How to Ensure the Experiential Realization of the Manas

When eliminating the view of self, the mind consciousness must first supply the manas with all the evidence and data, and then the mind consciousness should deliberate less and exert less effort, accommodating the psychological needs 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 will deliberate and engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) again, gathering more data to hand over to the manas, and the manas will deeply deliberate and weigh things again. In this way, as the mind consciousness continuously supplies supplementary data from the side, the manas can continuously process it, continuously refine its deliberation, and finally arrive at a solid, well-evidenced conclusion—and thus realize the fruit. If there are many matters that need to be dealt with and the mind consciousness must emerge from meditation to discern the six sense objects, the manas can still work quietly, never leaving off investigation whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, and can even work whether dreaming or dreamless at night. 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 activities of eating and drinking interfere with His focused contemplation, causing Him to be distracted by daily trivialities; He will then decide to reduce other activities of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) to ensure He is not distracted. When sleeping, without the mind consciousness assisting from the side, the manas lacks sufficient data and material and cannot begin the investigation; so the manas decides not to sleep, not letting the mind consciousness cease.

In the investigation of all dharmas, at first the manas cooperates with the mind consciousness's deliberation and analysis, assisting the mind consciousness in gathering all kinds of data and materials; once the mind consciousness has gathered the materials sufficiently 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 integration 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 quickly.

If you want the mind consciousness to engage in less active deliberation and the manas to deliberate more, you must cultivate meditation (dhyāna); only in meditative concentration (samādhi) can the manas's focused investigation be guaranteed. Although He cannot be completely fixed on a single object, it is enough that He be fixed on a very few dharmas: apart from the dharma meaning that requires focused investigation, everything else only needs to be lightly discerned, without affecting His investigation. Thus contemplative practice must take place within samādhi; the mind consciousness must not rely on emotional conjecture and intellectual interpretation, but should make greater use of the manas's deliberative nature, giving full and effective play to the manas's deliberation, so as to personally realize the non-self of the five aggregates. This is the secret of contemplative practice and Chan investigation.

Therefore, if the manas does not realize the dharmas, it is impossible to see one's true mind and attain enlightenment, and equally impossible to eliminate the view of self. In investigating Chan and engaging in contemplative practice within samādhi, one should use the mind consciousness's deliberation less and the manas's deliberative nature more—this is the secret of Chan investigation and contemplative practice.

Even without the cooperation and assistance of the mind consciousness, the manas can still investigate and deliberate on dharma meaning; it only takes a longer time, 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 realize it. 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 unsolved problem. This shows that throughout the night, the manas was working and deliberating. Before sleep at night, a question was left for the manas, and upon waking in the morning the answer was obtained—many 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 no longer considers it, but then at some unpredictable moment, an answer suddenly appears in the mind. This is because the manas has been quietly deliberating behind the scenes all along, and finally deliberated out a result. Practice means making more use of the manas; only practice by the manas is true practice, for only then can one realize all dharmas and obtain all wisdom.