The Two Klesha Caitasika Dharmas of Manas

The afflictive mental factors associated with the manas are of two kinds. One kind constantly accompanies the manas in its manifest activity, without interruption for even a moment. Examples include the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), self-conceit (asmimāna), self-love (ātmasneha), and ignorance (avidyā, or ignorance regarding the self) as mentioned in the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra. The other kind does not constantly accompany the manas in its manifest activity; this refers to mental factors other than the aforementioned four afflictions, such as major, intermediate, and minor derivative afflictions like hatred, anger, and resentment. If these afflictions were constantly manifest, the bodies and minds of sentient beings, both their own and others', would be severely harmed, their lives would become chaotic, and their lifespan would not be long. Only the afflictions of the view of self, self-love, self-grasping, and self-conceit are the constantly manifest afflictions of ordinary sentient beings. When ordinary people encounter profound Dharma teachings, they are unable to engage in direct contemplation and realization. They can only understand a little of the superficial meaning, so they can only memorize the texts. The teaching of the twelve links of dependent origination reveals that the reason sentient beings undergo endless birth and death within the six realms is precisely because of the ignorance (avidyā) of the manas. If the manas were without ignorance, the twelve links would cease, the afflictions of sentient beings would be exhausted, and they would be liberated from birth and death. Ignorance conditions formations; formations condition consciousness. Fully understanding these seven characters (in the original Chinese text) will clarify whether the manas actually possesses hatred or not. If there is no hatred within the ignorance of the manas, it would not prompt the six consciousnesses to create karmic actions of hatred, thereby reducing karmic actions leading to birth and death by nearly half. Hatred in the mental consciousness (mano-vijñāna) is inconsequential because the mental consciousness cannot determine the creation of karmic actions of hatred; thus, there would be no seeds of hatred-karma, and consequently, no karmic actions of hatred leading to birth and death. Furthermore, where does hatred in the mental consciousness come from? How does it arise? Many people are unable to directly observe whether the manas possesses hatred, cannot clearly discern the logical and dialectical relationship between the manas and the mental consciousness, and do not know the origin of the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses. They merely memorize texts and consider their shallow understanding to be correct. As stated in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, at the very beginning of a sentient being's life, there is only the manas and the ālaya-vijñāna. Only after the manas gives rise to thoughts do heaven, earth, the myriad things, and the five aggregates and six consciousnesses come into being. If the manas has no hatred, where does the hatred in the mental consciousness come from? How do karmic actions of hatred appear? Why do sentient beings fight and contend with each other? How does this arise? Afflictions of the mental consciousness are easy to subdue and eradicate. Merely understanding the theory and comprehending it clearly allows for effective control over the afflictions. However, because the manas has not severed its afflictions, when encountering fundamental problems, if the mental consciousness is the slightest bit negligent, the afflictions immediately arise, and the person's true nature is revealed. For example, in dreams, or after becoming intoxicated, when the mental consciousness is weakened and lacks reason, all the afflictions of the manas manifest fully. Could the hatred and hateful actions after drunkenness possibly belong to the mental consciousness? Why is it easier to create unwholesome karma after drinking? Why does one's true nature appear after drinking? Why does one's character show after drinking? Subduing afflictions refers to eradicating the afflictions of the mental consciousness, but this is only temporary, not permanent. If the afflictions of the manas are not severed, the afflictions eradicated by the mental consciousness will re-arise when conditions are sufficient; it is fundamentally uncontrollable. Therefore, the hatred affliction is only completely eradicated at the third fruition (anāgāmin), which indicates that the manas can only completely sever the hatred affliction at the third fruition. The hatred affliction of the mental consciousness can be eradicated during the stage when an ordinary person (pṛthagjana) understands the principle, but this is not ultimate. When encountering special conditions, hatred can still arise in the mental consciousness. For instance, some people have a gentle temperament and an exceptionally good temper; they never give rise to hatred under normal circumstances no matter what happens. This is a case where the mental consciousness is without hatred. However, once they encounter a special situation that touches their bottom line, such a person might still commit murder. This is the hatred of the manas manifesting.