How to Ensure the Direct Realization of the Manas

When eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), the mind consciousness must first supply the manas with all the evidence and data, then the mind consciousness should deliberate less and exert less effort, accommodating the psychological activities of the manas, letting go and allowing the manas to deliberate and weigh things on its own, letting Him verify certain facts Himself. If the manas feels the facts are still insufficient, the evidence still inadequate, or the data still not enough, then the mind consciousness deliberates and engages in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) again, gathering more data to hand over to the manas, and the manas deliberates and weighs deeply once more. In this way, with the mind consciousness continuously supplying supplementary data and materials from the side, the manas can continuously process and continuously refine its deliberation, finally arriving at a solid, well-evidenced conclusion—and thus the fruit of realization is attained. If there are many matters that need to be handled and the mind consciousness must emerge from meditative concentration (samādhi) to cognize the six sense objects, the manas can still work quietly, never departing from investigation whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, and even while dreaming or dreamless at night, He can keep working. When the manas truly feels a matter is of great importance, He may decide to forgo sleep and food, neither sleeping nor eating, because when the manas wants to be diligent, these eating and drinking activities interfere with His focused contemplation; He would become distracted by daily trivialities, and so He will decide to reduce the other activities of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) to ensure He is not distracted. During sleep, without the mind consciousness assisting from the side, the manas lacks sufficient data and material and cannot begin investigating; so the manas decides not to sleep and not to let the mind consciousness cease.

In the investigation of all dharmas, at the beginning it is the manas cooperating with the mind consciousness's deliberation and analysis, cooperating with the mind consciousness's gathering of various data and materials; once the mind consciousness has gathered sufficiently complete material for the manas to make use of, the mind consciousness should then cooperate with the manas's deep and careful deliberation, cooperate with the manas's processing and integrating work, cooperate with the manas's examination and filtering work, letting the manas expend more mental effort while the mind consciousness is less active—then the investigation can be completed very quickly.

If one wants the mind consciousness to engage in less active deliberation and the manas to deliberate more, one must cultivate meditative concentration; only in concentration can the manas's focused investigation be guaranteed. Although He cannot be completely fixed on one object, it is enough that He be concentrated on a very small number of dharmas: apart from the dharma principles that require focused investigation, everything else only needs to be lightly cognized, without interfering with His investigation. Thus contemplative practice must take place within concentration; the mind consciousness must not engage in emotional speculation and intellectual understanding, but rather make much use of the manas's deliberative nature, giving full and effective play to the manas's deliberation, personally realizing that the five aggregates are without self—this is the secret of contemplative practice and Chan investigation.

Therefore, if the manas does not realize the dharma, it is impossible to attain enlightenment by seeing the mind, and likewise impossible to eradicate the view of self. In investigating Chan and practicing contemplation within concentration, the use of the mind consciousness's deliberation should be minimal, and the use of the manas's deliberative nature should be maximal—this is the secret of Chan investigation and contemplative practice.

Without the cooperation and assistance of the mind consciousness, the manas can still investigate and deliberate on dharma principles; it just takes longer, and there is no telling when it will happen. But the prerequisite is that the mind consciousness must hand over the content of its deliberation and the data to the manas; only when the manas has something to follow in its deliberation can it deliberate clearly and attain realization. For example, at night one ponders a problem and, without solving it, falls asleep. After a night's sleep, the moment one opens one's eyes the next morning, inspiration appears and one suddenly understands the previously unsolved problem. This shows that throughout the night, the manas was working and deliberating. Before sleep at night, one left a question for the manas, and upon waking in the morning the answer was obtained—quite a few people have had similar experiences.

Another example: sometimes a problem one has deliberated on may not yield an answer at the time, so one goes off to attend to other matters. On the surface it seems the matter has been forgotten and the mind consciousness is no longer considering it; then at some unpredictable moment, an answer suddenly appears in the mind—this is the manas quietly deliberating behind the scenes all along, finally deliberating out a result. Cultivation means making much use of the manas; only cultivation through the manas is true cultivation, for only then can one realize all dharmas and obtain all wisdom.