What Does the "Mind" Mean in the Buddha's Teaching "Be Cautious, Do Not Trust Your Mind"?

The Buddha said: Your mind is not to be trusted; do not trust your mind. Only upon attaining the fruition of Arhatship may you trust your mind.

Faith is divided into deep faith and shallow faith, genuine faith and false faith. Deep faith and genuine faith refer to belief rooted deep within the manas (mind consciousness), while shallow faith and false faith denote superficial belief at the level of the conscious mind, or deliberate pretense of belief by the conscious mind when the manas does not truly believe.

The term "mind" refers to two aspects: one is the deeply held knowledge, views, perspectives, and positions within the manas; the other is the knowledge, views, perspectives, and positions held by the conscious mind.

Trusting one's own mind involves different levels of distinction: First, the conscious mind trusts the knowledge, views, perspectives, and positions of the manas. Second, the manas trusts the knowledge, views, perspectives, and positions of the conscious mind. Third, the manas trusts its own knowledge, views, perspectives, and positions. Fourth, the conscious mind trusts its own knowledge, views, perspectives, and positions. Additionally, there are numerous other scenarios, such as when the conscious mind believes while the manas does not, or when the manas believes while the conscious mind does not.

Because the manas possesses deeply ingrained ignorance and defilements, along with deeply rooted self-view and wrong views—innate, beginningless ignorance that cannot be easily reversed—sentient beings, due to this ignorance, profoundly trust their own erroneous views within the manas. They refuse to be transformed, leading to life after life where the manas dominates the conscious mind with wrong views, creating karmic actions of ignorance and defilement, perpetuating the cycle of birth and death without end. To liberate such beings, the World-Honored One turned inward to reflect upon His own afflictions of ignorance, admonishing sentient beings not to trust their inherent knowledge and views. Only upon cultivating to the fourth fruition of Arhatship, completely severing the view of self and self-attachment, attaining purity of mind, liberation, and wisdom, may one trust one's own knowledge and views. Prior to this, due to the obscurations of afflictions, insufficient wisdom, and incorrect views, if one remains unshakably convinced of one's own views, it becomes impossible to escape the pit of ignorance and attain liberation from birth and death.