The Benefits of Deliberating with the Manas

Question: I seem to understand how to deliberate with the manas now. It is a mental activity that cannot use thinking—once I think, the mind consciousness gets involved, and once the mind consciousness is involved, that state becomes less deep and subtle. Is this so? This state lasts only a very short time. When the deliberation reaches a point where the problem gets stuck, I use the mind consciousness to think, and immediately the state is no longer so deep and subtle. Also, while sitting in meditation, when I apply initial application and sustained examination (vitarka-vicāra) to the state of the body, a feeling arises that this material body does not exist—there is only a body constituted of slight sensations and the mind consciousness, very unreal. Suddenly a thought arose: the things one normally sees are merely images and pictures, manifested and displayed. Having this feeling, after emerging from meditation I looked around and everything still seemed so real.

Answer: You can now probably distinguish whether it is the mind consciousness thinking or the manas deliberating during meditation, and you are using the method correctly; it is just that your skill is not yet proficient and effortless, so you need to take it slowly and gradually deepen your foundation. When contemplating the Dharma in stillness, it is indeed true that when the manas is employed, the mind is very deep and subtle, whereas when the mind consciousness is used, it is somewhat shallow, as if separated by a layer—not deep or penetrating enough.

When observing the material body during meditation with sufficient focus, your meditative concentration (samādhi) will improve; and as concentration deepens, the initial application and sustained examination actually become slighter, the perception of the material body disappears, and the mind becomes empty. Meditative concentration can make the mind fine, dense, and precise; it often enables one to observe things that cannot be observed ordinarily, to discover the truth of things, and thereby to penetrate and awaken thoroughly to truth. So when, in meditation, some things seem like images and no longer so real, this is a correct view. On the basis of this correct view, if you make your practice proficient, there is hope for realization and awakening.

After realization and awakening, upon emerging from meditation you will no longer take illusory dharmas to be real. Before realization, views are merely views and cannot change anything. But correct views, after all, have somewhat departed from false cognition and turned toward discovering the truth of things. If you maintain and deepen this state of practice, you will be better able to see through the extreme illusoriness and unreality of all kinds of principles and affairs; when causes, conditions, and the right season are complete, it becomes possible to realize emptiness. Therefore, the realization and awakening of all dharmas takes place within profound meditative concentration (dhyāna); even during activity, there is meditative concentration, and such concentration stems from the dhyāna skill of sitting meditation—it is the extension and continuation of concentration in stillness.