The Key to Buddhist Dharma Practice and Realization

Some people have had this kind of experience: regarding certain questions, when the mind consciousness could not understand them, they set the doubt aside for the time being. After a period of time, a thought suddenly popped up in the mind, and they understood the question, and thus the doubt was resolved. The thought that pops up in the mind is the answer given by the manas; it may not yet be entirely definitive, and the mind consciousness needs to deliberate on it carefully in accordance with it. Therefore, with regard to certain questions, although the mind consciousness appears on the surface not to be thinking about them or dwelling on them, the manas has not let go and has been deliberating all along. Because the data provided by the mind consciousness is insufficient, the manas cannot deliberate out a final conclusion, but at the very least a direction and a clue have emerged. There is only laziness of the mind consciousness, never laziness of the manas. Therefore, in cultivation one must still constantly spur on the mind consciousness, engage in much deliberation and contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), and accumulate much data and gather much material, so that the manas grasps more evidence—then realization and enlightenment will come quickly.

When the mind consciousness is not thinking, or is doing something else, and an answer suddenly appears—the mind consciousness did not deliberate—that is a provisional conclusion reached by the manas after its deliberation. Why does the answer appear suddenly? Because the deliberative function of the manas is completely unobservable to the mind consciousness. When the manas understands, it alerts the mind consciousness, and the mind consciousness feels that it understood suddenly, and so it is astonished. If it is a question the mind consciousness has been thinking about all along, then understanding comes bit by bit in a continuous stream, and it does not feel sudden; there is no astonishment, no surprise, because one is mentally prepared.

Once these methods and processes of deliberation are mastered and put to use, the key to the realization and verification of the Buddhadharma is grasped, and the capacity for logical thinking will improve; thereafter, the realization and verification of the Buddhadharma will proceed rapidly.