The Mind Faculty and Consciousness
Chapter 2: The Distinction Between Manas and Consciousness in Specific Physical, Verbal, and Mental Actions (2)
11. Who exactly controls breathing, is it manas or consciousness? If it is controlled by consciousness, why does breathing persist and not cease when consciousness is weak or extinguished? Therefore, breathing is not controlled by consciousness. When mentally tense, breathing accelerates. Is this tension a reaction of consciousness or manas? Superficially, tension seems a reaction of consciousness, but in reality, it is because manas has a heavy attachment to selfhood, causing mental tension in consciousness and leading to abnormal bodily reactions. This is the result of manas' control. The body faculty and breathing are controlled by manas, not by consciousness. For example, when unconscious, the six consciousnesses are absent, yet breathing, heartbeat, pulse, and blood circulation persist. During sleep without the six consciousnesses, these bodily activities still occur. In the state of nirodha-samapatti (attainment of cessation), where the six consciousnesses are absent, the body does not collapse and remains sitting upright. In all these instances, the body functions under the regulatory influence of manas.
When manas encounters danger or an emergency, before consciousness can react or even engage in thought, the body undergoes changes. This is a direct reaction controlled by manas acting upon the body faculty. Emergency braking, for instance, is a direct decision by manas; consciousness cannot control braking without thought. By the time consciousness thinks to control the brakes, it occurs after the braking action has already been taken. When encountering danger, before consciousness can react or engage in thought, the body's blood flow instantly accelerates, the heartbeat quickens rapidly—changes too swift for consciousness to match. When spirits or ghosts are present nearby, consciousness may be unaware, but the body feels tingling, the scalp prickles as if electrified—all these are reactions of manas, the direct result of manas controlling the body.
Breathing belongs to the activity of the body faculty. Manas depends on the physical body and thus can control breathing, involving the cooperation of the eighth consciousness (alaya-vijnana), while consciousness and body consciousness also simultaneously cooperate. When internally tense or emotionally agitated, breathing becomes rapid; when the mind is relaxed and calm, breathing becomes slow. During internal tension, manas, due to its attachment to self, seeks to protect the self. Encountering situations, it intensifies mental attention (manaskara), thereby affecting the body faculty and breathing, while simultaneously making consciousness highly alert. This drives the body to produce reactions, making breathing irregular. Therefore, breathing is closely related to both manas and consciousness.
Rapid breathing is caused by the habitual tendency of self-attachment in manas. In the fourth dhyana (meditative absorption), when manas no longer clings to the physical body and consciousness no longer pays attention to it, breathing ceases. The more manas fixates on external conditions and clings to self, the more tense consciousness becomes, and the faster breathing is. The less manas fixates, the more relaxed the body becomes, the calmer consciousness is, and the slower breathing becomes. Because manas habitually clings to the physical body, constantly grasping it, only when its clinging tendency lessens can the body faculty relax, breathing become smooth and even, and ultimately, in the fourth dhyana, breathing, pulse, and heartbeat cease.
12. The Repentance of Consciousness and the Repentance of Manas
Repentance is divided into true repentance and false repentance. Physical, verbal, and mental actions are also divided into true and false. False actions are those not genuinely intended, not arising from the heart; they are superficial acts of the conscious mind. True actions are those that are sincere, genuine, and heartfelt, stemming from manas' desire to act. In true repentance, after repenting, one corrects their physical, verbal, and mental actions. In false repentance, after repenting, one continues as before.
When repenting, if it is sincere repentance arising from the heart, actively initiated by manas, then manas' mental tendencies change. Karmic seeds may then be eliminated or diminished. When manas reveals repentance, new karmic seeds are stored in the Tathagatagarbha, replacing old ones, which will manifest accordingly in the future. However, karmic seeds may not be completely replaced; this depends on the degree of manas' sincerity. Superficial, hypocritical repentance by the conscious mind is useless; it cannot change karmic seeds, as karmic seeds are stored in the Tathagatagarbha by manas. Moreover, false repentance by consciousness, deceitful repentance, incurs sin, increases negative karma stored in the Tathagatagarbha, and results in heavier retribution.
Therefore, true repentance is the sincere repentance of manas, emanating from the heart, not pretense. When manas wishes to repent, it must express its intent through consciousness, the five sense consciousnesses, and the five aggregates body. Separated from the five aggregates body, consciousness, and the five sense consciousnesses, manas has no tools and cannot function or fulfill its wishes. In this sense, manas accomplishes nothing without consciousness. However, manas absolutely possesses its own innate wisdom and cognition. Innate intelligence refers to manas, brought from past and countless lifetimes to the present. This wisdom does not require teaching by consciousness; it is innate.
Manas possesses much wisdom that consciousness lacks; many dharmas consciousness does not understand, manas understands. Consciousness relies on manas for influence. When consciousness cannot analyze, think, or judge matters of people, events, or principles, it relies on manas' intuitive function for judgment and decision-making. Therefore, many times, after something is done, consciousness still does not know what happened; things are done in a muddled state, sometimes even done quite well. All this is masterminded and led by manas itself. Afterwards, consciousness remains unaware and does not understand the reasons. In such instances, there is no participation of consciousness' wisdom; it is all the innate wisdom and choice of manas itself. Most of the time, the wisdom of consciousness far exceeds that of manas. Manas relies entirely on the guidance of consciousness' wisdom to follow the correct path.
13. Repentance, if very sincere, with manas willing to repent, can change karmic seeds, either causing them to disappear, making them less likely to manifest, or lessening their retribution. Because manas can repent, changing its mental tendencies, it can store new karmic seeds that counteract old ones. The degree of counteraction depends on the depth of repentance. If it is not sincere repentance, merely a formal, perfunctory repentance by consciousness, and manas' mental tendencies do not change, the old karmic seeds remain unchanged, and retribution will not change.
Our repentance to others face-to-face is like this: if the other party feels our repentance is sincere, their heart often softens, they forgive us, and let go of past grievances. If the other party feels our repentance is insincere, they know our mind has not changed, will not forgive us, and will seek ways to retaliate. Especially if they know we are pretending to repent, deliberately deceiving them, they will become angrier and retaliate more severely. True repentance is repentance by manas; false repentance is superficial pretense by consciousness. Naturally, true repentance is effective and can eliminate karma; false repentance cannot eliminate karma and may even increase it.
14. Some people are very forgetful. They decide to do something, but turn around and forget. Actually, they know internally that something needs to be done, but cannot recall what it is specifically. The root lies with consciousness. Forgetfulness is consciousness forgetting something, unable to recall it. The decision to do something is made by manas, and consciousness complies, but without careful thought and discernment about what exactly it is, being somewhat absent-minded, so consciousness forgets upon turning around. Manas has not forgotten; it still knows what needs to be done, but consciousness just doesn't know what it is, so one stands there blankly trying hard to recall, perhaps because the initial memory was not firm.
15. Some people speak nothing but lies as soon as they open their mouths; they cannot speak without lying. Lying has become a habit; lies unconsciously slip out, and they may not even be aware of it. This is a bad habit of manas. Deliberate lying by consciousness is easy to correct; what is feared is habitual lying by manas—this is the hardest to correct. When lying and deceiving, one always thinks it is unknown to gods and ghosts. But all those with spiritual powers know one is lying and deceiving. Moreover, in the future, all sentient beings will develop spiritual powers; all relatives and friends will possess them. Then, the karmic actions one painstakingly tried to keep secret will have no secrecy at all. Then one will realize: why go through all the trouble to create such karma? By frequently contemplating and observing in this way, manas will become clear, there will be internal restraint, and gradually, one will stop lying.
16. How to Determine Whether Afflictions Belong to Consciousness or Manas
Generally speaking, afflictions primarily originate from manas. However, for manas to manifest afflictive emotions, it must do so through the six consciousnesses, mainly consciousness, accompanied by changes in the physical body. Emotions primarily belong to manas—feelings without clear reason, of unknown origin, inexplicable emotions are all emotions of manas. When manas is pure, and consciousness, influenced by the environment, tries to give rise to greed, hatred, or delusion, it often comes to nothing; even if it just arises, it quickly stops, no longer influenced by the environment, because the deep-seated manas is pure. When consciousness becomes angry and wants to scold someone, but manas harbors no hatred, consciousness thinks about it and then lets it go, unable to scold at all; or if it scolds, it is false scolding, just venting verbally.
When manas is afflicted and angry, consciousness advises itself (actually manas) not to be angry, that it's not worth it, that anger is bad, yet it cannot stop being angry, sometimes trembling with rage. This is because the hatred within manas is too heavy for consciousness to control. Any changes involving the physical body faculty are afflictions led by manas, not superficial afflictions of consciousness. For example: beaming with joy, bristling with anger, dancing with joy, etc.—all are manifestations of manas involuntarily expressed through the six consciousnesses and body faculty. From these phenomena, we can discern whether the afflictions of manas are light or heavy. For heavy afflictions, whether one advises oneself or others advise, it is useless; often the affliction persists for a long time until there is a result before it ceases.
17. Sometimes, when doing something, one clearly knows it is wrong but cannot control oneself and must do it anyway. Sometimes one dislikes something, but in a different situation, the mind longs for it and cannot be held back. This is the powerful habitual force of manas, which consciousness finds difficult to control.
Clearly knowing it is wrong—this is the clear knowing of consciousness, but manas does not know; it insists on acting. Consciousness tries to control manas, but manas has heavy habits and is uncontrollable, unwilling to heed advice. Disliking that matter is consciousness disliking it, but manas does not dislike it. When an opportunity arises, it manifests its habit, defying consciousness' dissuasion. Consciousness then acts while disliking it. To change the habits and afflictions of manas, one must calm the mind, frequently introspect, let manas understand its own habits, know the seriousness of the matter, and over time, it will gradually restrain itself.
18. The discerning nature of manas and consciousness is very similar, and the two are intertwined too closely. In physical, verbal, and mental actions, it is difficult to distinguish which is the functional role of manas and which is that of consciousness; they are often confused. Manas has the nature of deliberation (manas-vitarka) and possesses the mental factors of deliberation (vitarka) and conceptualization (vicara). Because manas is also a consciousness (vijnana), consciousness has the nature of discrimination, deliberation, and decision-making. Although the deliberation of manas and the thinking of consciousness differ somewhat, the conscious nature of manas is also quite prominent; it is lively and active, not dull and rigid. Because the mental activities of manas are deep and hidden, it is extremely difficult for most people to discover and observe them. Generally, those who have realized the mind (enlightened) find it easier to observe the eighth consciousness than to observe manas. Without teachings on the dharmas of manas, it is similarly difficult to comprehend manas.
For example, when a person lies, is this lying associated with the afflictions of consciousness, decided by consciousness, with manas complying? Or is this lying associated with manas, arising from the afflictive habits of manas, forcing consciousness to comply? This is extremely difficult to distinguish. One can distinguish by seeing who initiated the lying. If manas has no habit of lying, but occasionally encounters a situation where consciousness analyzes and thinks that lying is necessary to avoid danger and protect oneself, believing lying is beneficial, then consciousness decides to lie. Manas, upon knowing consciousness' analysis and decision, engages in attention (manaskara), contact (sparsa), feeling (vedana), conceptualization (samjna), and then deliberation (cetana), constantly deliberating whether lying is appropriate. Finally, after deliberation, it understands that for one's own safety and benefit, lying is necessary. Thus, manas agrees with consciousness' decision and chooses to lie, so the lie is produced by consciousness.
Other times, when consciousness has mild afflictions and is relatively rational, unwilling to lie, but manas has a heavy habit of liking to lie, whenever manas decides to lie, consciousness is unwilling to execute this command, always finding excuses not to lie; or feeling that lying is bad, somewhat guilty, it may ultimately comply with manas' choice. If consciousness is good at analysis, thinking, and judgment, it can change manas' decision and not lie. Whenever there are many internal conflicts, it is when the thoughts and views of consciousness and manas are inconsistent; it is a contest between rationality and emotional afflictive habits. Which one prevails depends on whether the person is more rational or has heavier emotional afflictive habits.
Another example: some people usually feel they practice well, but when encountering someone falsely accusing or blaming them, immediately, without conscious thought, they glare and retort, scolding the other party. This is the manifestation of manas' habits; consciousness has no chance to control, cannot control, or simply does not want to control. Whether one has cultivation is seen in manas' reaction at this time. Glaring and retorting with sarcastic language are all decisions and commands by manas, manifested through the six consciousnesses, revealing the afflictive habits of manas. Manas can control the physical body and manipulate physical, verbal, and mental actions. The actions of the six consciousnesses are regulated and commanded by manas; they are decided and created by manas. All these physical, verbal, and mental actions are produced by the six consciousnesses under the direction of manas. From the above two examples, one can distinguish the roles of manas and consciousness, thereby observing the problems within one's mind and addressing one's afflictions.
19. The sixth consciousness is divided into sense-accompanied consciousness and solitary consciousness. Sense-accompanied consciousness usually discriminates the six dusts (objects) together with the first five consciousnesses. The sixth consciousness discriminates the subtle aspects of the six dusts, engaging in mental activities such as analysis, thinking, reasoning, judgment, perception, research, etc. Consciousness not accompanying the five senses is solitary consciousness, divided into scattered solitary consciousness, meditative solitary consciousness, and dream solitary consciousness. Frequently indulging in random thoughts, mind-wandering, absent-mindedness, and dwelling on the past or future is scattered solitary consciousness. Meditative solitary consciousness can discern various states within meditation. The consciousness roaming in dreams is dream solitary consciousness.
Manifesting many habitual tendencies and acting according to inertia is the seventh consciousness, manas. Sometimes, it is manas when consciousness clearly knows something should not be done but cannot control itself and insists on doing it. In any matter, the one that plays the decisive role is manas. Sometimes, when something happens suddenly, the mind is unprepared, the conscious mind has no time to analyze or think, and it decides to act according to inertia—this is manas.
For example, when someone falls into the river, consciousness has no time to think anything, but manas decides to jump into the river to save them. Afterwards, the conscious mind will think about how dangerous it was to jump into the river to save someone, feeling scared upon reflection. Afterwards, it is the sixth consciousness that knows the danger; the immediate decision to jump into the river at the time was made by the seventh consciousness. Making prompt decisions when doing things is the function of the seventh consciousness, manas, while turning things over and over in thought is consciousness.
Making decisions without thinking often leads to regret. The one with regret is consciousness. After the event, consciousness recalls the process and result, knowing it shouldn't have been done that way, that it should have been done this way, regretting the momentary impulse. Manas' analytical and thinking ability is very poor; it often cannot think and analyze rationally and logically, cannot reason logically, and its discrimination of all things is unclear and imprecise. Therefore, the seventh consciousness makes decisions based on habitual inertia, lacking rational thinking power. The sixth consciousness can think, analyze, judge, plan, strategize, research, etc.; it is relatively rational and also wise, but it cannot be the master; it can only be the servant of the seventh consciousness, and also its accomplice, inducer, guide, leader, and educator.
20. Question: When hatred arises, does manas generate hatred simultaneously with consciousness, or does only consciousness generate hatred? What is manas doing at that time? Why, after consciousness has already understood the matter that caused the hatred with correct view, does the mind still feel bitter and painful? Is manas still entangled with that matter? Or is manas not involved? The principles of the matter are quickly understood by consciousness, but after manas also understands, the mind suddenly feels liberated and comfortable. But why does this bitterness disappear so slowly? Is it because manas cannot understand principles as quickly as consciousness?
Answer: Why do all mental activities and creations of consciousness arise? Then think, why is consciousness born? It is born from the Tathagatagarbha after manas contacts the dharmas (mental objects). What are the dharmas? They are the content that manas contacts and deems worthy of anger. Manas contacts dharmas worthy of anger, wishes to act out; once the mental factor of volition (cetana) decides, the Tathagatagarbha gives birth to consciousness to satisfy manas' intention. Thus, consciousness generates hatred and acts out. When manas wishes to create, it inevitably makes consciousness help it create, because manas cannot create in certain dharmas without helpers; it needs consciousness to help itself create. Only then can consciousness arise. Consciousness is the spokesperson and tool of manas, expressing manas' thoughts and feelings.
So, how does the dharma of consciousness' anger arise? It is because manas is angry and wants to vent, wants to express its angry attitude. The Tathagatagarbha cooperates by giving birth to consciousness, using consciousness to express manas' anger. Then, after consciousness is born, it generates the mental activity of anger.
Hatred arising from manas is true anger; hatred arising only from consciousness is false anger. True anger from manas has various manifestations, such as facial expressions turning red in the face and neck, verbal actions of harsh speech, bodily postures puffing with anger or even resorting to violence—all these are jointly created by consciousness and body consciousness, produced in compliance with manas' mental activity, fully expressing manas' mental state. When consciousness alone is angry, it is because consciousness, while discriminating conditions, feels the conditions are somewhat unsatisfactory, but manas feels it doesn't matter and remains calm inside. This kind of anger has no real force, will not lead to serious actions, and is merely an act.
However, the reactions after anger differ between the two; their levels of awakening are different. Consciousness may immediately introspect, reflect on these actions and creations; consciousness may feel that anger is wrong and can quickly understand why it is wrong upon thinking. Although consciousness understands, manas still does not understand, so it remains angry inside, seething. Consciousness says: "Don't be angry, don't be angry, it was our own fault to begin with." Consciousness says this, but manas still doesn't comprehend and remains angry. Sometimes manas simply cannot control the urge to flare up and hit someone; consciousness says: "Don't hit people, hitting people is bad." But manas doesn't listen, so while saying not to hit people, it raises its hand and strikes. Therefore, even when consciousness is rational and understands principles, it may not necessarily control manas. If manas insists on acting out, consciousness has no choice but to help and cooperate with it, compelled to obey the command of manas, the master.
Our mental behavior is divided into the level of consciousness and the level of manas. The level of consciousness is passive and must obey the will of manas. For the level of consciousness to become the master, it must influence manas, succeed in influencing it, and then manas will make decisions complying with consciousness' ideas. If consciousness fails to influence manas, manas will still act according to its own mental tendencies, and then no matter how consciousness advises, it is useless. Consciousness tells it not to be angry, but it remains angry; consciousness tells it not to do this, but it insists on doing it—then there is no way. Consciousness, helpless, goes along with it. Saying one thing and doing another is manas refusing to heed consciousness' advice, acting willfully, unable to act according to what consciousness says—a lack of consistency in mental action.
21. Does Manas Have Discriminative Ability Apart from Consciousness?
Separated from consciousness, manas cannot discriminate specific and subtle conditions within the six dust realms, such as cold, heat, pain, or itch. Manas cannot finely discriminate the objects of the six dusts. However, manas can roughly discriminate; it can discern things in a general way but not in detail. Depending on the Tathagatagarbha, manas can discriminate all dharmas, but it cannot express or create; it must rely on the six consciousnesses to express, create, and resolve all issues related to the six dusts. For example, in the middle of the night while asleep, if the room is cold and affects the body, manas, depending on the Tathagatagarbha, can also discriminate this. It will then make the body curl up, burrow into the quilt, or even dream to hint to consciousness that the body is cold, prompting consciousness to solve the problem.
In the middle of the night while asleep without consciousness, if the body is bitten by a mosquito and feels itchy, manas can also discriminate this. Therefore, it wants to scratch the itch. Unable to scratch itself, the Tathagatagarbha cooperates with manas to give birth to consciousness and body consciousness to scratch together. Afterwards, these two consciousnesses cease, and sleep continues. If the mosquito bite is slight and not very itchy, manas endures it, does not decide to scratch, and consciousness and body consciousness will not arise to handle the mosquito bite problem.
22. Do Worry, Fear, Depression, and Other Mental Emotions Come from Manas or Consciousness?
All worry, fear, and depression in consciousness without reason come from manas. Because they are without reason, consciousness does not know why manas has these emotions, whereas consciousness can know its own reasons. The emotions vented by consciousness have causes; because consciousness can introspect, analyze, and think, it knows why it itself flares up or has emotions, but it is not easy to observe and analyze the emotions of manas.
When consciousness cannot analyze or think but still flares up or feels depressed, it all comes from manas; it is manas directing consciousness to vent emotions. For example, upon waking in the morning, before encountering any event, one feels inexplicably uncomfortable, upset, and wants to lose their temper—all these come from the mental emotions of manas. What manas thinks, consciousness does not know, but manas inevitably compels consciousness to vent these mental emotions.
Many emotions that are momentarily inexplicable all come from manas. Even emotions that consciousness constantly tries to control but cannot control all come from manas. Observing from this aspect, one can gradually distinguish consciousness and manas. If consciousness knows something is not good, feels some worry, but then rationally analyzes and thinks it's fine, yet the mind remains worried, or even increasingly worried—what is this about? This is manas being worried. Consciousness says it's fine, but manas does not yet understand or comprehend, so it remains persistently worried.
23. What is the State of Doubt (Doubt-Knot)?
All unresolved problems can be states of doubt, only differing in depth and whether they persist. There is also the question of where the doubt lies. If doubt arises only in consciousness, it is very shallow; it can be forgotten quickly and will not be pursued further; it is almost always intermittent and difficult to truly resolve. Only when doubt arises deep within manas can one pursue it day and night, constantly investigating the problem, with thoughts uninterrupted during walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, until the doubt is resolved.
