Mental Factors of the Mind base\: A Practical Compass (Second Edition) (with over 30,000 additional words, reorganized)
Section 6: The Mental Factor of Wisdom (2)
18. The Intuitive Function of the Manas
The pre-earthquake reactions of animals are as follows: Cattle, horses, donkeys, and mules become alarmed and restless, refuse to enter their stables, refuse to eat, make a commotion and cry out, fight among themselves, break their tethers and flee, kick the ground, paw the ground, and suddenly bolt while walking; pigs refuse to enter their pens, refuse to eat, cry out and make a commotion, root up their pens, and climb over to escape; sheep refuse to enter their pens, refuse to eat, cry out and make a commotion, leap over the fence to flee, and disturb the flock; dogs bark wildly without cease, whimper, sniff and dig at the ground, bite people, run about wildly, carry their puppies away to relocate, and police dogs disobey commands; cats become alarmed and restless, carrying their kittens away to relocate or up into trees; rabbits refuse to eat grass, make a commotion and cry out in their burrows, and flee in alarm from their burrows; ducks and geese do not go into the water during the day, do not enter their roosts at night, refuse to eat, follow their owners closely, cry out in alarm, and fly high; chickens do not enter their roosts, collide with one another, make a commotion inside the roost, and fly up into trees; pigeons do not enter their nests, perch outside the house, and suddenly startle and fly off en masse; rats come out of their holes in droves during the daytime, stand dazed as if drunk, show no fear of people, scurry about in panic, and carry their young away to relocate; hibernating snakes emerge from their holes, freeze stiff and die in the snow, increase in number, and gather into clusters; fish float up in schools, swim wildly, leap out of the water; fish kept in tanks jump about wildly, bruising their heads and tails until they bleed, leap out of the tank, make sounds, become sluggish, and die.
Before an earthquake occurs, the mind consciousness of animals does not know what specific event is about to happen, but in any case it knows that a disaster is about to appear. On what basis does the mind consciousness know this? As for major disasters, the animals have never experienced them in this life; as for minor disasters, the younger animals have not experienced them either, so the mind consciousness could not possibly know that a disaster is going to occur, let alone know that it involves the life-and-safety issues of themselves and their own kind. What the mind consciousness senses is what the manas, based on past experiences, alerts it to know; only then does the mind consciousness make intense reactions. These reactions are all produced by the manas directing and regulating the six consciousnesses; the six consciousnesses, mobilized by the manas, display all kinds of panicked, flustered, and terrified reactions.
The manas has the function of foreknowledge, able to know in advance events large and small that are about to occur. On what basis does the manas know that a major event is about to happen? The manas is so close to the tathāgatagarbha that they are inseparable, like form and shadow; whatever dharmas the tathāgatagarbha can see, the manas can accordingly see. The tathāgatagarbha sees the essential realm, and the manas sees a shadow identical to the essential realm—the mark is the same, but the functions differ. When the tathāgatagarbha sees that karmic seeds have ripened in their conditions, it successively brings forth some karmic conditions. Once the manas perceives them, it knows what event is going to happen, because the manas is rich in experience; based on these karmic conditions manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, it can immediately judge what event is going to occur, and can even roughly estimate the timing. Therefore, after the manas alerts the mind consciousness to discern, sometimes it urgently urges the mind consciousness to immediately deliberate, judge, and take measures; at other times it lets the mind consciousness slowly and carefully think through countermeasures, making the mind consciousness feel that there is still a certain amount of time, that there is still time.
Animals are very close to nature. For example, with fish, before an earthquake, nature has already undergone some changes—the changes do not begin only at the moment of the earthquake. The changes in nature before an earthquake include the ground, rocks, rivers and seas, climate, and so on, and animals are precisely the ones most dependent on these living environments and closest to these natural environments. These natural environments are manifested and sustained with the participation of the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha can see the object-aspects of these essential realms; afterward, like a mirror reflecting images, the tathāgatagarbha manifests the shadow object-aspects of the essential realms. Relying on the perceiving-aspect of the tathāgatagarbha, the manas can see the shadow object-aspects, and then, based on past experience, the manas can judge what event is going to happen, and thus can perceive that a great disaster is about to occur; thereupon the manas directs and regulates the material body to produce those stress reactions.
Why do humans not know these things, and can only know them through instrumental exploration? Because the karmic retribution of animals is stupidity: their mind consciousness is rather dull, and activities such as deliberation, inference, comparison, analysis, judgment, and research are very poor; the activity of solitary consciousness is also scanty—they rarely engage in idle imaginings, rarely fantasize or dream about the future. Overall, the mental activity of animals' mind consciousness is scanty, so the intuitive function of the manas appears very prominent, and they survive mainly by relying on this intuitive function. The manas can also, relying on the tathāgatagarbha, discern the universe and the material world (receptacle-world); the changes that nature has already undergone and those about to occur are all known to the manas. That is why animals' perception is so keen—precisely because they rely on the intuitive function of the manas.
In humans, however, the intuitive function is mostly covered over and replaced by the clever deliberative activity of the mind consciousness, and does not easily become manifest. Only when the mind has settled into stillness—that is, under relatively concentrated (samādhi) conditions, after the deliberative and inferential activity of the mind consciousness has been suppressed—can the intuitive function of the manas come into play. Only then do a person's senses become keen, and only then can one, without relying on the mind consciousness, know some secrets not easily known to people and uncover the answers to certain mysteries.
The manas has existed since beginningless kalpas; it is likewise an "elder," having experienced countless and again countless human affairs, events, and principles, knowing an incalculably vast number of things. Therefore it is widely experienced, seasoned, and omniscient—in the heavens and below, in the past and future. Thus, as long as the tathāgatagarbha can manifest some karmic conditions, the manas can independently judge the events about to occur; this is called foreknowledge.
Why does the manas have habits and inertia? The manas carries the thoughts, views, and ideas of past lives, throughout kalpas, continuously into the present—that is why they are called habits and inertia. The mind consciousness has no habitual tendencies or inertia from past lives. The manas has experienced countless things over immeasurable kalpas, so when encountering relatively important and urgent matters, He makes decisions according to His own experience. He has experienced so very much that when encountering special emergencies, He knows without thinking, can decide, and can take charge. These are all manifestations of the intuitive function of the manas.
19. The Manas's Independent Discernment of Sounds Is Vague
Question: One day I was sleeping in a daze and heard sounds from a broadcast device. At the time my mind knew it was the sound of the Buddha's name, but when I tried hard to listen, I could not make out the specific content. When I became a bit more awake, I made out that it was the sound of the sacred name Amitābha being played. When I was in a drowsy sleep, I only heard the sound, which shows that my ear consciousness received the sound-object, but my mind consciousness was not fully awake and could not clearly distinguish the mental objects. Is that so?
Answer: When one wakes from sleep, generally the mind consciousness appears first and the five sense consciousnesses appear afterward; only when the two combine can the six sense-objects be clearly discerned. When the mind consciousness has partially awakened but the ear consciousness has not yet arisen, the sounds heard are vague and indistinct. Moreover, just before waking, the manas can also hear the sound of Buddha-recitation, but the manas often cannot distinguish it clearly and may discern it in a confused way. However, because it has often heard the sound of Buddha-recitation, the manas is very familiar with it; although it will not discern it in a confused way, its discernment is still not very clear. The mental activity just before waking belongs to the manas; when the mind consciousness has just awakened, it is easy to discover the manas.
When a person is near death, because the four great elements are disintegrating, the disintegration of the body faculty is especially painful; therefore the mind consciousness has little mental energy to discern the sound mental-objects that arise, and the mental objects it knows are vague. Furthermore, due to the disintegration of the four great elements of the supreme faculty, the inner six sense-objects transmitted into the supreme faculty through the nervous system from the external six sense-objects become fewer and fewer, increasingly blurred and indistinct, and what the mind consciousness perceives becomes weaker and weaker, less and less clear. But if one's ordinary cultivation has been effective, with deep roots of goodness and deep merit, one will receive the Buddha's blessing and empowerment, the mind will not become confused, and one can be reborn in the land of bliss (sukhāvatī), or be reborn in a good destination.
20. How Does the Manas Discern the Material Body?
Question: The six consciousnesses, including the seventh consciousness, the manas, all operate in the head. So how does the body consciousness know the changes in tactile objects of the organs inside the body? Does the manas know the changes in bodily tactile objects through the mind consciousness and body consciousness, or does it know the body's changes through the tathāgatagarbha? Which changes does the manas need to know through the six consciousnesses, and which changes does the manas need to know through the eighth consciousness?
Answer: All parts of the material body are divided into the object-aspects of the essential realm, and the real-object realm (niyata-jātīya) and the object-aspects of the dependent-on-essence realm (adhipati-sahaja) that the tathāgatagarbha separately manifests based on the essential realm. All the forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and dharmas of the body must be transmitted through the afferent nerves to the supreme faculty in the hindbrain to become the inner object-aspect. When faculty and object contact and consciousness arises, the body consciousness and mind consciousness can then discern the body's tactile objects; what is discerned is all the inner object-aspect within the brain's supreme faculty, while what is transmitted to the supreme faculty before that is the outer object-aspect.
The manas discerns the body's condition through two avenues: One avenue is to make its own discernment based on the eighth consciousness's discernment, which can only discern the general, rough situation; this is an independent discernment made before the body consciousness and mind consciousness discern, and the discernment is not detailed, after which it makes a decision. The other avenue is to make its own discernment based on the information discerned by the body consciousness and mind consciousness, which can, with the help of the six consciousnesses, know relatively subtle conditions, and then make a decision.
21. A Baby's Innate Knowing Is the Wisdom of the Manas
Changing the manas—perhaps a single major accident is enough to make the manas greatly different from before. If you don't believe it, try it: after playing with fire and suffering severe burns, one is guaranteed never to play with fire again; drive recklessly, fall into a ditch, suffer a bone fracture, and one will never dare to drive recklessly again. "Bitten by a snake once, one fears even a well rope for ten years"—that is exactly this principle. After experiencing major events, some people will leave behind aftereffects; for example, as soon as others mention similar matters, the manas will panic psychologically, feel fear and trembling, and never want to face those people and events again. Some children, having been abused once, will be deeply scarred, never willing to contact that person again, nor willing to hear that person's name; upon hearing the name, they will feel terrified and uneasy.
When a small child first touches something hot, it naturally dodges away; when encountering cold, it naturally shrinks its neck and shivers all over. This shows that the manas innately understands cold and heat, without being taught by anyone. When a baby is struck for the first time, it also knows to cry loudly and knows pain—no one taught it this either. Babies innately know fullness and hunger, so they cry and fuss when hungry; and the crying and fussing are also innate—no one teaches them how to cry and fuss.
Those feelings of pain in babies—no one teaches them, saying: "This is pain; at this time you should cry, and you should cry like this." When a baby is first held and caressed by its parents, it feels very comfortable; no one teaches the baby that being held is comfortable, that being caressed is comfortable, that this is what comfort is, or that comfort should be expressed this way. None of this is taught; babies know it innately.
Subhūti was foremost among the Buddha's disciples in understanding emptiness; in a past life he had already realized the emptiness of all dharmas, so even in his mother's womb he knew it was empty, and at birth he also knew it was empty. Thereupon it resonated such that all the family's property entirely vanished into emptiness, and then all the property appeared again. This emptiness was what the manas had realized and brought along. Some things require the combined operation of the six consciousnesses and the five aggregates to be accomplished, and since the five aggregates and six consciousnesses are new, learning and adaptation are needed. The difference in each person's speed of learning is caused by the difference in the manas's experience.
When the mind consciousness first begins studying Buddhism, everyone's mind consciousness is equally ignorant, but before long differences appear. Some people study their whole lives and still remain at the level of a single phrase of the Buddha's name, still at the stage of reading Buddhist sutras, while others, after one month, seek out Chan school classics to study, and after one year want to investigate Chan and attain enlightenment. Why such a great difference? The manas's experiences differ, and the length of time studying Buddhism differs—differing by even more than immeasurable kalpas—and the difference in wisdom leads to enormous differences in studying Buddhism.
22. The Manas's Innate Wisdom for Survival
Animals innately possess self-protection abilities; they are born this way. At birth, the mind consciousness is very weak and has no survival experience, so when encountering various states, it cannot deeply deliberate, analyze, and judge; yet the animals also know to avoid danger, know hunger, and can use sounds to express their inner needs and fears. When they have grown a little, the mind consciousness's capacity for deliberation, analysis, and judgment is still not very strong, and they likewise have little survival experience; yet when encountering fierce wild beasts, they know fear, know to hide, know to protect their vital parts, and know to protect the head first. When animals attack weaker animals of different species, they nevertheless know where the opponent's vital parts are and directly attack those vital parts.
These behaviors are all directed by the manas; the six consciousnesses, complying with the manas's direction, produce various bodily actions. So just how powerful is the manas's capacity to know? How powerful is its deliberative nature? Why does the manas innately know these things? On what basis does it take charge and make choices? How great is its connection with the five aggregates' conditioning in past lives? How does it bring the content conditioned by the five aggregates in past lives into the present life, and how does it correspond to the karmic seeds? If these questions can be thought through clearly, one will no longer be so ignorant about the manas, and even less will one regard the manas as a piece of wood, thinking that He has no remarkable functions and is inferior even to the mind consciousness—one will absolutely never have such thoughts again.
23. The Manas's Wisdom of Discerning the Material Body
Although sleep is decided by the manas, the manas has no intention to make the six consciousnesses cease; He has no concept of the six consciousnesses. It is only that the deliberation mental factor (cetanā) decides not to discern the six sense-objects, and the tathāgatagarbha complies with the manas: the seeds of the six consciousnesses arise fewer and fewer, more and more slowly; the six consciousnesses' discernment becomes weaker and weaker, and finally ceases—and so one falls asleep, and body and mind are at peace. The instructions issued by the brain's nervous system become fewer and fewer, the body's various metabolisms decrease, consumption decreases, and the energy in the body becomes ample and full. When the manas feels that it can smoothly direct and regulate the body-mind activities without much obstruction, it then wants the five aggregates to be active and wants to discern the six sense-objects; the tathāgatagarbha complies and gives birth to the six consciousnesses, and thus one wakes from sleep.
From this we can see that the manas's discernment of the body's condition is very precise, and its arrangement of the body's five aggregates is methodical. If there is rest the next day, it lets the body sleep a while longer, in no hurry for the five aggregates to be active; if there are matters to attend to the next day, it lets the body get up earlier. The manas's mental activity is quite complex, keen, and flexible; its wisdom is not shallow, and it does not need to rely on the mind consciousness to accomplish these things—it operates entirely independently, without needing an assistant. If we say the manas's discerning wisdom is inferior, it means the manas cannot make detailed discernments of the specific particulars of the six sense-objects; it is not that in all respects its wisdom is inferior and it lacks discriminating ability. If the manas's wisdom were completely inferior, inferior at all times and in all places, then the entire five-aggregate body could not accomplish anything.
24. The Manas's Innate Wisdom Is Accumulated over Successive Lives
Some people have very good power of wisdom in certain areas without later learning—they are born that way. This is the wisdom of the manas, brought from past lives; those child prodigies are like this. The wisdom acquired by the mind consciousness through later learning takes a longer time and is not very rapid. If something is learned very quickly, it is still due to the manas's cultivation—in past lives one has already been exposed to it, and it is related to karmic seeds. Studying Buddhism is like this: some people make a thousand li a day in studying Buddhism; this is called having roots of goodness and merit—that is, having a foundation from past lives. When the manas brings past lives' conditioning into the present life, studying Buddhism will be very rapid.
The manas's wisdom is extremely important; it is an asset from past lives, called roots of goodness. If the manas does not have good wisdom, then our cultivation in past lives was all in vain, and the worldly dharmas we cultivated and conditioned in past lives were also cultivated in vain, unable to be brought into this life for our benefit. The differences between people do not lie in a single lifetime; within one life, not such great differences can accumulate—differences are accumulated over life after life. Therefore the differences among sentient beings lie in the manas—they are differences of the manas. Because of differences in the manas, the mind consciousness also has great differences, and the wisdom for understanding problems differs vastly.
The manas corresponds with seeds, but the manas's wisdom does not need to go into the seeds to retrieve it; the wisdom is always corresponding with the manas—that is, the manas always has wisdom. For example, once we have learned to cook, at any time in this life when the conditions for cooking are complete, we can cook; this skill persists continuously. The dharmas the manas has been conditioned by persist continuously; He always understands them, so His wisdom is always carried along, without needing to go into the tathāgatagarbha to retrieve seeds.
25. The Cleverness of the Mind Consciousness and the Wisdom of the Manas Wax and Wane
The manas directly corresponds with karmic power and with karmic seeds; the karmic seeds of past lives can be manifested in the manas. The manas's habitual tendencies are karmic power, comprising both wholesome and unwholesome karma. When the manas corresponds with wholesome karma, it manifests as wholesome habits; when it corresponds with unwholesome karma, it manifests as unwholesome habits. When the manas corresponds with wholesome karma, there is wisdom; when it corresponds with unwholesome karma, it manifests as stupidity. Sometimes there is wisdom, sometimes stupidity; wise in some aspects, stupid in others. For example, animals are generally stupid, which is unwholesome karma, but animals also have a side of cleverness and wisdom—this is undeniable. Some animals may have been humans, devas, or bodhisattvas in past lives, having been through all six destinies, with karmic seeds remaining from all of them.
Animals possess the wisdom that animals have; it is innate and requires no later learning. Because animals are stupid, they cannot have much deliberation, analysis, inference, and judgment, and usually rely on intuition to survive and cope with all environments. This intuition is the manas's nature of awareness, having both a stupid side and a wise side. The wisdom of animals' manas is sensitivity to changes in the universe and the receptacle-world, with the ability of foreknowledge and precognition. Disasters unknown to humans, major upheavals in the receptacle-world—animals all know them; their senses are all very keen, and they can often rely on this foreknowledge to adapt to their living environments. Humans cannot do this; in most cases they must rely on the mind consciousness's deliberation, analysis, inference, and judgment, and on scientific means, to know the changes about to occur in the universe and the receptacle-world.
26. The Manas's Innate Wisdom Is Also Karmic Power
When a hen incubates chicks for the first time, she knows how to incubate, how to turn the eggs with her beak, how to add warmth. The hen's mind consciousness has never learned how to incubate; why does the hen innately understand how to incubate chicks? The hen's mind consciousness is newly born, with no connection to past lives; in this life her mind consciousness has not learned incubation techniques either, cannot read books to learn knowledge, no one has taught her, and hens of the same kind have not taught her either. The mind consciousness absolutely has no opportunity to learn, yet the hen can incubate eggs. Why is this so? It is all due to the manas's innate wisdom, and also brought about by karmic power.
Some children, at three or four years of age, can compose and perform music. Their mind consciousness is also newly born, has never learned composition, no one has taught them, and they cannot read musical scores, yet they innately know how to compose and perform. Why can they do this? These are all wisdoms the manas has brought from past lives—the manas's innately endowed wisdom, the result of conditioning over immeasurable kalpas.
27. The Manas's Special Discerning Wisdom
The manas can attend to all dharmas, and its range of discernment is extremely broad; therefore its discerning wisdom cannot be powerful, cannot make deep and detailed discernments, resulting in inferior discerning wisdom, and its discernment is consequently unclear, unspecific, and undetailed. The manas's discerning wisdom regarding the six sense-objects still exists; it is just not as specific and subtle as the mind consciousness's discernment. Because its scope of responsibility differs, the manas can make overall arrangements and has overall wisdom, so it cannot possibly attend to every detail comprehensively; the minute small matters are all completed by its subordinates, the six consciousnesses. The manas does not have this energy; otherwise, major matters could not be grasped—except in very deep meditative concentration.
Under ordinary circumstances, although the manas's discerning wisdom regarding the six sense-objects is weak, its discerning wisdom regarding what is beyond the six sense-objects may not be so inferior; its habitual tendencies and inertia can become manifest extremely quickly. In the functioning of habitual tendencies and inertia, the manas is quite remarkable, able to discern and make decisions quickly and accurately, faster than the blink of an eye. For example, when driving and about to collide, the manas, without hesitation and without a word, immediately decides to brake or turn the steering, avoiding the accident. When encountering something extremely dangerous, the manas, without a word, immediately decides to flee for one's life. In fact, the manas has never spoken a single word—He cannot speak.
Whether the material body is safe or not is content discerned by the mind consciousness; the manas has no concept of safety and at the moment cannot judge the question of safety, yet He can also swiftly make a decision, thereby ensuring the body's safety—truly inconceivable. The manas very stubbornly regards the five-aggregate body as itself, is extremely attached and unwilling to let go, and does not want the body to have even the slightest danger. The manas's habitual tendencies and inertia require certain conditions to be expressed; all the dharmas the manas attends to must be triggered by external conditions. It is only that some conditions cannot be discerned by the mind consciousness, so it seems as if they arise out of nowhere; in fact there are always reasons—it is just that the mind consciousness does not know, and the manas cannot articulate them. All this knowing is the result of the manas's independent discernment.
28. The Manas Is One of Great Wisdom and Great Courage
In relationships between people, sincere communication is the manas's sincerity, while falseness and perfunctoriness are the mind consciousness's disguise. "Tacit understanding" refers to the coordinated cooperation between manases—without speaking, without verbal expression, hearts connected as if by a thread. When two manases can cooperate with tacit understanding, it shows that both people are intelligent and can mutually understand each other. Conversely, no matter how the mind consciousness expresses and explains with language, if the other person does not understand, it shows that person is dull. Therefore true intelligence and wisdom must refer to the manas; great wisdom, great courage, and great strategy must refer to the manas; cleverness, quick-wittedness, and scheming refer to the mind consciousness.
Whether a person has great wisdom, whether both emotional and intellectual quotients are high, lies in the manas; the mind consciousness is secondary. The mind consciousness only has strategies and temporary wisdom for adapting to circumstances; when experience is insufficient, it is helpless, especially at critical life-and-death moments, where it is of no use. Those of great wisdom generally speak little and like silence—the manas is just this deep and wordless; only those of petty cleverness like to show themselves off and play tricks and schemes, which corresponds with the mind consciousness.
29. What Dharmas Can the Manas Independently Discern?
The Buddha said in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra that the manas can silently contain all dharmas. The range of "all dharmas" is extremely vast: apart from the essential realms that only the eighth consciousness discerns and which the manas cannot see, as long as a dharma can be seen by the eighth consciousness, as long as it can be manifested by the eighth consciousness, the manas, relying on the eighth consciousness, can attend to it, can see and know it. This includes past lives, present and past, immeasurable kalpas ago and immeasurable kalpas hence, in the heavens and below, in the worlds of the ten directions—matured karmic seeds (immature karmic seeds can only be known by the manases of buddhas and bodhisattvas with immeasurable superknowledges)—as long as the eighth consciousness can see them, the manas can attend to and see them.
It is only that the mind consciousness, without the power of superknowledge, cannot follow the manas to know all these dharmas; it cannot know past and future lives, cannot know the ten directions and three times, cannot know mature and immature karmic seeds. When the mind consciousness has sufficient power of superknowledge, it can follow the manas to know karmic seeds that have matured and those that have ceased, and can discern a sentient being's experiences from immeasurable kalpas ago. The Buddha's mind consciousness can discern all of a sentient being's experiences throughout the entire stream of lives, and all the conditions, and can also discern all conditions far into future lives; therefore the Buddha can predict to an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva that he will become a buddha at a certain time after one immeasurable kalpa. A bodhisattva's mind consciousness can also discern a sentient being's conditions within a certain period of past and future lives; even the great arhats of meditative liberation and the pratyekabuddhas can discern sentient beings' experiences within a certain period (eight hundred great kalpas) of past and future lives.
Of all the dharmas the manas knows by following the eighth consciousness, many cannot be known by the mind consciousness; therefore the mind consciousness does not believe in facts it cannot discern, does not believe in the manas's vast superknowledges, and assumes that what it does not know, the manas likewise does not know. But if the manas does not know, then no matter how great the mind consciousness's superknowledges, it likewise cannot know; there is no dharma that the mind consciousness can attend to but the manas cannot. On the contrary, there are many dharmas the manas attends to that the mind consciousness cannot attend to at all. If the mind consciousness can discern the events of another's countless lives, it shows that the manas can discern that person's karmic seeds, and only then can the mind consciousness, following the manas, also make such discernment.
30. The Operation of the Mental Factor of Wisdom
All eight consciousnesses have the mental factor of wisdom. Wisdom is clarity; without wisdom there is ignorance (avidyā). The mental factor of wisdom indicates the consciousness-mind's clarity regarding the object-aspect it attends to. Of course, this clarity varies in degree: only the eighth consciousness completely and thoroughly understands the object-aspect it attends to, without ignorance; the other seven consciousnesses' clarity regarding the object-aspects they attend to varies in degree—not complete clarity, still containing ignorance, and with ignorance exceeding clarity. The degree of clarity is manifested in the differing clarity toward different object-aspects attended to, and differing clarity toward the attended object-aspects under different conditions.
The mental factor of wisdom operates in parallel and mixed with the other mental factors, inseparably. If, during the operation of the consciousness-mind, the mental factor of wisdom does not function, the consciousness-mind's operation becomes disordered, its discernment of the corresponding object-aspects is unclear, and it cannot make correct, reasonable, and truthful decisions, nor can it make decisions swiftly—the consequences can well be imagined. The mental factor of wisdom functions at every stage of the operation of the five universal mental factors, and must also function in the operation of the other particular mental factors among the five particulars; otherwise the consciousness-mind becomes disordered and cannot make truthful, reasonable decisions.
For example, in the operation of the eye consciousness: the eye consciousness's own initial attention (manaskāra) and contact (sparśa) may not involve the mental factor of wisdom, but further along in its operation the mental factor of wisdom becomes involved. When the eye consciousness receives the form-object, the mental factor of wisdom functions, and it knows what the form is; afterward, when grasping the form-object, the mental factor of wisdom functions, and when deciding upon the form-object, the mental factor of wisdom functions even more. The stronger the mental factor of wisdom, the wiser the decision and the more wholesome the result. The same applies to the other consciousnesses; especially in the operation of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, the force of the mental factor of wisdom is greater and the wisdom stronger. But this wisdom is divided into worldly wisdom and Buddhist wisdom; worldly wisdom is in fact also ignorance, not true clarity—it cannot lead to liberation and the attainment of buddhahood, and perhaps quite the opposite, one sinks deep into worldly saṃsāra without knowing it.
In the operation of the particular mental factors, the mental factor of wisdom also operates simultaneously with them: the mental factor of wisdom operates combined with the mental factor of desire (chanda), combined with the mental factor of determination (adhimokṣa), combined with the mental factor of mindfulness (smṛti), and combined with the mental factor of meditative concentration (samādhi). But the power of wisdom of the mental factor of wisdom varies in strength, its effects differ in magnitude, and the results differ enormously.
31. The Manas's Wisdom Is the Most Crucial
All eight consciousnesses have the mental factor of wisdom. Setting aside the eighth consciousness's mental factor of wisdom for now, among the mental factors of wisdom of the first seven consciousnesses, the mental factor of wisdom of the seventh consciousness, the manas, is the most important and most crucial in cultivation and realization; He represents a sentient being's fundamental level of wisdom. Because the manas determines the arising and operation of the six consciousnesses, determines all the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses, and to a certain extent determines the wisdom of the six consciousnesses—the first six consciousnesses are subject to the manas—the manas's wisdom plays the decisive role, concerning the sentient being's survival or death, and whether there is liberation or bondage to birth-and-death.
If the manas has no wisdom, then no matter how wise the six consciousnesses are, it is of no avail. The karmic actions created by the six consciousnesses are governed by the manas; what kind of karmic seeds there are is determined by the manas's mental activity; what kind of karmic retribution there will be in future lives is determined by the manas's mental activity; whether future lives involve saṃsāric birth-and-death or liberation and buddhahood is determined by the manas's mental activity. Therefore the wisdom of eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), the wisdom of enlightenment, and all the wisdoms of meditative concentration (samādhi) are all attained by the manas. Apart from the manas's wisdom, cultivation cannot be said to bear fruit—including the srotāpanna fruit and the path to it, and including the various transformations during the stage of being an ordinary person.
32. The Manas's Wisdom of Turning Misfortune into Blessing
The five-aggregate body, the mind consciousness, and the five sense consciousnesses are all tools used by the manas. Apart from these tools, not one of the manas's intentions within the six sense-objects can be realized; the manas must utilize the six consciousnesses to create bodily, verbal, and mental actions and express its thoughts and intentions; otherwise it would be as helpless as a deaf-mute or a disabled person. This shows that the manas itself has His own unique views, perspectives, and wisdom-cognition; He originally has wisdom and cognition and need not rely on the mind consciousness; but when the mind consciousness is present, He can conveniently rely on it for expression, and without the mind consciousness He cannot express it. Therefore one must not attribute the manas's wisdom and all the manas's merits to the mind consciousness, burying the manas's innate, unique functions accumulated over life after life through immeasurable kalpas—that would be unfair.
Regarding judgments of other people, especially judgments of people one is meeting for the first time and does not yet know, the mind consciousness is often powerless; it all relies on the manas's experience accumulated over kalpas—this is intuition and wisdom. Many major matters, especially extremely urgent matters, matters of life and death, offer the mind consciousness no opportunity or capacity for deliberation, analysis, inference, and judgment; yet the manas can instantly take charge and decide, adopting emergency measures, dodging calamity after calamity, disaster after disaster, ultimately turning misfortune into blessing—while the mind consciousness, afterward, still does not understand what exactly happened. Every one of us sentient beings truly should be grateful for the manas's ability to turn misfortune into blessing; without the manas's innate wisdom of decision, our lives would perish soon after birth, and we would never live to old age and natural death.
33. Can the Manas Distinguish True from False, Wholesome from Unwholesome?
The truth or falsity, wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of states belongs to relatively subtle mental objects; under ordinary circumstances, the manas has no way to distinguish them and can only discern the rough outline and overall picture of a state. If the manas knew good from bad and could distinguish true from false, wholesome from unwholesome, then there would be no need for the mind consciousness to guide and educate the manas, and in many cases there would be no need to give rise to the mind consciousness at all—the manas by itself could discern the subtle aspects of the six sense-objects. The manas itself does not know wholesome and unwholesome dharmas and cannot discriminate the wholesome and unwholesome, true and false, good and bad (kuśala-akuśala, satya-mithyā, śubha-aśubha), and does not itself create wholesome or unwholesome karma (except for mental activity; mental activity is also karma, and it is from mental activity that the six consciousnesses' bodily, verbal, and mental actions arise). But He has the mental factors of wholesomeness and unwholesomeness and can direct the six consciousnesses to create wholesome or unwholesome karma in accordance with His own wholesome or unwholesome mental activity. Because the manas contains both defiled and pure aspects: if the manas's defiled nature manifests, He directs the six consciousnesses to create defiled karma; if the manas's pure nature manifests, He directs the six consciousnesses to create wholesome karma.
