How to Mobilize the Deliberation (manana) of the Manas in Meditative Concentration

In meditative concentration, instead of using the mind consciousness's thinking, one uses the manas's deliberation (manana). This skill is quite profound and very difficult for ordinary people to achieve. It requires a very deep foundation of meditative concentration, as well as a certain degree of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā). When meditation and contemplative practice are cultivated to a certain level, one can shift from the mind consciousness's thinking to deliberation by the manas. The mind consciousness's thinking is relatively shallow, floating on the surface; ordinary people can observe it. For example, by introspecting at this moment to see what thoughts are in the mind, one knows what one is thinking about, pondering, and planning right now. These thoughts generally float on the surface—they are all the mind consciousness's thinking.

At the same time, behind this there is also the support and guiding role of the manas. If one's meditative power and wisdom are insufficient, it is not easy to observe this, and one cannot clearly recognize one's own innermost true thoughts. When the mind has been cultivated to a very refined state, one can observe that while the mind consciousness is thinking, there is a force behind it playing the dominant role, and that force and stream of thought belong to the manas. Once one discovers that force of the manas behind the mind consciousness and can grasp the manas, one should gradually weaken the mind consciousness's thinking function. After weakening it to a certain degree, one then lets go of the mind consciousness's thoughts; but even after letting go, one must still keep thoughts in the mind—keep the manas's deliberative activity going—without letting oneself become completely without thought or perception. This is by no means easy.

In meditative concentration, one must learn to strive to discover that force deep within the mind. He actually has thoughts, has mental activity, and is capable of thinking—that is the manas's deliberative activity. After discovering it, strive to maintain that deliberative activity and not let it die out; hand over the dharma principles that the mind consciousness was pondering to Him, and let Him continue deliberating on His own. This constitutes a relatively deep state of investigation. Investigating Chan is just like this; deliberating that the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) are not self is done with exactly this kind of skill. In this way the manas's deliberation is activated. This mode of thinking, this kind of skill, is called the manas's deliberation.

To accomplish this, profound meditative concentration is indispensable; one's meditative skill must be very good, able to cast off coarse wandering thoughts, and at a certain point even subtle wandering thoughts must be cast off as well. Wandering thoughts are thoughts that ponder other irrelevant dharmas—that is, scattered and proliferating thoughts. These thoughts are all disturbances to right mindfulness, so they must all be removed, leaving only the dharma that the mind consciousness needs to ponder. Then the mind consciousness's thinking is also removed, letting the manas deliberate on this dharma—the mind consciousness and the manas swap roles in contemplating the issue. At this point the mind consciousness still exists, performing a very light function of discernment, but it does not think deeply, analyze, or reason; rather, the manas is allowed to deliberate deeply, without language, words, or sound. This deliberative function is not easy to observe when meditative concentration and wisdom are insufficient.

The manas's deliberative function is also called the thoughts deep within the mind. Everyone's mental thoughts are of two kinds: one floats on the surface—the shallow-level thoughts of the mind consciousness; the other is hidden in the depths—the deep-level thoughts, that is, the manas's thoughts deep within the mind, representing one's true thoughts. For example, if I now tell others what I plan to do, but in fact I do not have that thought—the thought I speak out carries a perfunctory flavor, and within there is another voice and another thought. That thought is rather hidden, and one does not want others to know it, so one uses the mind consciousness's language to cover it up or to divert attention.

Constantly introspect on the manas deep within your mind, grasp the manas deep within your mind, and then hand over the dharma that the mind consciousness was originally concerned with and pondering to the manas, letting the manas be concerned with it. In this way the manas can be concerned with this dharma at all times and in all places, and the manas's deliberative nature will manifest. If the manas agrees, the permeation succeeds; if the manas does not accept it, the permeation does not succeed. Only when the skill is in place can it succeed.

In daily life, we all make use of the manas and its deliberative function; it is just that we cannot observe it, cannot distinguish it, and do not know how to summarize it, so we cannot tell whether it is the mind consciousness's thinking or the manas's deliberation. This requires increasing meditative skill and contemplative wisdom in order to clarify these issues. Only when meditative concentration deepens can the mind become refined, so that one can discover the difference between the mind consciousness and the manas, and also distinguish the inner voice from the surface voice, thereby clearly understanding the state of the manas's deliberation and grasping that deliberative nature of the manas; gradually one will know how to apply it.

To reach this level, one must strengthen the cultivation of meditative concentration, enhance the discerning power of wisdom, subdue afflictions, reduce wandering thoughts, and keep the mind on the Buddha's Dharma without chasing after worldly dharmas. As meditative concentration is cultivated ever more deeply, the mind becomes ever more focused and wandering thoughts fewer and fewer, to the point that one can cast off wandering thoughts whenever one wishes to. As the mind becomes ever more refined and wisdom ever deeper, the manas's functions will operate very well.

When the physical body has been subdued and one reaches the level of the equal cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā, one can directly use the manas's deliberation to solve problems. When one's questioning doubt about a dharma is rather strong, directly hang this dharma in the mind—at first the mind consciousness holds it, then reduce and lighten the mind consciousness's role, letting the manas hold this dharma. At this point one enters a relatively deeper meditative concentration, letting the manas deliberate deeply on this dharma. The more focused the manas's deliberation, the deeper the meditative concentration; and the deeper the meditative concentration, the more focused, profound, and refined the manas's deliberation becomes. In the end one can clarify this question, and at the same time one enters a state of meditative absorption (samādhi), filled with dharma joy, with body and mind in tranquility, and meditative bliss arises. Samādhi is the state of the equal cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā. Once this state emerges, one's mental state for the whole day will be excellent, and both body and mind will be extremely tranquil and at ease.