; or when the body has rested well, the manas discerns it and lets the six consciousnesses appear, waking naturally; or at the predetermined time, whether or not the body has rested well, the manas will lead the waking from sleep.

From the above situations, during sleep the manas definitely knows it is sleeping, so its behavior differs from when awake. If the manas did not know it was sleeping, its behavior during sleep should be the same as when awake. If the manas were not subject to some restriction, it would not be resigned to having no seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, unable to clearly discern the six sense-objects, nor resigned to having no five-aggregate activity. If the manas, because of some important matter, needs the six consciousnesses to handle things together, it does not want to sleep, the six consciousnesses cannot disappear, and there can be no sleep.

Both sleeping and waking are decided by the manas as the master; so when one is asleep, in the sleep state, the manas definitely knows it. When the manas diligently cultivates, it will decide to diligently practice day and night without craving sleep—especially when practicing the pratyutpanna-samādhi (buddhānusmṛti-samādhi) without sleeping for ninety days, it is entirely the manas's diligence, decided by the manas as the master. Some people sleep very deeply and do not wake even if a mountain collapses; this is because the manas feels the body is too fatigued and does not want to wake, or the manas wants to wake but the body's condition does not permit. If the manas discerns that the body faculty is rather fatigued, or that the current six sense-object realms are extremely dull, it will reduce attaching, and then fall asleep.

Twenty-seven: Whether the manas can actually introspect upon itself or cannot introspect upon itself—if his mind consciousness lacks wisdom, he cannot observe it, nor judge what the manas has done and is doing; when the mind consciousness lacks wisdom, it does not know. So many people trusting their own judgment so much is simply unreasonable.

It is like how, for beginningless kalpas, our tathāgatagarbha has done very, very many things for the world of the five aggregates, yet our mind consciousness is ignorant and does not know at all, and because of this ignorance denies the tathāgatagarbha's existence and the merits He has performed. That your mind consciousness does not know does not mean He does not exist. Likewise, that ignorance prevents one from observing the manas's operations does not mean the manas lacks those functions and cannot operate in this way or that way.

When asleep, the mind consciousness may not know it is asleep, because when asleep there is no mind consciousness; but does the manas know it is asleep? The manas absolutely knows it is asleep, and so the manas does not want this five-aggregate body to have activity. If the manas did not know it was asleep, it would want to create everything; however, the manas knows it is asleep and also knows it is night, so it does not want to know too much or too finely about the six sense-object realms; the six consciousnesses, obediently, do not arise at all, and the body, obediently, does not move. The manas knows that it itself is sleeping, so the manas has the power of introspection (pratyavekṣā-bala) and self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana); it is only that the mind consciousness cannot observe the manas, and so he says the manas does not know it is asleep and has no power of introspection. In deep sleep, that the mind consciousness does not know does not mean the manas does not know; this shows one has still confused these two consciousnesses, taking the mind consciousness's knowing and not-knowing as the manas's knowing and not-knowing.

Likewise, when unconscious, the manas definitely knows it is unconscious, so when the condition of wakefulness appears, it struggles hard to wake up and get up to move. When entering meditative concentration (samādhi), the manas also knows it has entered concentration; at death it also knows death; in a vegetative state, the manas likewise knows, and so in these special states its mental activities and behavior all differ from normal. Therefore there is a conclusion: only ignorant people say the manas knows nothing, does nothing, and can do nothing. If the manas were nothing at all, then what would you yourself be? Also nothing at all! Because you—you are the manas!