What Is the State of Not Giving Rise to a Single Thought?

When not a single thought arises, there is no solitary mental consciousness; whenever the solitary mental consciousness exists, there is necessarily thought—and thought is precisely the thought of the solitary mental consciousness. The mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses (pañcavijñāna-sahagata-manovijñāna) merely knows, discerns, and discriminates. When the mental consciousness is in a state of only discerning and knowing, without engaging in discrimination, that is the state of not a single thought arising. At this time, the knowing function of the manas becomes relatively distinctly prominent. The manas does have knowing, and it also has thought; it is only that the mind consciousness is not aware of it clearly. This is also a state of meditative concentration (samādhi): the mind is not scattered or complicated, and affairs are few and simple. When not a single thought arises, the mind consciousness no longer gives rise to thoughts, but the manas is not so—the thoughts of the manas generally do not cease. For example, when in a state of not a single thought arising, one suddenly thinks of a matter and immediately gets up and goes out to attend to it; this is the result of the manas's thoughts turning when the mind consciousness gives rise to no thoughts.

How does this state come about? It is also brought about by the manas making decisions as the master. When the manas does not seek out objects and does not wish to discriminate dharmas, the mind consciousness can only obey, existing and operating quietly. This is also when the manas has no particular ideas, when the manas has no obvious thoughts. If the manas has ideas, it will impel the mind consciousness into action to realize the manas's ideas; if the manas is mindful of other dharmas, the mind consciousness will inevitably be distracted to deal with them, and will not be quiet, but rather turbulent and busy. In this way, without stability of concentration, there is no meditative concentration (samādhi).