The Difference between the Patience of Mind Consciousness and the Patience of Manas

Any state of mind and emotion, as well as mental activity—the cognitive functions of the conscious mind such as recognizing, understanding, and discriminating people, affairs, objects, and principles—can all be divided into two kinds: those of the mind consciousness and those of the manas. Their levels of depth differ, and there is a certain distinction between the two; they are not entirely consistent or identical.

For example, patience is divided into two kinds: the patience of the mind consciousness and the patience of the manas. Both may have patience, or only one of them may have patience. When the manas lacks patience, the patience of the mind consciousness does not last long. For instance, when one has been doing something for a long time and the manas loses patience and no longer wants to continue, the mind consciousness on its side may still be pretending to persist. This so-called pretending means that the two mentalities of the mind consciousness and the manas are not in agreement—each has its own ideas—yet the current state is being maintained for the time being. In reality, the manas is planning something else, and once the plan is settled, it will make the decision to go do that other thing; then the mind consciousness cannot take charge and continue to persist, and so the patience of the mind consciousness comes to an end.

When the mind consciousness lacks patience but the manas has patience, even though the mind consciousness is restless like a monkey with thoughts darting about, and has all sorts of plans in mind, because the manas is persisting without change and making no other decision, the mind consciousness has no choice but to continue—it has no alternative, because it cannot take charge. When both have patience, one's attitude toward doing things remains unchanged, and one can do the same thing for years on end or days on end, with the mind neither wearying nor slackening.