The Understanding of Consciousness Is Different from the Realization of the Manas

It feels as if such supernatural powers could be attained through cultivation so easily. Is the mind consciousness's feeling and understanding equivalent to having realized it? If it is realization, the supernatural power appears immediately; if the supernatural power does not appear, then it has not been realized, and the mind consciousness's understanding is of no avail—it cannot exert any force and cannot yield even the slightest merit and benefit of liberation. The same applies to the eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) and seeing the mind: the mind consciousness's understanding brings not the slightest merit and benefit, and is not the true eradication of the view of self. No matter how the mind consciousness believes that the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) are without self, it is not the realization of selflessness, nor the eradication of the view of self. Therefore, reading a book a hundred times so that its meaning naturally reveals itself is useless—it is still the mind consciousness's intellectual understanding, not the manas's realization. This principle is extremely important; I hope all of you will take it to heart and ponder it carefully. Do not again regard emotional thinking and intellectual understanding as supreme, great, and precious, thereby misleading yourselves and then misleading others.