The Awareness of Consciousness and the Awareness of Manas

The wisdom of single-thought correspondence refers to the manas (mind root), not to the mind-consciousness. Therefore, when Chan Buddhism speaks of sudden enlightenment, it means the manas suddenly comprehends and realizes. Mind-consciousness understands gradually through thinking, analysis, and reasoning; there is a distinction between the two. Comprehension by the mind-consciousness is plain and unremarkable, whereas comprehension by the manas is like a sudden enlightenment—as if discovering a new continent, it feels very novel, astonishing, and profoundly penetrating to the marrow, hence triggering physical and mental reactions. Of course, the manas' comprehension and realization also occur at different levels, some being substantive and others non-substantive. When the manas suddenly awakens to or comprehends a certain truth, it experiences deep resonance, but this may not necessarily be the ultimate attainment.

Everyone knows the principle that the body is impermanent, subject to birth and death, illusory, and not-self. Yet, realizing the fruit of cutting off the view of self through the body is extremely difficult. This is because the manas' habitual cognition, accumulated since beginningless kalpas, regards the body as the self. This notion is deeply ingrained. Without direct experiential observation (pratyakṣa-pramāṇa), it is impossible to overturn this inherent view, impossible to acknowledge the selflessness of the body, and impossible to accept it. This requires the manas to rely on the thinking of the mind-consciousness, engage in its own deliberation (manana), and personally verify it. Only when the evidence is sufficient will it be compelled to confirm this truth.