The Warning Function of the Manas

Question: In the past, when I felt fear, dread, or anxiety in my mind, I always had the feeling that something was about to happen, though I didn't know what it would be, and my mind was unsettled—and then something really did happen. Is this the manas knowing in advance?

Answer: Psychological phenomena such as fear, dread, and anxiety are emotional manifestations of the manas, making the mind consciousness feel that something bad is about to happen, yet without knowing exactly what it is. The manas can foresee many things in advance—it knows almost everything—but it cannot personally deal with them; it can only alert the mind consciousness, and only after the mind consciousness understands can it set about doing something, planning and making arrangements. The manas is anxious about what is going to happen, but it does not know how to express it so that the mind consciousness will know. Only after the event occurs does the mind consciousness find out what it was, but by then it is often one step too late, and nothing can be done about it.

Sometimes the things dreamed about in dreams are also matters the manas is dwelling on, after which it seeks to alert the mind consciousness to know and handle them; as a result, the things in the dream indeed all happen later. This is the manas's alerting function, also called a precognitive dream. Because the mind consciousness is intelligent and wise, with the capacity for analysis and reflection, it can come up with ways to solve problems and can take concrete measures and actions, whereas the manas is incapable of taking any action. Therefore, when it foresees that something is about to happen, it uses various means to alert the mind consciousness and remind it to know. Once the mind consciousness receives the alert and the hint, it may realize that something is going to happen and prepare in advance. If the manas has the wisdom to alert the mind consciousness, it can make it easy for the mind consciousness to comprehend; and if the mind consciousness has wisdom, it will also readily comprehend the manas's warnings and hints.

A precognitive dream is the manas letting the mind consciousness know in advance about things that will happen later. The manas can know things that have not yet happened in the future and can reach into the future. Why is this so? Because the tathāgatagarbha, in accordance with karmic seeds, can know the affairs of the three realms of the world—past, present, and future. The manas, relying on the dharmas that the tathāgatagarbha perceives, can give rise to its own views. When the tathāgatagarbha can perceive all dharmas, the manas can also perceive all dharmas, but the dharmas perceived by the two differ in essence.