The Difference between Mind-Consciousness Doubt and Manas Doubt

Doubt in the mind consciousness is relatively shallow; it exists only on the surface and is not genuine doubt. For example, once something is explained and the mind understands clearly, the doubt is dispelled. The doubt of the manas is much deeper, because the manas is the master consciousness, the master. All the mental actions and decisions of the master take effect and produce results. The mind consciousness is not the master; its doubt cannot play the primary role and is easily dispelled. For instance, if the manas doubts the wholesome dharmas it has created, this is genuine doubt, and it will offset part or all of the previous mental actions and karmic actions of wholesome dharma, so that the merit of the wholesome dharmas previously created is lost or diminished. Because behind the manas there is the tathāgatagarbha cooperating with it, and the tathāgatagarbha knows all the mental actions of the manas, if the manas doubts and does not believe in those merits, the tathāgatagarbha will lighten the record of the merits of those wholesome dharmas, and the merit is reduced.

Therefore, heavy doubt is also not good. Doubt is an affliction; among the three fetters we need to eradicate, it belongs to the fetter of doubt. With doubt and indecision, birth and death cannot be ended. Therefore, we must resolve the doubts in our minds, resolving the lack of understanding and indecision regarding the dharma of liberation. If the manas doubts the merit it has already created, the merit will be discounted. Therefore, when we have created wholesome karma, we should not have any doubt; we should recognize from the depths of our hearts that this is wholesome karma, and that in the future we will certainly obtain wholesome results accordingly.

At the time of our death, if the mind is moment after moment filled with the unwholesome karma created in this life, the tathāgatagarbha will cooperate and let this unwholesome seed ripen prematurely, and we will be drawn along by unwholesome karma to undergo unwholesome retribution. We should adjust our mental states, constantly thinking in our minds of all the wholesome karma created in this life. Before death, we should strive to repent and purify all the unwholesome karma we have created. If repentance is truly impossible, then even before death we should not let the unwholesome karma form a strong thought in the mind; try not to think about it, but instead think of wholesome karma. Then the tathāgatagarbha may (not completely) prevent the unwholesome karma seeds from ripening, and instead ripen the seeds of wholesome karma.

This means that the mental state at the time of death is the heart's vow, and the tathāgatagarbha will cooperate with you to make that thought and vow come true. Therefore, at the time of death, as long as we have only wholesome vows, such as the vow to be reborn in the land of bliss (sukhāvatī), the tathāgatagarbha will cooperate and let us be reborn in the land of bliss. If the thought at our death is not good and corresponds to the unwholesome karma of this life, then the retribution of unwholesome karma will manifest, and we may go to the three evil destinies. If at the time of death we have doubt about the land of bliss or about Amitābha Buddha, we will not be able to reach the land of bliss; even if we barely make it, we will only reach the borderland city of doubt in the land of bliss, not seeing the Buddha and not hearing the Dharma, until the doubt in the mind and the karma of doubt are eliminated. Therefore, the thought at the time of death is the most important and the most useful.