Dual Personality Is the Multiple Personalities of the Manas

When a person has a dual personality, is it that the mind consciousness and the manas each have a personality, or that the manas has two personalities? When the first personality manifests, the bodily, verbal, and mental actions are one way; when the second personality manifests, the bodily, verbal, and mental actions are another way. The two personalities are different, or even diametrically opposed, as if they were two different people.

Why does the phenomenon of multiple personalities arise? Because the manas has multiple psychological needs and wishes that cannot all be accommodated simultaneously, multiple personalities emerge to satisfy the different wishes, or to display multiple temperaments. In other words, one can no longer satisfy one's own wishes, multiple temperaments can no longer coexist harmoniously, and multiple experiences can no longer be overlapped and blended together; having no alternative, a multiple personality forms to satisfy the various wishes and selves. When the manas is too entangled and cannot resolve its contradictions, it forcibly splits itself in two, or into many.

From the phenomenon of multiple personalities, one can gain an early appreciation of the Nirmāṇakāya and the Sambhogakāya of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. The Sambhogakāya is the body manifested by the manas; the Nirmāṇakāya is a divided body, a divided body of the six consciousnesses manifested through the manas's wishes. In dual personality, the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of each are different, which is analogous to the different activities of multiple divided bodies of the six consciousnesses. The Nirmāṇakāya identities of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are different, and their activities are also different. Guanyin Bodhisattva's power of vows is such that whatever body sentient beings need in order to be liberated, He manifests that body to teach the Dharma. "Whatever body" refers to countless manifestation bodies, transformed from the manas's wish to liberate sentient beings. A Bodhisattva may come into the world manifesting two or more identities, and the respective physical bodies may not even know of each other.

The power of vows of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas is vast and profound; a single physical body cannot fulfill so many, such great, such deep vows, so they must manifest countless divided bodies to fulfill their numerous vows. The manas is the sovereign consciousness; as long as He has sufficient merit, meditative concentration (samādhi), physical body, and power of vows, He will act as sovereign to create divided bodies, manifesting numerous bodies of the six consciousnesses. One set of six-consciousness bodies has one set of bodily, verbal, and mental actions; many sets of six-consciousness bodies have many sets of bodily, verbal, and mental actions, each different, yet all subsumed under the same manas and tathāgatagarbha. The personalities of a multiple personality, however, are subsumed under different facets of the same manas—different temperaments, different wishes, or different aspirations.

After studying Yogācāra, everyone should be able to become a psychological counselor, a psychology scholar, or a psychotherapist, engaging in psychological research and guidance. You will be able to see through other people's psychology at a glance; no one can hide from you, no one can deceive you, and you will be able to grasp others' minds and guide them skillfully and patiently. Worldly people are nothing but greed, hatred, and delusion, all grasping at the five aggregates as self, unable to see through the phenomenal realm, and therefore naturally unable to resolve their psychological problems. Contemplate and practice contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) more, and you will be able to thread all the various dharma meanings together, clearly see the direction of the future, feel optimistic about the prospects of Buddhist practice and realization, and sense that the path ahead is bright.