Dharma-abiding wisdom can know the past and future: is this direct perception, inferential cognition, or non-valid cognition?

With the wisdom of the dharma-abiding knowledge (dharmasthiti-jñāna), one can attain liberation. Therefore, the dharma-abiding knowledge is the wisdom that directly realizes the twelve links of dependent origination through direct perception. Even when one can know the past and the future, it is still knowing through direct perception, not through inference. The wisdom known through inference is very shallow; wisdom that must rely on some dharma in order to know is unreliable and not ultimate. Once the dharma it relies upon does not appear, the inferential knowledge disappears. Within inferential knowledge, there is no process of the manas personally investigating, so the manas cannot personally realize it, and the mind consciousness also cannot know independently. Among reasoning, part belongs to inference and part belongs to non-valid cognition; even if the reasoning is correct, it is still not direct perception, because the manas does not know it. As for the manas's knowing, it either knows or does not know—there is a dividing line established very quickly, presented in the immediate moment, without the mind consciousness slowly deliberating and investigating.

Some people say that since one cannot see the past and the future, and the dharmas of the past and the future cannot be made present, knowledge of the dharmas of the past and the future should be inferential knowledge. Such a claim is incorrect. What is called "being present" does not necessarily have to appear before one's eyes. Wisdom is not initiated by the eye consciousness; it is initiated jointly by the mind consciousness and the manas. The mind consciousness and the manas can completely realize and verify the dharmas of the past and the future. Especially the manas is not obstructed by time and space at all; following the tathāgatagarbha, it can know all dharmas. The dharmas of past lives can be recalled the moment one intends to recall them, and the dharmas of future lives can be known the moment one intends to know them—dream states and meditative states demonstrate this point. Therefore, what the manas does not know cannot be wisdom of direct perception. When the mind consciousness knows through direct perception, the manas does not necessarily know through direct perception, and the mind consciousness's knowing will be neglected and cancelled out depending on different conditions.