Exalting the Manas Is Exalting Direct Realization

Why, in the Dharma-ending age, is it necessary to demonstrate extensively the nature, characteristics, and functions of the manas, and to distinguish it as much as possible from the mind consciousness? Because sentient beings of the degenerate age are restless and superficial, their good roots are meager, their greed is heavy, their merit is thin, they are unwilling to keep the precepts—keeping the precepts is difficult, cultivating meditative concentration is also difficult, and their minds are not pure. Buddhist practitioners generally focus on acquiring knowledge, often taking the theories they have learned and the emotional thinking and intellectual interpretations of the mind consciousness as realization, taking the results of speculation, inference, and research as realization, thereby deluding themselves and then deluding others, collectively committing the karma of major false speech and collectively falling into the fiery pits of the three lower realms. If one understands the nature of the manas, one will know what realization actually looks like and how it differs from emotional thinking and intellectual interpretation; one will understand the crucial pivot and key points of realization, and thus avoid falling into such errors, so as not to commit the offense of major false speech.

In the Buddha's time, sentient beings had deep and abundant good roots and merit, their afflictions were slight, their minds were pure, and their power of meditative concentration was strong. After learning the theoretical portion, they would spontaneously and conscientiously engage in deep and detailed contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), and realization was relatively easy. Because they possessed profound dhyāna, whatever Dharma they learned could penetrate deep into the manas; as long as they attained realization of the fruits, it was genuine realization, not the false realization of the mind consciousness. Moreover, the Buddha personally verified and confirmed it—the Buddha's wisdom and supernatural powers are limitless, so his confirmations were extremely accurate, without any error; he would not mislead his disciples into claiming realization without having realized it, thereby damaging their progress on the Path.

Even among the monastic and lay communities before the Ming and Qing dynasties, many possessed deep and profound dhyāna, and the environmental conditions for cultivating meditative concentration were relatively good. Especially during the Tang and Song dynasties, Buddhist practitioners all emphasized dhyāna and meditative concentration; with meditative concentration, they could engage in contemplative practice and contemplation, and as long as the theories they learned were correct, realization was relatively easier. The phenomenon of emotional thinking and intellectual interpretation was very rare; if there was realization, it was genuine realization—the only difficulty was that the theoretical texts of the sūtras were hard to obtain. Therefore, sentient beings of that time could still attain realization without understanding the functions of the manas.

In today's world of study and practice, many people cannot keep the precepts and cannot cultivate meditative concentration; they can only focus on learning theoretical knowledge. In this way, realization is impossible; without realization, one cannot practice accordingly, and it is mostly "Chan of the mouth"—speaking the principles fluently and eloquently, yet the mind does not accord with the Path, and greed, anger, and delusion still prevail. Without meditative concentration, afflictions cannot even be subdued or suppressed—let alone severed. This is why Buddhist communities are even more chaotic than the secular world, with even fiercer strife: not only do they cling to the fame, profit, and offerings of the secular world, they also cling to personal benefits within the Buddhadharma, so that their afflictions are even worse than those of the secular world.

In this era where "sages" fly everywhere, fake seals are recklessly stamped, and desires run rampant, it is necessary to emphasize keeping the precepts and dhyāna, and necessary to emphasize the realization of the manas, in order to save those who claim realization without having realized it—perpetrators of major false speech—from falling into the three lower realms at death, and to prevent them from harming other students, leading them together into the fiery pit.