Spiritual Practice Is Sweeping the Mind-Ground

The manifestation of the subjectively imagined realm occurs because the manas grasps at and attends to mental sense-objects (dharma-objects), and after attention is directed toward them, a thought arises; the tathāgatagarbha then produces the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) to carry out the manas's instruction and fulfill the manas's ideation. Whatever dharma the manas attends to, that is where the solitary consciousness is born, and thereafter it operates according to the manas's directives. Only after a thought arises in the mind consciousness does knowing occur—knowing what the dharma is. This dharma is a mental sense-object resembling information, having nothing to do with the five sense-objects; it may be an idea or concept, a recollection, a longing for the future, or the deliberation, analysis, and judgment of a problem. When the manas wants to recall, the mind consciousness recollects people and events of the past; when the manas wants to know the meaning of a certain sentence, the mind consciousness deliberates and analyzes that sentence; when the manas wants to consider the next day's itinerary, the mind consciousness deliberates the arrangements for the next day.

The arising of thoughts in the solitary consciousness is drawn forth by the manas, arising, ceasing, and moving in accordance with the manas's thoughts and ideas. For example, when the manas thinks of a person, the eighth consciousness immediately manifests the dharmas related to that person; after the manas contacts and deliberates upon them, it makes a decision to think it over, and so the solitary consciousness appears, attending to the dharmas related to that person, contacting, feeling, perceiving, and deliberating. Thus, after the manas knows, it will make a decision; thereafter, the solitary consciousness may continue to operate in depth, or it may cease on that dharma and appear on another dharma that the manas is grasping at.

The miscellaneous thoughts of the solitary consciousness are generated by the various graspings of the manas. At the very moment a thought first arises, no realm has yet manifested; the first instant is knowing that a thought has arisen, and only then does the image of the realm appear—there is a process between the arising of the thought and the manifestation of the realm. The realm was there all along, but without the mind consciousness it cannot be known. When the mind consciousness appears, in the first and second instants its discernment is incomplete and unclear; in the third and fourth instants, its discernment makes the dharma manifest more clearly, so that a conclusion can be drawn and an outline of the dharma emerges; only afterward comes deliberation and analysis, and only then is the dharma fully understood.

Most of the miscellaneous thoughts in the mind are things experienced in the past, called "familiar realms" (previously experienced objects). This shows that the manas often grasps at dharmas intentionally or unintentionally; its habitual force is strong, the mind is not empty, and it cannot let go of all the people, events, things, and principles it has experienced, keeping these dharmas swirling in the mind, unwilling to relinquish them—like garbage piling up and filling the mind, filthy and dirty, yet never knowing to clean and tidy it up. Cultivation means regularly cleaning and tidying up the hygiene of the mind, a thorough sweeping and clearing, maintaining the purity of the mind-ground, so that the chamber of the mind can be bright and clean. The cleaning is led and supervised by the mind consciousness, with the manas's consent; still it is the mind consciousness that does the sweeping—both devising the plans and carrying out the work are the mind consciousness's role, while the manas only needs to nod, give orders, and make the final call.