What Are the Mind That Recites and the Mind That Knows the Recitation During Silent Recitation

Whether reciting a mantra aloud or silently, it is the solitary mental consciousness that recites; the recollection of the manas is without language and words. The knowing that knows the silent recitation is the mind consciousness's power of introspection; the mind consciousness's power of introspection is precisely the self-validating cognition (sva-saṃvitti-saṃvitti-bhāga), whereby the solitary mental consciousness discerns and introspects upon itself. Of course, if the recitation has become very familiar, there is also the manas's reciting and knowing. When the mind consciousness silently recites, the manas knows it; when the mind consciousness introspects, the manas also knows it—this knowing is profound, hidden, hard to see and hard to observe. The manas takes the solitary mental consciousness's introspective function and its function of silently reciting the mantra as its own functions, believing that it is itself who recites and who knows. 

If one's meditative concentration is fairly good, the manas can also participate in reciting the mantra, and the mind consciousness can observe this, but one cannot distinguish the boundaries between the respective functions of the mind consciousness and the manas, so they are easily confused. When there is meditative concentration, first, body and mind can be separated, clearly and distinctly; their connection is not so close. The sixth and seventh consciousnesses can also each be separated, standing apart from each other at a distance, and only then do things appear clearly and distinctly, giving a sense that each dharma is illusory. Without meditative concentration, the various dharmas are twisted together and cannot be separated or seen clearly, so the mixed-up dharmas feel very real and very substantial; the grasping (upādāna) is then strong, leading to heavy afflictions. The benefits of meditative concentration are beyond enumeration; without meditative concentration, do not claim to have any cultivation.