The Consideration of Manas Is Essentially the Pursuit of Benefit and Avoidance of Harm

Can the manas deliberate on seeking benefit and avoiding harm regarding all dharmas? The human affairs and physical phenomena it has experienced since beginningless kalpas can accumulate into experiences and memories, amassing within the heart. Thus, when encountering the same human affairs and physical phenomena in future lives and lives thereafter, it will selectively respond based on past experiences and memories, resulting in the outcome of seeking benefit and avoiding harm.

We should understand that the manas has always resonated with karma seeds. Everything experienced by the manas stores seeds, and its mental activities always resonate with these seeds. When the manas is reincarnated into various sentient beings, its mental activities, choices, and so forth resonate with the current sentient being, causing it to regard itself as that very being, without considering that it could be another type of sentient being, except in special cases.

When the manas is reincarnated as a human, its mental activities and behavior should primarily resonate with those of a human. However, this does not exclude exceptionally strong habits from past lives, including habits from being a sage, an animal, or a hungry ghost. Nevertheless, it resonates most strongly with human habits. When karma seeds manifest, the manas resonates even more with these seeds. For instance, when major negative karma ripens, the manas becomes negative; when major positive karma ripens, the manas becomes positive—a phenomenon that may seem unfathomable to others.

Therefore, all that the manas experiences becomes its own experiences and memories. Then, when conditions arise, it releases those experiences and memories, influencing—or rather, exerting an absolute influence on—its choices. The result is the pursuit of benefit and avoidance of harm, carried out with great confidence, impervious to external interference or obstruction.