The Difference Between Doubt Arising in the Mind Consciousness and in the Manas

The doubt of the mind consciousness is relatively shallow, existing only on the surface; it is not true doubt. For example, once an explanation is given and the mind understands, 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 choices of the master take effect and produce results. The mind consciousness is not the master; its doubt cannot play a primary role and is easily dispelled. For instance, if the manas doubts the wholesome dharmas it has created, this is true doubt, and it will offset part or all of the prior mental actions and karmic actions of wholesome dharma, so that the merit of the wholesome dharma previously created is lost or diminished. Because behind the manas there is the tathāgatagarbha cooperating with it, the tathāgatagarbha knows all the mental actions of the manas. If the manas doubts and does not believe in those merits, the tathāgatagarbha will record the merits of those wholesome dharmas as diminished, and the merit is reduced. Therefore, heavy doubt is also not good. Doubt is an affliction; among the three fetters we need to eliminate, it belongs to the fetter of doubt. With doubt unresolved, birth and death cannot be ended. Therefore, we must resolve the doubts in our minds, resolving the lack of understanding and the 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 must recognize from within that this is wholesome karma, and in the future we will surely obtain wholesome results as they truly are.

At the time of our death, if the mind dwells moment after moment on the unwholesome karma created in this life, the tathāgatagarbha will cooperate and cause the seeds of that unwholesome karma to ripen early, and we will be drawn along by the unwholesome karma to undergo unwholesome retribution. We should adjust our mental states, keeping the mind constantly focused on all the wholesome karma created in this life. Before death, we should strive to repent and purify all the unwholesome karma we have created. For what truly cannot be repented away, before the time of death we should not allow the unwholesome karma to form a strong thought in the mind; try not to think of it, but think instead of wholesome karma. Then the tathāgatagarbha may (not certainly) prevent the seeds of unwholesome karma from ripening, and instead ripen the seeds of wholesome karma.

This means that the thoughts at the time of death are the mind's aspirations, and the tathāgatagarbha will cooperate with you to make those thoughts and aspirations come true. Therefore, at the time of death, as long as we hold only wholesome aspirations—the aspiration to be reborn in the land of bliss (Sukhāvatī)—the tathāgatagarbha will cooperate and enable us to be reborn there. 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 give rise to doubt toward the land of bliss or toward Amitābha Buddha, we will fail 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, where we neither see the Buddha nor hear the Dharma, until the doubt in the mind and the karma of doubt are eliminated. Therefore, the thoughts at the time of death are the most important and the most useful.