Why Does Understanding Phenomena Require a Certain Duration?

Why does it take some time to digest something after learning about it or studying a certain teaching? What the consciousness knows needs to gradually permeate the manas (the mental faculty), allowing the manas to also understand, ponder, comprehend, and grasp it. If the manas has not yet grasped it, it is not true understanding; the matter has not been digested and absorbed.

For any teaching to be truly understood, digested, and absorbed, it requires some time for the manas to consider and comprehend it. This is called buffering. The better the concentration and the more focused one is, the easier it is for the manas to understand, and the faster the digestion and absorption occur. Therefore, when everything in the world happens too suddenly or urgently, the manas lacks psychological preparation and cannot quickly digest these events, causing inner shock. With more exposure and over time, as the manas becomes psychologically prepared, it will calmly accept things without feeling shocked anymore.

Due to sudden accidents, one may be terrified out of one's wits, and the profound fright penetrates deeply into the manas, affecting not just the consciousness. Because the manas is frightened, it loses all ability to respond and becomes at a loss. In milder cases, one may be stunned and dazed; in more severe cases, mental derangement may occur; the most extreme reaction is being terrified out of one's wits to the point of being frightened to death. After death, it becomes very difficult to take rebirth normally.