The Key to Managing Bodily, Verbal, and Mental Actions Well Is Taming the Manas

If one manages one's own mind consciousness and manas well, one can manage well the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses. The manas of an arhat has long been tamed, having eradicated afflictions, with nothing in the world to linger over or crave; from the stage of anāgāmin onward, the mind has already attained liberation, and the bodily, verbal, and mental actions are pure. When going out on alms rounds to beg for food, the arhat keeps the eyes on the ground about a foot ahead, with lowered brows and downcast gaze, paying no heed to the left, right, or other directions; the eyes do not contact objects indiscriminately, the mind does not think randomly, being single-minded or without thought. When the eyes inevitably come into contact with material sense-objects, upon knowing the form they immediately stop, giving rise to neither feeling nor perception, much less grasping; no karmic seeds are left behind, no future existence is received, and the deportment in the four postures moves humans and celestial beings alike.

If there is external conditioning from the environment, even the mind consciousness is not influenced by it, let alone the manas; even if the mind consciousness stirs slightly, the manas does not stir, because afflictions have been completely eradicated. Arhats do not need the mind consciousness to urge, supervise, or regulate the manas; rather, the manas can regulate the mind consciousness. Whereas ordinary beings whose practice is relatively on track must use the mind consciousness at all times and in all places to supervise, regulate, and restrain the manas, because the manas has not yet been influenced by wholesome conditioning; without such regulation it would transgress against others, and its inherent nature would be exposed. Therefore, those who always need to remind themselves with the mind consciousness are still far from genuine practice; as for those whose mind consciousness is even muddled and unclear, there is simply no question of any practice at all. Only after the manas has been influenced by wholesome conditioning and ignorance has been broken through can the bodily, verbal, and mental actions gradually become pure—spontaneous and self-aware, without needing to be watched over.