What Mental Activity Is Involved in Both Silent Mindfulness and Knowing Mindfulness?

When reciting a mantra, whether aloud or silently, it is the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) that recites; the recollection of the manas is without language and words. The awareness that knows the silent recitation is the power of introspection (pratyavekṣā-bala) of the mind consciousness; the mind consciousness's power of introspection is precisely the self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana), whereby the solitary consciousness discerns and introspects upon the solitary consciousness itself. Of course, if the recitation has become extremely familiar, there is also the recitation and knowing of the manas. When the mind consciousness recites silently, the manas knows it; when the mind consciousness introspects, the manas also knows it. This knowing is deeply hidden, hard to see and hard to observe. The manas takes the introspective function of the solitary consciousness, as well as the function of silently reciting the mantra, to be its own functions and operations, believing that it is itself who recites and who knows.

If one's meditative concentration (samādhi) is fairly good, the manas can also participate in reciting the mantra, and the mind consciousness can observe this, but one cannot clearly 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 separate, clearly and distinctly, and their connection is not so close; the sixth and seventh consciousnesses can also each separate, standing apart from each other at a distance, only then do things appear clearly and distinctly, and each dharma gives a sense of being illusory. Without meditative concentration, the various dharmas are twisted together and inseparable, and cannot be seen clearly, so the blended dharmas feel very real and very actual; 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 genuine cultivation.