Compilation of Daily Discourses
Chapter 3: The Practical Cultivation and Realization of the Manas (2)
10. Speculation by Comparing Learned Theories Has Nothing to Do with Realization
Question: Take scratching an itch as an example. After the faculty and sense-object make contact, if there is attention (manaskāra), consciousness will arise (here the manas attends first; at some times the manas attends afterward), and at this time the manas is directing the operation of the body consciousness. So I thought to myself: the seventh and eighth consciousnesses depend on each other (the eighth consciousness has nine conditions); since the manas has appeared, the eighth consciousness should be nearby. Then it should be that at the moment of contact between faculty and sense-object and the manas's attention, the eighth consciousness manifests the body consciousness (the three transformative agencies), and then the manas directs the body consciousness to carry out the scratching. Is this account of the eighth consciousness's existence my deluded inversion, or is it merely a problem-solving approach, still very far from realizing the eighth consciousness?
Answer: At this moment you have neither directly observed the operation of the manas nor directly observed the operation of the eighth consciousness, so what you describe is not fact; it is thinking, imagining, reasoning, and guessing by comparing learned theoretical knowledge. These are all states of non-valid cognition, without direct-perception observation, and therefore none of it can be taken as true. This is how people without meditative concentration study the Dharma: the mind consciousness's function is strong and runs ahead; in fact it is speculation. Even if everything speculated happens to be correct, it is still speculation after all and cannot count.
I have met many people in this state of studying the Dharma. They look quite clever, able to find the key points and focal points of a problem, and then they take shortcuts, using the mind consciousness to think, analyze, summarize, organize, and guess. But doing this obstructs their own path of cultivation and hinders real practice and realization; the result is that cleverness is undone by cleverness. There are also many people who take this kind of conjecture as realization and go around proclaiming that they have become enlightened and attained sagehood. But this is still the beginner stage: meditative concentration has not yet arisen, and the precepts, concentration, and wisdom, the bodhisattva's six perfections, and even the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment have not been cultivated; the causes and conditions for realization are still far too lacking. In the Dharma-ending age, sentient beings have meager merit (alpa-puṇya); they cannot cultivate meditative concentration, cannot uphold the precepts, and are unwilling to cultivate merit, so they can only engage in dry wisdom—and it is precisely this dry wisdom that most obstructs the Path and delays matters, often blocking one's own gate to enlightenment.
11. How to Let the Manas Transform All Dharmas
Question: If I continuously engage in contemplation, or continuously recite the Buddha's name and recite sutras, when my skill is sufficient, the seventh consciousness will have been perfumed and will automatically bring forth the seeds of that cultivation, changing the external environment? Because the external environment is also brought forth by the seventh consciousness?
Answer: Both seeds and realms are brought forth by the tathāgatagarbha prompted by the manas; the manas itself does not manifest seeds. In the process of study and cultivation, as long as the manas's power is great enough and the energy it obtains is great enough, and the tathāgatagarbha complies with the manas's wishes, then nothing is a problem. The realm turns according to the manas's mind. When the manas has been trained so that its mental power is very strong and it single-mindedly and very firmly wants to change the realm or achieve some goal, it will certainly fulfill that wish. If the wish has not yet been fulfilled, it is because the power is still insufficient and further cultivation is needed to accumulate strength. It is like pointing at a stone and turning it to gold—precisely because the manas's mental power is so strong that it forcibly transforms the stone into gold.
When one studies Buddhism well, the mind becomes wholesome and gentle, and before long one's appearance changes—all the result of the mind's transformation. This mind mainly refers to the manas, and also includes the mind consciousness. What is called perfuming the manas is transforming one's own mind. Whether your mind has changed, what it has changed into, and to what degree—you should be able to know by careful observation. Toward people and affairs, in cultivating all dharmas, whether it is sincere or perfunctory and feigned, you should be able to observe; whatever is truly sincere involves the manas. Reciting the Buddha's name divides into true recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti) and false recitation; whether one is truly cultivating or merely pretending to cultivate for show, one should be able to observe oneself. It is not easy to bring any action to the degree of being truly real in the manas; it requires conditions such as precepts, meditative concentration, wisdom, and merit.
All mental activities divide into two levels: the mind consciousness and the manas. For example, whether generosity (dāna) is true giving or just going through the motions to show off can be distinguished by careful observation; whether one's treatment of parents is sincere filial respect or pretense can be distinguished by careful savoring. The cultivation that transforms the mind mostly goes from quantitative change to qualitative change: the accumulation of quantity is in the mind consciousness, while the qualitative change is in the manas—hence it is said the mind consciousness is shallow and the manas is deep. If the manas's wholesome roots are deep, its power great, and it is especially sincere, it can directly achieve qualitative change, transforming everything, without needing to accumulate strength.
Cultivating and perfuming the manas requires long persistence: upholding the precepts perseveringly, making the great bodhi vow, continually practicing meditative concentration, doing things with focused single-mindedness, excluding scattered and confused thoughts, deliberating (manasikāra) single-pointedly, and accumulating much merit and other provisions. To subdue one's mind, most of the time it requires the mind consciousness to deeply contemplate the Dharma principles and the suffering of the world, to perfume and guide the manas; occasionally one needs to hit the wall, to force oneself to turn back and change direction. Therefore hardship is necessary for growth; without experiencing hardship, there is no mind of renunciation and no courageous mind, and cultivation easily becomes lax.
14. The Functions and Roles of AI Robots
Greed, hatred, and delusion are afflictions possessed by the conscious mind; material form (rūpa), which is not a conscious mind, has no afflictions of greed, hatred, or delusion. Although a robot is material form and has no conscious mind—it has no joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness, and no afflictions of greed, hatred, or delusion—robots not only have material properties but are also endowed with crude functions resembling a conscious mind, able to perform crude functions of a conscious mind, namely the function of recognizing text. This recognition of theirs is of a simple, brainless, involuntary-passive, and limited type. In short, its recognition function is not produced by thinking with wisdom, so it lacks the nature of wisdom and can be expediently said to have the attribute of foolishness.
A robot's recognition function is equivalent to a part of the human mind consciousness's function, and this function is rather simplified: it can only recognize textual information, and it has various simple functions such as collecting, organizing, summarizing, generalizing, storing, and outputting information. This information comes from other channels and is all pre-existing old information, not new information developed by the robot itself. What it outputs is always other people's information, always old, already-existing information; it has no new information created by itself. Therefore robots lack the nature of wisdom and can expediently be said to have the nature of foolishness.
No matter how many dharmas a robot can output, it can never achieve consistency with what it says—it can speak but cannot act; it is forever merely a parrot of others' words. It has never realized any of the informational content, and can never realize it. Thus AI robots fundamentally lack the functions and roles of the manas; they have no capacity to be the master and no autonomy.
Some Buddhist students are similar to AI robots: lacking wisdom, they can only use part of the mind consciousness's functions, and rather crudely. The mind consciousness takes what is learned from elsewhere, aggregates, processes, organizes, summarizes, and refines it, then draws a conclusion and considers this its own wisdom, while pride arises at the same time. If this were one's own wisdom, then AI robots would equally have wisdom, and wisdom of great breadth, close to knowing everything within the scope of humanity's existing knowledge. Humans are not as broadly knowledgeable as it; likewise humans are not as rich in knowledge as "Baidu" (Du Niang). Should robots and "Baidu" then attain buddhahood before all humans?
Everyone knows the answer: this is impossible. Since it is impossible, then some people's lofty discourse in the mind consciousness, sounding plausible on every point, is not at all obtained by their own wisdom, still less true wisdom; their words and actions cannot be consistent—words arrive but actions do not. If the manas has no wisdom and has not realized the Dharma, one is still an ordinary person. Only those whose words and actions are consistent possess the sage's direct-perception wisdom, which emerges from one's own inner being—wisdom that belongs to the individual. Only this wisdom is extremely precious; with this wisdom can one transform consciousness into wisdom and ultimately accomplish the Buddha Way. How Buddhism should be studied, how cultivation should be cultivated and practiced—everyone should be clear in their hearts.
15. The Principle of Reciting in the Mind and Listening in the Mind
Reciting in the mind and listening in the mind is not reciting in the mind and hearing with the ear. As for reciting in the mind and hearing with the ear—although it is called hearing with the ear, it is actually not hearing with the ear; the ear consciousness cannot hear the sounds inside the mind, only the external sounds of vocal recitation of the Buddha's name made by the mouth. The mind consciousness hears both inner (mind) and outer (mouth) sounds; the manas, depending on the depth of meditative concentration, participates in the hearing to varying degrees. In mental recitation, no sound is voiced, so in reciting the Buddha's name there is no body consciousness, only the mind consciousness, or the manas together with the mind consciousness reciting the Buddha's name—this mind consciousness is the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta). The conscious mind that listens to the sound of mental recitation is the solitary consciousness listening, and the manas also listens along.
There is another kind of mental recitation: the manas alone recites the Buddha's name. At this time what can observe is also the solitary consciousness, and the manas also introspects along. Generally, when concentration is not deep and there is no power of introspection (pratyavekṣā-bala), the solitary consciousness cannot easily observe the manas reciting the Buddha's name; only when concentration is deep can one observe one's own mind reciting the Buddha's name. When the mind recites the Buddha's name, the deeper the concentration, the deeper the manas's participation in the recitation, and the clearer and more distinct the manas and the solitary consciousness observe one's own mind's recitation—this has already reached the realm of the recollection-of-the-Buddha samādhi (buddhānusmṛti-samādhi).
The manas's mental recitation is also manifested in reciting mantras. When reading sutras and reciting mantras, one can also let the manas recite along; this requires meditative concentration—the deeper the concentration, the deeper the manas's participation. When the mind is quiet, the solitary consciousness can observe the manas's mental recitation, but the manas has no language, words, or sound—only mental recitation, and mental recitation is the recitation of mental concomitants (caittas). When reading sutras and reciting mantras, one should slowly read and recite silently, so that the manas can attentively recite along. When concentration is deep, the manas not only recites deeply and attentively, but its power of introspection is also strong. Here both the solitary consciousness and the manas have powers of introspection, and the two are hard to distinguish; very deep meditative concentration and a very quiet mind are needed to have the power of discrimination, so misunderstanding easily arises about the two's powers of introspection.
Concentration is focused attention. To be able to focus without scattered thoughts, there are two methods: one is extremely fast recitation, leaving no time for scattered thoughts—scattered thoughts cannot keep up and thus cannot appear; the other is extremely slow recitation, where the mind has no thoughts of scattered concerns and thus becomes single-pointedly focused. But the first, extremely fast method can only be used temporarily, not for long, because it exhausts qi and energy, and physical stamina cannot keep up. The strength of concentration directly affects the manas's degree of participation in all dharmas; the more the manas participates, the more things can be accomplished—this is wisdom. Therefore having meditative concentration and the power of concentration is useful not only for studying Buddhism and cultivation, but also of great benefit for surviving in worldly dharmas.
In cultivation, as long as one applies the mind, crossing over one hurdle brings rapid progress. I hope everyone can let go of worldly dharmas and single-mindedly hasten toward the Buddha-dharma, seeking the fundamental and not grasping at the superficial.
16. Why, Knowing All Is Illusory, Do All Dharmas Still Feel So Real?
Question: I clearly know that all dharmas are illusory, yet when I see mountains, rivers, the great earth, flowers, grass, and trees, why do they still seem so real? The sensations of cold, heat, touch, and pain also still feel so real—why?
Answer: One's belief that all dharmas are illusory is known on the basis of learned Buddhist sutra theory; it is acquired knowledge, not yet realized, without direct-perception experience and observation, so this kind of knowing is equal to not knowing. Only after real practice and attaining realization, at the very moment of contacting each dharma, can one personally experience it; only then are the perception, feeling, and cognition real, direct-perception, trustworthy, and reliable. Acquired knowledge has no credibility, cannot be relied upon, and is full of doubts. After realizing that all dharmas are illusory, if one wants to transform all dharmas and be free from all bondage, one needs to cultivate the four dhyānas and eight absorptions, transcending the domains of the aggregate of form, the aggregate of feeling, the aggregate of perception, the aggregate of volitional formations, and the aggregate of consciousness. Only thus can one be liberated from all dharmas, transcend all dharmas, and transform all dharmas.
Many people, even if they can recite the Buddhist sutras backward, cannot eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), cannot see the mind and see the nature, and still less can realize the illusoriness of all dharmas. So claiming to eradicate the view of self after listening to a single lecture is pure fantasy; even after listening to a million lectures, one may not even touch the edge of eradicating the view of self. Because this is not something that can be realized merely by listening with the ears—what the ears hear is knowledge and theory. For theory to become actuality, to become one's own direct-perception wisdom, many stages of processing must be passed through, and completing these stages requires paying a considerable price. Without paying any price at all, just leisurely listening to lectures, those dharmas are like the wind past one's ears, flashing by without leaving much trace. And this is premised on those dharmas being taught correctly; if there are errors, eradicating the view of self is even more out of the question.
The Hīnayāna eradication of the view of self and the Mahāyāna seeing of mind and nature are both cognitive realizations of wisdom, correcting previous wrong views (mithyā-dṛṣṭi). Cognitive realization by wisdom cannot yet change the state of the dharmas themselves; the state of the dharmas themselves is changed through meditative concentration and the power of supernatural powers, including three modes of cultivation: śamatha, samāpatti, and dhyāna. Only after all three modes of cultivation are complete can body and mind and world be entirely transformed, transformed into the pure and perfect realm of a Buddha—at that point the Buddha Way is accomplished. The specific methods of cultivation are all in the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment (Yuanjue Jing).
17. The Level of Wisdom of General-Aspect Wisdom at the Time of Initial Enlightenment
Disciple asks: When one first becomes enlightened and realizes the tathāgatagarbha, general-aspect wisdom arises. Using this general-aspect wisdom to observe the tathāgatagarbha, within what range can one observe?
Answer: At the time of initial enlightenment this range is not very large; the observation is not comprehensive. The range is within the simple operation of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha), rather rough; in complex operations the tathāgatagarbha is hard to observe. Among them, the aggregate of form and the aggregate of volitional formations are primary; the aggregates of feeling, perception, and consciousness can be observed somewhat, but not much and not deeply. Because the aggregates of form and volitional formations are more obvious and easier to observe; on the aggregate of feeling one can roughly observe too, while on the aggregates of perception and consciousness observation is more difficult. All are rough, general observations, unable to enter into details; the observation is not deep or fine.
But this observation is direct-perception observation, that is, present observation. At the very moment of the five aggregates' operation, if seen, it is seen; if not seen, it is not seen. One must not fall into a moment's thinking; no language, words, or sounds appear in between, and one does not fall into the appearances of thinking, deliberating, analyzing, and pondering. Once one falls into deliberation, it is no longer direct-perception present observation. In investigation, once language, words, or sounds appear, meditative concentration is certainly insufficient; the mind consciousness's function of sentimental interpretation has gained the upper hand, the manas's function has weakened, and it is not direct-perception wisdom. Therefore direct perception is necessarily the manas personally arriving at the scene to observe, discover, and witness—not the mind consciousness's kind of mental imagining and mental filling-in. In ancient times, when Chan masters tested disciples, if the disciple hesitated even slightly, wanting to describe in words, the master would often strike down with a blow of the staff, not allowing falling into deliberation and interpretation.
The mind consciousness's deliberative activity is obvious; especially the mind consciousness's solitary deliberation is not direct perception. Only what is observed simultaneously together with the manas is direct perception; the mind consciousness plays an auxiliary role, not a dominant role. The smaller its proportion and weight, the deeper the wisdom; the more it is direct perception, the more it cannot be denied, cannot be retracted, and is not hesitant, but very firm and resolute, without doubt. Clearly, this kind of direct-perception observation is very difficult, requiring both high skill and high wisdom.
From the Tang and Song dynasties after the Sixth Patriarch, it is said that more than a thousand people became enlightened, and some seventeen hundred Chan public cases (gong'an) have been handed down. But not all of these are pure realization; there are also intellectual understandings, and the specific numbers cannot be examined or counted. From the few words of those enlightenment verses, and from the brief dialogues and suggestive descriptions, since there are no details, one cannot distinguish from them whether it was realization or intellectual understanding. Even if they all had meditative concentration, this does not show that whoever has meditative concentration must have realized; of course, those without meditative concentration certainly cannot realize. Only when, within meditative concentration, one is precisely at the moment of the manas's deep investigation and awakens, seeing instantly without falling into the mind consciousness's deliberation, does it count as realization; whatever leans toward the mind consciousness is intellectual understanding, or may not even count as that. Of course, if it is true intellectual understanding, through cultivating concentration and strengthening the manas's investigative skill, it can be transformed into realization.
To have this investigative skill, meditative concentration is indispensable. To have meditative concentration, the physical body must gather qi; when qi gathers, the body is settled; when the body is settled, the mind is settled. To gather qi, first, the body must be healthy, with qi channels flowing smoothly, able to form a strong force that gathers the mind together; second, no scattered confused thoughts, no fantasies or mental wandering—that is, not chasing after dharmas, that is, being able to let go of worldly affairs. If the body's qi is insufficient, qi cannot be gathered; to make qi sufficient, one can practice qi exercises, tonify qi, and dietary or medicinal supplementation also works. Once qi arises, one must follow the movement of qi and let body and mind quiet down; once the momentum forms, meditative concentration appears. Therefore cultivation should begin early, while the body is healthy and strength abundant; do not wait until old age and decline, when nothing works anymore, to think of cultivating—at that point it is probably too late and the skill cannot be built up. Although cultivation is not about cultivating the body, without the body's cooperation, how can one cultivate?
A seventy-five-year-old elderly laywoman spoke with me on the phone; her voice was resonant as a bell, with ample inner qi. At once I heard that her momentum surpassed mine, and surpassed many young people in their twenties and thirties; from her voice, living another twenty years would be no problem. I asked how her meditative concentration was; she said it was very good, reaching the degree of investigating with the manas, without scattered thoughts, with strong qi sensation. I asked about her level of wisdom; she asked me about the general-aspect wisdom at initial enlightenment—within what range can one observe the tathāgatagarbha's operation? At once I understood: over these years her skill and wisdom had greatly advanced, her mind's capacity and breadth were large, her wholesome roots deep—she is a person who will become a great vessel for the Path.
18. Only Obtaining True Wisdom Can One Directly Accomplish the Buddha Way
If the Buddha-dharma is slowly savored, or called deeply investigated, investigating a single phrase can bring entry into concentration—this is called drawing concentration by means of wisdom. Within concentration, the wisdom of investigation continually deepens, and the Dharma meanings become ever more transparent—this is again called drawing wisdom by means of concentration. Concentration and wisdom drawing forth and increasing each other—this is true cultivation, the deepest cultivation, the most fundamental cultivation, and also the most ultimate cultivation, obtaining true wisdom, wisdom cultivated out by oneself. Only such investigation, on the surface, seems slower, as if the amount of knowledge gained were smaller, but in fact it is the fastest cultivation, the most direct straight path, because cultivation takes obtaining wisdom as its ultimate—becoming a Buddha through wisdom.
Conversely, those who do not understand cultivation are rather shallow, pursuing only surface quantities of knowledge, satisfied with knowing much, understanding much, learning much, not understanding the importance of true wisdom, and thus not seeking true wisdom. Pursuing quantity and speed, what they learn and gain is not true wisdom opened up by themselves; in fact they are laymen at cultivation. Seemingly diligent and effortful, in fact their speed is the slowest, because they lack true wisdom. Taking much knowing, much interpreting, and much gaining as wisdom is in fact the foolishness of beginning Buddhists.
19. The Mind Consciousness and the Manas See Differently
Question: Last night after finishing sitting meditation I was about to sleep; soon it began to rain, and the rain struck the glass with crisp sounds. I listened as I slept, and just as I was falling asleep, I felt the rain as if striking my skull; before long it smashed away half of it—pitch black, only half a skull remaining. In my mind I knew and was not too surprised, and fell asleep. Was this because the concentration from just having left the seat had not yet dissipated, or did a hallucination occur?
When leaving the seat from sitting meditation, the mind is quiet and the mind consciousness does not stir thoughts—especially before sleep, the mind consciousness also does not stir. The manas directly perceives the sound of the rain, feels the sound is very loud, and so exaggerated it, using smashing away half the skull to express that the raindrop sounds were very, very loud. What the manas perceives differs from what the mind consciousness perceives—perhaps the difference is very great. Therefore the dharmas we ordinarily see are completely different from the same dharmas seen when realizing ultimate reality (dharmatā), even opposite—only then does one know that all one's former views and opinions were entirely wrong, and one regrets it, slapping one's thigh.
Why is it that after cultivating contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), seeing the breath, seeing bodily actions, seeing the marks of the six sense-objects, before seeing the Path and after seeing the Path, the same dharma is seen so vastly differently? The same drinking of water, bathing, seeing forms, hearing sounds, smelling scents, tasting flavors, feeling touch, knowing dharmas—before seeing the Path and at the time of seeing the Path, the inner feelings and views are completely opposite—why such a great difference?
Before seeing the Path, one is so certain: form is form, sound is sound, scent is scent, flavor is flavor, touch is touch, dharma is dharma, self is self. After seeing the Path, everything is negated: form is not form, sound is not sound, scent is not scent, flavor is not flavor, touch is not touch, dharma is not dharma, self is not self, person is not person. Why such a great difference? What the mind consciousness sees and what the manas sees in meditative absorption (samādhi) are completely different. Therefore the mind consciousness's attaining of the fruits is a joke—such "attaining" and "not attaining" make no difference at all; it is the view of fools. The more foolish sentient beings are, the more self-confident they tend to be. Confident in what? Confident in their foolishness.
Before seeing the Path, the mind consciousness's delusions fly about—various views, long-winded discourses, terribly pleased with itself. After seeing the Path, the mind consciousness finally settles down, and everything must be turned upside down. Whoever loves talking the most, whoever has the most views, whoever is the most stubborn—that person is the most inverted.
