The Wisdom of the Abiding of Dharmas Can Know the Past and Future: Is This Direct Perceptual Cognition, Inferential Cognition, or Non-Valid Cognition?

With the wisdom of the knowledge of the established dharma (dharmasthiti-jñāna), one can attain liberation. Therefore, the knowledge of the established dharma is the wisdom of directly realizing the twelve links of dependent origination through direct perception; even if one can know the past and the future, there is no inference involved. The wisdom known through inference is very shallow. Wisdom that must rely on some dharma in order to know is unreliable and not ultimate; once the dharma it relies on does not appear, the inferred knowledge disappears. Within inferred knowledge, there is no process of the manas personally investigating, so the manas cannot personally realize it, and the mind consciousness also cannot know independently.

Of reasoning, part belongs to inference, and part belongs to non-valid cognition. Even if the reasoning is correct, it is not direct perception, because the manas does not know it. As for the manas's knowing, if it knows, it knows; if it does not know, it does not know—the dividing line appears extremely quickly, presented in the very moment, without requiring the mind consciousness to slowly deliberate and investigate.

Some people say: since one cannot see the past and the future, and the dharmas of the past and the future cannot be made present, knowledge of the dharmas of the past and the future should be inferred knowledge. This is an incorrect claim. What is called "being present" does not necessarily have to appear before one's eyes. Wisdom is not initiated by the eye consciousness; it is initiated jointly by the mind consciousness and the manas. The mind consciousness and the manas can fully realize and verify the dharmas of the past and the future. In particular, the manas is not obstructed by time and space at all; following the tathāgatagarbha, it can know all dharmas. The dharmas of past lives can be recalled the moment one intends to recall them, and the dharmas of future lives can be known the moment one intends to know them—dreams and meditative states demonstrate this point. Therefore, what the manas does not know cannot be wisdom of direct perception. When the mind consciousness knows through direct perception, the manas does not necessarily know through direct perception, and the mind consciousness's knowing will be overlooked and canceled out depending on different conditions.