Only when the manas attains the fruit will there be no regression

Intellectual understanding by the mind consciousness cannot sever any of the afflictive bondages, because these bondages are the bondages of the manas, the ignorance of the manas. The mind consciousness cannot eliminate ignorance on behalf of the manas or sever the three fetters. The mind consciousness's understanding simply cannot eliminate the manas's doubt, and regression is certain to occur in the future. But once the manas has severed its bondages and eliminated self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi), it will never regress—this is beyond dispute. Even when encountering extremely adverse conditions, one might possibly lie and deceive the other party by claiming not to be a person who has eliminated self-view, not a bodhisattva, yet the manas within will never lose its faith or its wise insight. No matter what, the manas will remain unshakably firm and will never fall back from the path of bodhi.

Whether one regresses or not is a matter of the mind consciousness; the manas has no way to regress. A settled, fixed wisdom and cognition will not be changed by external forces. Because of that "self," sentient beings transmigrate through birth and death life after life, suffering in hell for countless kalpas, and still have not eliminated self-view. How could a person whose manas has realized the fruits and awakened to the true mind possibly regress so easily? Are one's views really so easily changed? Once the manas has realized the Dharma and its views have transformed, it will not change back again—otherwise, even a Buddha could change back into an ordinary being. If the manas's realization of the Dharma could regress, that would be a truly bizarre thing. If views were so easily changed, then eliminating self-view and enlightenment would be extremely easy matters, and becoming a Buddha would also be extremely easy—then whence would come the hardship of cultivating the path for three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas before finally attaining Buddhahood?