Mental Formations of Manas in Theatrical Performance

Question: When a movie actor portrays a villain or a bad character, performing vividly and deeply immersed in the role, how does the tathāgatagarbha record the actor's karmic actions? What becomes of the karmic seeds?

Answer: Acting, also known as pretending, does not reflect the true state of the mind. So-called acting or pretending means the consciousness decides how to behave, which does not align with the thoughts of the manas (the seventh consciousness). The actions are fabrications of the consciousness, which strives to genuinely manifest mental states not inherent to the manas, making it seem real, as if it were truly happening.

There is a vast difference between karmic actions subjectively arising from consciousness and those dominantly controlled by the manas. The karmic seeds stored differ, and thus the retribution differs. It is like the difference between a child in a household doing something bad versus a parent doing something bad — the nature differs, and the punishment or reprimand received differs accordingly. The child receives a light reprimand, while the parent receives a heavy one.

Moreover, when the child is punished, the parent will inevitably be implicated and must bear the punishment on the child's behalf. Karmic actions subjectively created by consciousness are minor, yet the reprimand still falls upon the manas. When the manas autonomously creates karma, the full reprimand falls upon the manas itself, and the parent must bear all responsibility. However, the consequences the parent should suffer may also be concretely borne, or borne on behalf of, the child, because the parent is esteemed. Similarly, the retribution for the manas will also be borne concretely by the six consciousnesses on its behalf, because the manas, as the master, is esteemed.

What karmic seeds are stored when creating karma determines what retribution will be received in the future; this depends entirely on the mental actions of the manas, or primarily on them. The one acting is the consciousness, pretending to be a villain doing bad deeds; the manas is not evil, so in essence, it is not bad, and thus cannot store the seeds of evil karma. If the manas becomes stirred during the performance, generating mental actions identical to those in the play, then it is no longer acting; it is purely creating karma, and the karmic seeds are recorded as they truly are. If the manas remains unmoved, and only the consciousness is pretending, karmic seeds still exist, and all actions and deeds must be recorded. However, the nature of the karmic seeds differs; what kind of karmic seeds and retribution exist is entirely determined by the mental actions of the manas.

If, during the performance, the consciousness fails to act well or convincingly, it indicates insufficient skill in consciousness, a lack of correspondence between the consciousness and the villain role, and also shows that the manas is not evil — it has not contaminated the consciousness to become bad, forcing the consciousness to struggle to pretend to be evil and perform inadequately. However, even if the manas is a very good person, if the consciousness possesses superb acting skills, adept at performing and pretending, immersion into the role will be swift and deep. The karmic seeds stored are those of acting and pretending, not seeds of the manas being evil, so the retribution is not bad. If one pretends to be a villain for a long time, it can subtly influence the manas, causing it to unconsciously become familiar with evil, adapt to evil, and potentially act evilly at some point.

By the same principle, it can be demonstrated that in the process of cultivating and realizing the Buddha Dharma, if only the consciousness attains the fruit (of enlightenment) while the manas does not, it is a false attainment, not a genuine one — roughly equivalent to acting. Karmic seeds are still stored, but the virtuous fruit is minor. Genuine realization is attainment dominated by the manas. If the master (manas) has attained the fruit, what more is there to say about the subordinates (consciousness)? They follow the master in receiving the fruit and enjoying the fruition level. It cannot be said that the master, the manas, has not attained the fruit, yet the subordinate consciousness alone can attain the fruit and enjoy the fruition level. How could a servant be above the master, occupying a higher position than the master, usurping the host's role? Such a principle does not exist.