Pale and Feeble Catchphrase

Many people think this way: money is something you don't bring with you at birth nor take with you at death, so it doesn't matter whether it is given away or lost, and it makes no difference whether one has it or not. Yet when one day a large sum of money is truly lost, the mind is truly restless and distressed, filled with anguish. It is the conscious mind that feels it "doesn't matter"; in reality, no matter how the conscious mind feels, it is of little use. Such catchphrases, at critical moments, prove pale and powerless. Many people deceive themselves like this—when it comes to the real test, deep down they are so unwilling to part with things and so stingy. This shows that the conscious mind's everyday catchphrases are mere lofty talk; the manas does not accept this reasoning, and its cognition differs vastly from that of the conscious mind—the two are not in step with each other.

For many people, the notions their conscious mind carries around make it seem as if their cultivation has already reached the level of a bodhisattva of several bhūmis: not discriminating all dharmas, seeking nothing from any dharma, seeing all as empty, eradicating attachment to self and attachment to dharmas. Yet in reality the manas still remains at the level of an ordinary person's afflictive nature of greed, anger, and delusion, with all kinds of attachments being extremely severe. Once a major matter concerning oneself is involved, all such notions turn into dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows, and the manas's true face is revealed—then the onlookers understand: "So that's how it is!"

Because at critical moments, what is involved is the deep-level psychology of the manas. All actions are decided and dictated by the manas; it is no longer as simple as the conscious mind's catchphrases. Speaking is done casually by the conscious mind, but doing is necessarily decided by the manas. If the manas has greed and stinginess, then speech and action cannot be consistent, and may even be the opposite. For some people's deep-level psychological problems, ordinary persuasion and exhortation no longer work; one must go deep into the innermost mind, dig out the root of the inner illness, and then prescribe the right remedy—effectively guiding the manas to subdue the afflictions of greed and stinginess—before the psychological habit of greed and stinginess can be changed.

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