The Correspondence between the Manas of Sentient Beings and Karmic Seeds

The manas of sentient beings necessarily corresponds to karmic seeds. When one goes to hell, the manas manifests the habitual tendencies of hell beings. When one goes among hungry ghosts, sentient beings necessarily manifest the habitual tendencies of hungry ghosts. When one goes among animals, sentient beings necessarily manifest the habitual tendencies of animals. In the human realm, one has the habitual tendencies of humans; as a deva, one has the habitual tendencies of devas; asuras have the habitual tendencies of asuras. Likewise, bodhisattvas have the habitual tendencies of bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas teach and transform sentient beings across eons, so they necessarily have the habitual tendencies of teaching and transforming sentient beings. These habitual tendencies of bodhisattvas are, of course, good habitual tendencies. When a sentient being's habitual tendencies correspond to those of a bodhisattva, that being is a bodhisattva.

If one spent a long time in a certain realm in a past life, one will have the habitual tendencies of the beings of that realm, and upon entering other realms, the manas will correspondingly manifest the original habitual tendencies. For example, the Buddha's great disciple Gavāmpati was an arhat of the fourth fruit; he had been a cow for five hundred lifetimes and had the habitual tendency of rumination, so even as a human and as an arhat, he still ate like a cow chewing grass. Some people have the habitual tendencies of hungry ghosts because they spent a long time as hungry ghosts in past lives; some people have the combative habitual tendencies of asuras because they spent a long time as asuras in past lives, and their anger and habitual anger are extremely firm. Even after becoming a bodhisattva, they may still display some of the asura's habitual anger.