The Manas Silently Encompassing All Dharmas Demonstrates That the Manas Possesses the Nature of Good and Evil

The Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume Four, Original Text:

The mind consciousness silently and imperceptibly encompasses all dharmas of the ten directions and the three periods of time—both worldly and transcendental. It embraces everything, from the sacred to the mundane, without exception, exhausting all boundaries. You should understand that the mind consciousness perfects twelve hundred meritorious qualities.

Explanation:

For example, the mind consciousness is able to silently and imperceptibly encompass all worldly dharmas and transcendental dharmas of the ten directions and the three periods of time (past, present, and future). This includes both the ultimate truth and the conventional truth, the dharmas of sages and ordinary beings—all are contained within it, exhausting the limits of all dharmas. Therefore, you should know that the mind consciousness perfects twelve hundred meritorious qualities.

"Silently" (mo) means quietly, imperceptibly, without expression; "encompass" (rong) means to contain, accept, possess, volition, contact, perception, cognition, correspondence, condition, knowing, seeing. Why does the mind consciousness silently and imperceptibly condition all dharmas, contact all, see all dharmas, know all dharmas, and reject none? It is "silent" because the mind consciousness does not speak, write, or use language, words, or sound to convey or manifest its mental activities. It is "imperceptible" because the mental faculty (the sixth consciousness) mostly does not comprehend it, understand it, or perceive its mental activities, functions, or merits. Hence, it is called "imperceptible." If the mental faculty could fully comprehend the merits of the mind consciousness and its functioning in all dharmas, it would not be "imperceptible."

The mind consciousness "encompassing all dharmas" means it can condition all dharmas, contain and accept all dharmas, discern all dharmas, know and see all dharmas, and operate its five universal mental factors upon all dharmas. It corresponds with all dharmas, including wholesome and unwholesome dharmas, thus containing both good and evil, and itself possesses wholesome and unwholesome natures. The scope of dharmas conditioned and conditionable by the mind consciousness is vast and boundless. The dharmas conditionable by the mental faculty are incomparable to those of the mind consciousness, yet neither is as vast as the dharmas conditionable by the Tathāgatagarbha.

What do all these dharmas conditionable by the mind consciousness include? First, the dharmas of the ten directions and the three periods of time—this is the greatest spatial scope within the conventional realm, and the temporal scope (past, present, and future) is also the greatest. Within this greatest spatiotemporal framework, the dharmas conditionable by the mind consciousness include all worldly dharmas—that is, the subsequently generated dharmas produced by the Tathāgatagarbha through the seven fundamental elements, such as form dharmas, mind dharmas, and mental factors—as well as transcendental dharmas that must operate and manifest within the world, such as the Tathāgatagarbha, Buddha-nature, Suchness, the ultimate truth or supreme truth practiced by sages, and including both the sacred and the mundane. This extends to the very edge of all dharmas—beyond which the mind consciousness cannot condition—where only the Tathāgatagarbha can condition dharmas alone, and dharmas devoid of worldly characteristics that do not operate within the world.

Because the mind consciousness can encompass such an extensive range of dharmas, exhausting the limits of dharmas operating within the world, it possesses twelve hundred meritorious qualities, making it the most perfect, second only to the merits of the Tathāgatagarbha. Thus, without doubt, the mind consciousness also encompasses the dharmas of sages and ordinary beings, embraces wholesome and unwholesome dharmas, and possesses wholesome/unwholesome natures, wholesome/unwholesome mental factors, and mental activities. If this were not so, the merits of the mind consciousness would not exhaust the boundaries of all dharmas; there would be dharmas it could not encompass, and its merits would be incomplete.

This passage was spoken by the World-Honored One when explaining the merits of the mind consciousness. The mind consciousness perfects twelve hundred meritorious qualities, but the merits of the mental faculty are not said to be perfect. This is because the mental faculty is transient and incapable of autonomy; it cannot penetrate the three periods of time. Even within the present life, it cannot encompass all dharmas—many dharmas cannot be conditioned or discerned by it, let alone the dharmas of the ten directions and three periods of time, which are further beyond its reach. Thus, the mental faculty is an incomplete dharma, not a fundamental one, and cannot be relied upon. Cultivation must focus on the fundamental dharma—the reliable dharma, the autonomous dharma. Only by eradicating the ignorance of the mind consciousness and perfecting its wisdom can one attain Buddhahood.