What Do Different Manifestations While Lying Indicate

Question: Some people blush when they lie, while others lie as if nothing had happened, quite naturally. Why is there this difference? What causes the blushing? And why does the face not turn red, or blue, or white?

Answer: Blushing is the doing of the manas. The manas has a sense of shame, knows that lying is wrong, and feels ashamed inwardly, which is why the face turns red. For those whose faces do not blush, the mind consciousness may be lying deliberately or not deliberately; in either case, the manas has become habituated to lying and prompts the mind consciousness to act. Or perhaps neither of the two consciousnesses is awakened, or only the mind consciousness is awakened and knows it is wrong, while the manas does not yet know it is wrong—lacking the power of introspection and the self-validating cognition (sva-saṃvitti-saṃvitti-bhāga), and therefore having no sense of shame. The mental factor of shame is a wholesome mental factor. In an untrained person, either the mind consciousness lacks shame, or the manas lacks shame, or both consciousnesses lack the mental factor of shame—all of which is unwholesome. A person who has the mental factor of shame can gradually correct mistakes and bad habits; a person without the mental factor of shame cannot correct bad habits, and for the time being we should not expect him to change his own bad habits. Bad habits and afflictions are directed and dominated by the manas in their creation—sometimes instigated by the mind consciousness, sometimes done by the manas after influencing and permeating the mind consciousness. And changing bad habits must certainly be led by the manas. For the manas to change bad habits, it must first recognize its own bad habits, know that it is wrong, and know that having bad habits is not good. And knowing that one is wrong and that it is not good is precisely the function of the manas's self-validating cognition (sva-saṃvitti-saṃvitti-bhāga).