Your Mind Is Not to Be Believed

When can one fully understand and clearly comprehend human affairs, people, and phenomena? The Buddha said: Before realizing the fourth fruit of arhatship, do not trust your mind; your mind is not to be believed. The bodily, verbal, and mental actions of sentient beings are all impure; their minds are defiled and have ignorance, so when they look at problems they cannot see them clearly, and they cannot correctly know human affairs, people, and phenomena. Consequently, what manifests is incorrect bodily, verbal, and mental actions, or evil bodily, verbal, and mental actions. Even after seeing the mind and seeing one's nature, there are still afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion within the mind, and there is still ignorance. If a bodhisattva has not attained the fruit of the third fruit (anāgāmin) or the fourth fruit (arhat), he likewise still has afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion; these afflictions will also manifest, and he will also create evil karma of body, mouth, and mind—but the bodhisattva's afflictive karma is just slightly lighter than that of ordinary beings.

Only upon entering the first bhūmi can the afflictions be effectively subdued. When entering the first bhūmi, the bodhisattva must be a person of the third fruit or the fourth fruit; all afflictions have been effectively subdued, wisdom has become deep and vast, the mind becomes pure, and one can achieve initial untaintedness (anāsrava). When the mind can reach initial untaintedness, at that time one has both meditative concentration (samādhi) and wisdom, and only then can one see certain people and affairs clearly and distinctly. His bodily, verbal, and mental actions will certainly be purer than those of others; only then can he have self-confidence and trust his own mind. Of course, in many cases this varies from person to person and cannot be generalized. Before this, we should not be too self-confident; in viewing people, affairs, and problems we will all make mistakes, because we lack the wisdom to discern.

In short, when consciousness is impure, the view is impure; when the view is impure, discernment is impure; when discernment is impure, perception is impure; when perception is impure, speech is impure; when speech is impure, action is impure. Because the seven consciousnesses have defiled ignorance, it results in bodily, verbal, and mental actions all being untranquil; when bodily, verbal, and mental actions are not tranquil, the karmic seeds are impure; when the karmic seeds are impure, the retribution is impure. The impurity of the karmic seeds therein causes the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the next life to remain impure as well, so that life after life one remains impure, and thus birth and death and saṃsāra continue without end. This shows how important it is, in learning Buddhism and cultivating practice, to remove ignorance and remove defilement!