The Mental Activities of the Manas in Acting

Question: When a film actor plays a villain or a bad person, acting very convincingly and deeply immersed in the role, how does the tathāgatagarbha record the actor's karmic actions at such times, and what are the karmic seeds like?

Answer: Acting is also called pretending; the mental actions are not genuinely so. What is called acting and pretending means that the mind consciousness decides how one should act, which is not consistent with the intentions of the manas; the behavior is the mind consciousness's fabrication, where the mind consciousness tries its best to realistically display mental actions that the manas does not actually possess, making people feel that it seems real, as if it were truly happening.

The karmic actions subjectively manifested by the mind consciousness differ greatly from the karmic actions led and controlled by the manas; the karmic seeds stored are different, and the retributions will be different. It is like a child in a family doing bad things versus a parent doing bad things—the nature is different, and the punishments and reprimands received are different: the child receives a light reprimand, while the parent receives a heavy one.

However, when the child is reprimanded, the parent will inevitably be implicated and must accept punishment on the child's behalf. Karmic actions created subjectively by the mind consciousness are light, but the punishment will still fall upon the manas; when the manas creates karma of its own volition, the punishment falls entirely upon the manas itself—the parent must bear all responsibility. But what the parent should receive will also be specifically borne by the child, or borne on the parent's behalf, because the parent is honored; likewise, the manas's retribution will also be specifically borne by the six consciousnesses on its behalf, because the manas, as the master, is honored.

What karmic seeds are stored when karma is created, and what retribution will be received in the future, depends entirely on the mental actions of the manas, or primarily on the mental actions of the manas. The one acting is the mind consciousness, pretending to be a bad person doing bad things; the manas is not bad, so in essence it is not bad, and no seeds of evil karma can be stored. If the manas becomes moved during the play, giving rise to mental actions identical to those in the play, then it no longer counts as acting—it is pure karma creation, and the karmic seeds are recorded as they truly are. If the manas is not moved and it is only the mind consciousness pretending, there are still karmic seeds, and all the behavioral actions will also be recorded. But the nature of the karmic seeds is different; what kind of karmic seeds and retribution there will be is entirely determined by the mental actions of the manas.

If, during the play, the mind consciousness does not act well and the performance is unconvincing, it shows that the mind consciousness's skill is not good enough, that the mind consciousness does not quite resonate with the villain role, and it also shows that the manas is not bad and has not been tainted and corrupted by the mind consciousness, so it has to strive to pretend to be a bad person, yet the performance is not good enough. But even if the manas is a very good person, if the mind consciousness's acting skills are superb—skilled at performing and pretending—it will become immersed in the role quickly and deeply. The karmic seeds stored are still those of acting and pretending, not the karmic seeds of a bad manas, so the retribution will not be bad. However, if one pretends to be a bad person for a long time, it will also subtly taint the manas, making the manas unknowingly familiar with badness and adapted to badness, and it is possible that at some point it will act bad once.

By the same token, it can be proven that in the process of cultivating and realizing the Buddha-dharma, if only the mind consciousness realizes the fruits while the manas does not, it is a false realization, not a true one—rather like acting. Seeds are still stored, but the wholesome retribution is slight. True realization is realization led by the manas; once the master has realized the fruits, what more is there to say about the subordinates—they follow the master in receiving the retribution and enjoying the fruit-stage. There has never been a case where the manas, the master, has not realized the fruits, yet the subordinate mind consciousness alone can realize the fruits and enjoy the fruit-stage. Could it be that the servant can stand above the master, with a position higher than the master, the guest usurping the host's role? There is no such principle.