The Mind Faculty and Consciousness

Chapter 2: The Differences Between the Manas and the Mind Consciousness in Specific Bodily, Verbal, and Mental Actions (2)

Eleventh: Who actually controls breathing—the manas or the mind consciousness? If it were controlled by the mind consciousness, then when the mind consciousness becomes faint and ceases, breathing should also cease; yet breathing still exists and does not cease, so breathing is not controlled by the mind consciousness. When one is mentally tense, breathing quickens. Is this tension a reaction of the mind consciousness or of the manas? On the surface, tension is a reaction of the mind consciousness, but in reality it is because the manas has a heavy grasping at self, causing mental tension in the mind consciousness and leading to some abnormal bodily reactions; it is the result of the manas's control. Both the body faculty and breathing are controlled by the manas, not by the mind consciousness. For example, when one is unconscious, the six consciousnesses are absent, yet there is breathing, heartbeat and pulse, and blood circulation; during sleep, the six consciousnesses are absent, yet these activities of the body faculty still occur; in the meditative absorption of no-perception (asaṃjñi-samāpatti), the six consciousnesses are absent, yet the body does not collapse and remains sitting upright. In all these cases, the body is under the regulating function of the manas.

When the manas encounters danger or an emergency, before the mind consciousness has reacted or engaged in any deliberation, the body has already changed—this is a reaction produced by the manas directly controlling the body faculty. Emergency braking is a direct decision of the manas; the mind consciousness has no time to deliberate and cannot control the braking. By the time the mind consciousness tries to control the braking, that is already after the braking action has been taken. When encountering danger, before the mind consciousness has reacted or deliberated, the blood flow in the body immediately quickens and the heartbeat accelerates—extremely fast, faster than the mind consciousness can keep up with. When ghosts or spirits are nearby, the mind consciousness does not know, yet the body feels tingling and numb, the scalp prickles as if electrified—all of these are reactions of the manas, the result of the manas directly controlling the body.

Breathing belongs to the activities of the body faculty. Since the manas takes the material body as its object, it can also control breathing, and this never occurs without the cooperation of the eighth consciousness, while the mind consciousness and body consciousness simultaneously cooperate and function as well. When the mind is tense and emotions are agitated, breathing becomes rapid; when the mood is relaxed and the mind is calm, breathing is slow. When the mind is tense, the manas, because it grasps at self, will protect the self; when encountering matters it intensifies its attention (manaskāra), thereby pulling at the body faculty and breathing, while making the mind consciousness highly alert, thus driving the body to produce reactions, and breathing becomes obstructed. Therefore breathing is closely related to the manas, and also closely related to the mind consciousness.

Rapid breathing is caused by the manas's habitual tendency of self-grasping. In the fourth dhyāna, because the manas no longer clings to the material body and the mind consciousness no longer attends to the body, breathing stops. The more the manas cares about sense objects and the more it grasps at self, the more tense the mind consciousness becomes and the more rapid the breathing; the less the manas cares, the more relaxed the body, the more at ease the mind consciousness, and the calmer the breathing. Because the manas habitually clings to the material body and constantly grasps at it, only when His clinging nature and grasping nature diminish can the body faculty relax and breathing become smooth and calm, and even, in the fourth dhyāna, breathing, pulse, and heartbeat can cease.

Twelfth: The Repentance of the Mind Consciousness and the Repentance of the Manas

Repentance is divided into true repentance and false repentance; the actions of body, speech, and mind are likewise divided into true and false. Whatever is false—not genuinely intended, not arising from the heart—is superficial pretense of the mind consciousness; whatever is sincere and heartfelt is what the manas intends to do. In true repentance, after repenting one can correct one's bodily, verbal, and mental actions; in false repentance, after repenting everything remains as before.

When repenting, if it is sincere repentance from the heart, actively initiated by the manas, then the mental activities of the manas change, and the karmic seeds are either eliminated or lightened. When the manas openly confesses and repents, new karmic seeds are stored into the tathāgatagarbha and the old karmic seeds are removed; thereafter manifestations occur according to the new karmic seeds. It is also possible that the karmic seeds cannot be completely replaced, depending on the degree of sincerity of the manas. Superficial, insincere repentance by the mind consciousness is useless; He cannot change the karmic seeds, for karmic seeds are stored into the tathāgatagarbha by the manas. Moreover, hypocritical repentance by the mind consciousness—repentance meant to deceive others—also carries fault; the fault increases and is stored into the tathāgatagarbha, making the retribution even heavier.

Therefore true repentance is the manas's sincere repentance from the heart outward, not pretense. When the manas wants to repent, it must express its intention to repent through the mind consciousness and the five sense consciousnesses, through the five-aggregate body. Apart from the five-aggregate body, apart from the mind consciousness and the five sense consciousnesses, the manas has no tools and cannot operate, cannot accomplish its own wishes. From this perspective, apart from the mind consciousness the manas can accomplish nothing; but the manas absolutely has its own wisdom and cognition—innate cleverness and wisdom refers to the manas, brought by the manas from past lives and countless lives into this life. This wisdom does not need to be taught by the mind consciousness; it is inborn.

Many of the manas's wisdoms are absent in the mind consciousness; many dharmas the mind consciousness does not understand, the manas understands. And the mind consciousness must rely on the manas for its perfuming; when the mind consciousness cannot judge human affairs and the principles of things through analysis and deliberation, it must rely on the manas's intuitive function to judge and decide. Thus many things are done with the mind consciousness still not knowing what happened—things get done in a muddle, and sometimes quite well. All of this is brought about by the manas itself taking charge and leading. Afterwards the mind consciousness still does not know, does not understand the inside story. At such times there is no participation of the mind consciousness's wisdom; it is all the manas's own inherent wisdom making the choices. Most of the time, the wisdom of the mind consciousness far exceeds the wisdom of the manas; the manas relies entirely on the guidance of the mind consciousness's wisdom to walk the correct path.

Thirteenth: In repentance, if it is extremely sincere repentance and the manas is willing to repent, the karmic seeds can be changed—either made to disappear, or made less likely to manifest, or the retribution lightened. Because the manas can repent, its mental activities change, and new karmic seeds can be stored to offset the old karmic seeds; the degree of repentance differs, and the degree of offsetting differs. If it is not sincere repentance but a perfunctory, going-through-the-motions repentance of the mind consciousness, the manas's mental activities do not change, the old karmic seeds do not change, and the retribution will not change.

This is how it is when we repent face to face with others: if the other person senses that our repentance is sincere, their heart often softens and they forgive us, no longer holding grudges; if the other person feels our repentance is insincere, they know our mind has not changed and will not forgive us, and may then seek revenge. Especially if they know we are pretending to repent and intend to deceive them, they will be even angrier and intensify their revenge. True repentance is the repentance of the manas; false repentance is the superficial perfunctoriness of the mind consciousness. Of course, true repentance is useful and can dissolve karma; false repentance cannot dissolve karma and may even aggravate it.

Fourteenth: Some people are very forgetful. They say they need to do something, then turn around and forget it. In fact, deep down they know there is something to be done, but cannot recall what specifically it is—the crux lies with the mind consciousness. Forgetfulness is the mind consciousness forgetting something, being unable to recall it. The decision to do something is made by the manas, and the mind consciousness complies, but without carefully deliberating and discerning what exactly the matter is, being somewhat absent-minded; thus upon turning around the mind consciousness forgets. But the manas has not forgotten and still knows what needs to be done; yet the mind consciousness simply does not know what exactly it is, so one stands there blankly trying hard to recall—perhaps the original memory was not firm.

Fifteenth: Some people tell lies as soon as they open their mouths—without lying they cannot speak; lying has become a habit, and lies slip out of the mouth unconsciously, without even their own awareness. This is the manas's bad habit. Deliberate lying by the mind consciousness is easy to correct; what is feared is the manas's habitual lying, which is hardest to change. When lying and deceiving, one thinks no one knows, but all people with supernatural powers can know that one has lied and deceived; moreover, in the future all sentient beings will be able to develop supernatural powers, and all relatives and friends will have supernatural powers. Then the karmic deeds one painstakingly tried to keep secret will have no secrecy at all; at that time one will realize—why did one create such karma in the first place? If one contemplates and practices contemplation (vipaśyanā-caryā) in this way frequently, the manas will understand and there will be a restraint in the mind, and gradually one will stop lying.

Sixteenth: How to Judge Whether Afflictions Belong to the Mind Consciousness or the Manas

Generally speaking, afflictions mainly come from the manas, but for the manas to manifest afflictive emotions, it must express them through the six consciousnesses, with the mind consciousness as the primary agent, accompanied by changes in the material body. Emotions mainly belong to the manas; emotions that arise without reason, of unknown origin, that cannot be clearly explained, are all emotions of the manas. When the manas is pure, and the mind consciousness, perfumed by the environment, wants to give rise to afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion, they often fizzle out; even if just arisen, they quickly stop and are no longer influenced by the environment, because the manas deep within is pure. When the mind consciousness is angry and wants to scold, because the manas is not angry, the mind consciousness thinks about it and lets it go, simply unable to work up the scolding; or if it scolds, it is a fake scolding, just venting verbally.

When the manas is afflicted and angry, the mind consciousness advises itself (actually the manas) not to be angry, that it is not worth being angry, that anger is bad—but still cannot stop being angry, sometimes even trembling with rage. This is because the manas's inner anger is too heavy for the mind consciousness to control. Whenever changes in the material body are involved, these are afflictions led by the manas, not superficial afflictions of the mind consciousness. For example: joy showing on the face, rage making the hair stand up under the hat, dancing with glee, etc.—all are involuntarily expressed by the manas through the six consciousnesses and the body faculty. From these phenomena we can see whether the manas's afflictions are light or heavy. When afflictions are heavy, neither self-admonition nor others' admonition helps; one often remains afflicted for a long time until there is some outcome, and only then is willing to stop.

Seventeenth: Sometimes when doing things, one clearly knows it is wrong yet cannot control oneself and insists on doing it; sometimes it is something one dislikes, yet in a different situation the heart yearns for it and nothing can hold it back. This is the powerful force of the manas's habits, which the mind consciousness cannot easily control.

Clearly knowing it is wrong—this is the clear knowing of the mind consciousness; the manas does not know, and He insists on doing it. It is the mind consciousness that wants to control the manas, but the manas's habits are heavy and He will not be controlled, will not heed the admonition. Disliking that thing is the mind consciousness's dislike, but the manas does not dislike it; upon encountering an opportunity He will manifest His habits, defying the mind consciousness's dissuasion, and the mind consciousness, while complying, also dislikes it. To change the manas's habitual afflictions, one must calm the mind, frequently introspect one's own mind, let the manas understand His own habits and know the seriousness of the matter; over time there will be some restraint.

Eighteenth: The discriminative nature of the manas and the mind consciousness is very similar, and the two are so intimately intertwined that in bodily, verbal, and mental actions it is difficult to distinguish which is the function of the manas and which is the function of the mind consciousness; they are often confused. The manas has the nature of deliberation (manasikāra), has the mental factor of volition (cetanā), and also has the mental factor of perception (saṃjñā), because the manas is also a consciousness, and consciousness has the nature of discernment, deliberation, and choice. Although the manas's deliberation differs somewhat from the mind consciousness's thinking, the manas's consciousness-nature is also quite prominent and lively—He is not a dull, rigid blockhead. But because the manas's mental activities are deep and hidden, the vast majority of people find it hard to discover and observe them. Generally, even for those who have seen the mind and attained enlightenment, observing the eighth consciousness is easier than observing the manas; if no one teaches the dharma of the manas, it is equally difficult to realize the manas.

For example, when a person lies, is this lying associated with the afflictions of the mind consciousness, decided by the mind consciousness with the manas complying? Or is it associated with the manas, the manas's afflictive habits manifesting, with the mind consciousness having no choice but to comply? This is very hard to distinguish. One can distinguish who actively initiated the lying this way: if the manas has no habit of lying, and occasionally encounters some situation where the mind consciousness, through analysis and deliberation, concludes that a lie should be told to avoid danger and protect oneself, considering lying advantageous, then the mind consciousness decides to lie. After the manas knows the mind consciousness's analysis and decision, through attention, contact, feeling, and perception, then volition, He continuously deliberates whether one should lie or not; finally, having deliberated clearly, for the sake of one's own safety and benefit, one should lie—so the manas agrees with the mind consciousness's decision and chooses to lie, and thus the mind consciousness's lie is produced.

At other times, the mind consciousness's afflictions are slight and it is relatively rational, unwilling to lie, but the manas's habits are heavy and He likes to lie. Whenever the manas decides to lie, the mind consciousness is unwilling to execute this instruction and always finds excuses not to lie; or the mind consciousness feels lying is bad and feels somewhat guilty, but may ultimately have to comply with the manas's choice. If the mind consciousness is skilled at deliberation, analysis, and judgment, it can change the manas's decision and not lie. Whenever there are intense inner conflicts, that is when the mind consciousness and the manas's ideas are inconsistent, when reason contends with afflictive emotions; which one prevails in the end depends on whether the person is strong in rationality or heavy in emotional afflictive habits.

Another example: some people usually feel they cultivate quite well, but when someone wrongly blames them, immediately, without the mind consciousness's deliberation, they glare and start cursing back—this is the manas's habits manifesting; the mind consciousness has no chance to control it, or cannot control it, or simply does not want to control it. Whether one has cultivation—here one looks at the manas's reaction. The glaring and the cursing, mocking language are all produced by the six consciousnesses under the manas's decision and command, revealing the manas's afflictive habits; the manas can control the material body and can manipulate bodily, verbal, and mental actions. The actions of the six consciousnesses are regulated and commanded by the manas, decided and produced by the manas; all these bodily, verbal, and mental actions are produced by the six consciousnesses under the manas's direction. From these two examples, one can distinguish the functions of the manas and the mind consciousness, and thereby contemplate the problems within one's own mind and begin to counteract one's own afflictions.

Nineteenth: The sixth consciousness is divided into the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna) and the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta). The consciousness accompanied by the five senses usually discerns the six sense objects together with the first five consciousnesses; the sixth consciousness discerns the subtle details of the six sense objects, performing mental activities such as analysis, deliberation, inference, judgment, perception, and investigation. That which is not together with the five consciousnesses is the solitary consciousness, divided into the distracted solitary consciousness, the solitary consciousness in meditative concentration, and the solitary consciousness in dreams. That which frequently engages in discursive thoughts, wanders off, is absent-minded, and broods back and forth is the distracted solitary consciousness; the solitary consciousness in meditative concentration can discern the various states within meditative absorption; the consciousness roaming in dreams is the dream solitary consciousness.

That which manifests many habits and inertias, and acts according to inertia, is the seventh consciousness, the manas; sometimes when the mind consciousness clearly knows something should not be done but cannot control itself and insists on doing it, that is the seventh consciousness, the manas; that which plays the decisive role in any matter is the seventh consciousness, the manas; sometimes when something suddenly happens, with no mental preparation and no time for the mind consciousness to analyze and think, and one decides to act according to inertia—that is the seventh consciousness, the manas.

For example, when someone falls into a river, before the mind consciousness has time to think anything, the manas decides to jump into the river to save the person; afterwards the mind consciousness will think about how dangerous jumping into the river to save someone is, and recalling it, one feels lingering fear. It is the sixth consciousness that knows the danger afterwards; it was the seventh consciousness that immediately decided to jump into the river at the time. That which acts with instant decisiveness when doing things is the seventh consciousness, the manas; that which deliberates back and forth is the mind consciousness.

Making decisions without thinking often leads to regret; the one with regret is the mind consciousness. After the event, the mind consciousness recalls the process and result, knows one should not have done it that way, should have done it this way, and regrets the momentary impulse. The manas's capacity for analysis and thinking is very poor; He often cannot deliberate and analyze with reason and evidence, cannot make logical inferences, and discerns nothing clearly or minutely regarding any matter. Therefore the seventh consciousness makes decisions according to habits and inertia, lacking rational thinking power. The sixth consciousness can deliberate, analyze, judge, plan, strategize, investigate, etc.; it is relatively rational and has wisdom, but cannot be the master of the house—it can only be the servant of the seventh consciousness, and also the seventh consciousness's accomplice, inducer, guide, draw, and educator.

Twentieth: Question: When anger arises, does the manas become angry simultaneously with the mind consciousness, or does only the mind consciousness become angry? What is the manas doing at that time? Why is it that when the mind consciousness has already thought through, with right view, the matter that caused the anger, the heart still feels depressed and pained—is the manas still entangled with that matter? Or did the manas not participate? The mind consciousness quickly understands the principle of the matter; after the manas also understands it, the heart suddenly breaks through and feels comfortable. But this depression disappears very slowly—is it that the manas, unlike the mind consciousness, cannot quickly understand principles?

Answer: All mental activities and actions of the mind consciousness—what produces them? Then think: from what is the mind consciousness born? It is born from the tathāgatagarbha after the manas contacts the mental sense-objects (dharma-viṣaya). What is the mental sense-object? It is the content worth being angry about that the manas contacts. When the manas contacts the mental sense-object worth being angry about and wants to erupt, once the volition mental factor decides, the tathāgatagarbha will give birth to the mind consciousness to satisfy the manas's intention, and thus the mind consciousness gives rise to anger and erupts. When the manas wants to act, He necessarily has the mind consciousness help Him act, because the manas, without a helper, cannot act in certain dharmas and needs the mind consciousness to help Himself act; only then can the mind consciousness be born. The mind consciousness is the manas's spokesperson and tool, expressing the manas's inner voice on His behalf.

Then how does the dharma of the mind consciousness's anger arise? Because the manas is angry and wants to vent it, wants to express His angry attitude, the tathāgatagarbha cooperates by giving birth to the mind consciousness, using the mind consciousness to express the manas's rage; thus after the mind consciousness is born, it gives rise to the mental activity of rage.

When the manas gives rise to anger, it is real anger; anger of the mind consciousness alone is fake anger. The manas's real anger has various manifestations: facially, a red face and thick neck; verbally, harsh speech; bodily, puffing up with rage or coming to blows—all of these are produced jointly by the mind consciousness and body consciousness, produced in compliance with the manas's mental activities, fully expressing the manas's mental activities. As for the mind consciousness being angry alone: when the mind consciousness discerns a sense object and finds it somewhat unsatisfactory, but the manas considers it indifferent and the mind is very calm, this anger has no force, will not produce any serious actions, and is merely putting on a show.

But after the anger, the reactions of the two differ; their capacity for awakening differs. The mind consciousness may immediately introspect itself, introspect these actions, and may feel that being angry is wrong; why it is wrong, the mind consciousness can figure out just by thinking. Although the mind consciousness has figured it out, the manas has not yet understood, so He is still angry in His heart, fuming. The mind consciousness says: "Don't be angry, don't be angry; it was our own fault to begin with." Even with the mind consciousness saying this, the manas still does not understand and remains angry. Sometimes the manas completely cannot control the urge to lash out and hit people; the mind consciousness says: "Don't hit people; hitting is bad." But the manas does not listen, and so while saying "don't hit people," one raises a hand and strikes. Therefore even when the mind consciousness understands principles and is rational, it may not be able to control the manas; He insists on erupting, and the mind consciousness has no choice but to help and cooperate with Him, having to obey the command of the manas, the master.

Our psychological activities are divided into the mind-consciousness level and the manas level; those at the mind-consciousness level are passive and must obey the manas's will. If the mind-consciousness level wants to be the master, it must influence the manas over, and the perfuming must succeed; then the manas will take charge and decide, complying with the mind consciousness's ideas. If the mind consciousness's perfuming does not succeed, the manas will still erupt according to His own mental activities, and no matter how the mind consciousness admonishes, it is useless—tell Him not to be angry, and He is still very angry; tell Him not to do this, and He insists on doing it. Then there is nothing to be done; the mind consciousness, having no alternative, goes along and does it. Saying one thing and doing another is the manas refusing to heed the mind consciousness's opinion, acting willfully on His own, unable to act according to what the mind consciousness says—the mental activities are inconsistent.

Twenty-first: Apart from the mind consciousness, does the manas still have the nature of discernment?

Apart from the mind consciousness, the manas cannot discern specific and subtle states within the six sense objects, such as cold and heat, itching and pain; the manas cannot discern the six sense objects minutely. But the manas can discern roughly, can discern some things in general terms, though not in detail. Relying on the tathāgatagarbha, the manas can discern all dharmas, but cannot express or act; it must rely on the six consciousnesses to express, act, and resolve all problems of the six sense objects. For example, in the middle of the night while asleep, the room is very cold and affects the body; the manas, relying on the tathāgatagarbha, can also discern this, and will make the body curl up and burrow into the blankets, and may even dream, hinting to the mind consciousness that the body is cold, letting the mind consciousness solve this problem.

In the middle of the night while asleep, with no mind consciousness, when the body is bitten by a mosquito and feels itchy, the manas can also discern it, and so wants to scratch the itch; unable to scratch it Himself, the tathāgatagarbha cooperates with the manas to give birth to the mind consciousness and body consciousness to scratch the itch together, after which the two consciousnesses cease again and sleep continues. If the mosquito bite is slight and not very itchy, the manas will endure it and not decide to scratch, and the mind consciousness and body consciousness will not be born to deal with the mosquito bite problem.

Twenty-second: Do thoughts and emotions such as worry, fear, and depression come from the manas or the mind consciousness?

Whenever the mind consciousness worries, fears, or feels depressed for no reason, it all comes from the manas. Because it is for no reason, the mind consciousness does not know why the manas has these emotions, whereas it can know its own reasons. The emotions vented by the mind consciousness all have causes, because the mind consciousness can introspect itself, can analyze and deliberate, and knows why it flares up and has emotions; but it is not easy to observe and analyze the manas's emotions.

When the mind consciousness cannot analyze or deliberate yet still flares up and still feels depressed, that all comes from the manas—the manas directing the mind consciousness to vent emotions. For example, upon waking in the morning, before contacting anything, one inexplicably feels unwell, feels bad inside, and wants to lose temper—all of that comes from the manas's thoughts and emotions. What the manas is thinking, the mind consciousness does not know, but the manas will inevitably impel the mind consciousness to vent these thoughts and emotions.

Many emotions that for a while cannot be clearly explained all come from the manas; even emotions that the mind consciousness keeps trying to control but cannot—all come from the manas. Observing from this aspect, one can gradually distinguish the mind consciousness and the manas. If the mind consciousness knows something is bad and is somewhat worried, but the mind consciousness subsequently analyzes rationally that it is fine, yet the heart keeps worrying, or worries more and more—what is going on? This is the manas being worried; the mind consciousness says it is fine, but the manas has not yet understood or comprehended, and so will continue worrying endlessly.

Twenty-third: What is questioning doubt?

All unresolved problems can be questioning doubt, differing only in depth and whether it can be sustained. There is also the question of where the doubt resides. If it is merely the mind consciousness raising doubt, it is very shallow—one can forget it in a moment and will not continue investigating; it is almost always intermittent and can hardly truly resolve the problem. Only when the manas deep within raises doubt can one investigate constantly, morning and evening, doubting that problem whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, with the thought unbroken, until the doubt is resolved.