Observing the Mental Activities of the Manas in the Hypnotic State

If a person's mind consciousness is very weak, its alerting effect and pulling force on the manas are extremely small. At such a time, if hypnosis is performed on him, the manas is easily induced by the hypnotist and will speak out all the secrets it knows. But if the manas itself is very strong, has alertness, and has firm willpower, it will not be swayed by the hypnotist's inducement and can keep the secrets at the bottom of its heart. There is a hypnosis case: a hypnotist wanted to know a person's account password, so he took advantage of the person being in a semi-comatose state, in which the mind consciousness's resistance and discernment were extremely low, to hypnotize him. At the same time, an instrument for monitoring brainwaves was installed on his head to obtain information about his brainwaves at any time, to understand the thoughts and secrets in his mind through the brainwaves, and to translate the brainwaves into written information.

However, this person had very strong willpower and had long been on guard. When the hypnotist asked him unimportant questions, he answered truthfully; but when asked key questions about the password, at first he answered randomly, and later he shut his mouth and refused to answer. Yet thoughts in his mind still existed, so the instrument could display the fluctuations of this person's brainwaves; electric current signals flickered on the instrument, and the brainwaves were instantly translated into written information. But when it came to the most core question of the password, this person not only refused to answer, but also abandoned the thoughts in his mind and shut down the brain's thinking; the brainwaves then became a blank and could not be displayed, and of course the text could not be translated either. In the end, the hypnotist used many methods but could not get this person to reveal the account password.

What can be observed from this phenomenon? During the process of hypnosis, the mind consciousness is very weak and can only perform a slight function of discernment; the five sense consciousnesses are also very weak, performing slight discernment together with the mind consciousness, transmitting the content of the hypnotist's voice that they discern to the manas, and transmitting the pain sensations in the body to the manas. At first, the mind consciousness still has a weak function of thinking and analysis; as the depth of coma increases, the mind consciousness becomes less and less awake, until it disappears. The information of the six sense objects transmitted by the six consciousnesses becomes increasingly unclear, and the auxiliary function of thinking and analysis is gone. At this point, it is almost entirely up to the manas itself to face the hypnotist's hypnotic commands.

When the mind consciousness is operating normally, the manas can follow the opinions and suggestions produced by the mind consciousness's thinking and analysis, and the mind consciousness's thinking is also almost entirely carried out around the manas, so what the manas follows is still almost its own commands, and what it complies with is still its own thoughts. But when being hypnotized, the hypnotist's commands replace the mind consciousness's guidance and suggestions. If the manas's will is not firm and the hypnosis succeeds, it will follow the hypnotist's commands and, with utter directness and without any concealment, speak out the secrets in its heart. The manas and the six consciousnesses have a master-servant relationship: the six consciousnesses are responsible for observing and discerning the six sense objects, transmitting information about the six sense objects, obeying the manas's commands, and using bodily, verbal, and mental actions to express the manas's ideas and views. When the six consciousnesses are very weak, the manas's ideas and views cannot be revealed, and many of its functions cannot be effectively exercised; but the manas can still cognize and discern the states of the six sense objects, and still has its own dominant thoughts.

After the six consciousnesses become weak or disappear, does the view of self still exist? Is the view of self at this time the same as when the six consciousnesses exist? Is the view of self at this time even more obvious? In fact, the view of self is possessed by the manas itself; the mind consciousness merely follows the manas's view of self and expresses the manas's view of self. In this case, the person was hypnotized and the six consciousnesses were weak or had disappeared—did the manas not display a very strong view of self and self-grasping? In fact, it is the manas that has been protecting the self all along. Self-grasping originates from the view of self; without the view of self there is no self-grasping. The strength of the manas's self-grasping precisely shows that the manas's view of self is strong.

How is language produced? How are brainwaves produced? Why is it that when the body is weak, one cannot speak? Why is it that when the body is weakened to the extreme, the brainwaves disappear? Why does the manas, fearing the password would be leaked, extinguish its thoughts, thereby making the brainwaves disappear? Instrument measurements found that brainwaves come first and language sounds come after. Language sounds are the function of the mind consciousness, while brainwaves are entirely the manifestation of the manas having ideas and thoughts. Without the six consciousnesses, the manas still has mental activity and brainwaves. As soon as the manas has a thought, the brainwaves fluctuate; brainwaves have nothing to do with the mind consciousness. When the manas directly extinguishes its own thoughts, with no more thinking, there are no brainwaves.

If the body is not weak and has strength, a stream of qi will be generated at the dantian; when this stream of qi travels upward to the tongue faculty, language will be produced. This shows that the activity of the mind consciousness is regulated and directed by the manas and revolves around the manas. When the manas does not want to speak or does not want to express thoughts, there is no language or words; when the manas does not want to use its brain, the brainwaves fluctuate gently. What does this show? It shows that the manas is the master, the king, the sovereign, and the six consciousnesses are the servants, the ministers, the subjects. To catch bandits, first catch the king; cultivation must exert effort on the manas—transforming the manas is the true way.

Does the manas actually have the mental factor of attention (manaskāra)? In the hypnotic state, it is because the manas has thoughts that brainwaves can appear; without thoughts there are no brainwaves. Wanting to achieve a certain goal is the mental factor of desire (chanda)—does the manas have the mental factor of desire? In the hypnotic state, the manas wanted to protect the secrets in its heart, so it extinguished its thoughts; this idea of wanting to protect is the mental factor of desire. Clearly comprehending and determining (adhimokṣa) the states of sense objects is the mental factor of determination—does the manas have the mental factor of determination? In the hypnotic state, the manas clearly comprehended the content of the hypnotist's speech and understood the hypnotist's purpose—this is the mental factor of determination. The manas's unwavering protection of the secrets in its heart is the mental factor of concentration (samādhi). In order to protect the secrets, it shut down the thoughts in its heart—this is the manas's mental factor of wisdom (prajñā). All the mental factors of afflictions are also primarily those of the manas; the mind consciousness's afflictions all revolve around the manas and do not really count for much—they arise easily and cease easily. As long as the manas has no afflictions, the mind consciousness naturally will not have afflictions either. If the king does not allow something to be done, how can the servants do it?

Look again at wartime: when Communist Party members were captured by the enemy and tortured to extract confessions, enduring inhuman physical and mental torment, those with firm willpower never betrayed or sold out the organization even unto death. Was this firmness of the mind consciousness or of the manas? Was it the mind consciousness or the manas that had faith? Is hatred of the mind consciousness or of the manas? All dharmas lie with the manas. The manas may deeply hate a person, yet outwardly use the six consciousnesses to disguise itself, appearing to like this person very much. But a person with wisdom can tell at a glance that deep down it is hatred, not liking. In the hypnotic state, the manas's dominant position and its mental factors were clearly observed; the functions of the manas are extremely important.