The Fruits of Being Able to Use the Manas

Since learning to use the manas, this disciple's work efficiency has rapidly improved, and my workload has grown several times over. Now, no matter what I do, I never worry about methods—I can come up with plenty of them. As soon as I keep something in mind, I become engaged with that matter; then I sit down in meditation, or even just take a nap, and a whole pile of solutions will come. When a method for handling a problem appears, I must immediately write it down or put it into practice right away, otherwise it is easy to forget later. After putting it into practice, things get better and better with each step. In the past, when I did not know how to use the manas, I would be worried sick when encountering certain matters—especially when work was busy, I had no idea how to handle or resolve them, and it took a great deal of brainpower.

Over these years of using the manas, this disciple has indeed gained some insights, but I am not very good at summarizing them. Sometimes the methods, tricks, and inspirations that the manas comes up with through deliberation are simply indescribably wonderful—even I myself feel amazed, wondering how on earth they came about.

Assessment: This shared experience is genuine and solid, without a trace of the false or of intellectual speculation. The meditative concentration is very good—soon after sitting down, samādhi can be entered. The mind consciousness's function is somewhat weaker, while the manas's function is powerful, and it can truly produce wisdom for solving practical problems, including wisdom in the Buddhadharma. As long as a problem enters the manas, the deliberation is very thorough.

After the mind consciousness throws out a problem, it stops thinking and leaves it suspended in the mind of the manas, letting the manas deliberate in secret. The manas will then silently and unobtrusively deliberate, and the result will naturally appear. When the mind consciousness becomes aware of this result, there is a sudden realization. At this point, one discovers that although the mind consciousness is not thinking, one can still feel a force of thought, a power of thinking, operating—this is the manas's hidden way of secretly deliberating on a problem. As for how deep and how long the deliberation is, and what the result will be, that is determined by many factors.

The prerequisite for being able to actively use the manas and let it deliberate is that one must calm the mind and must have the power of meditative concentration. The deeper the dhyāna concentration, the more powerful the manas's deliberative function becomes, and the more astonishing the results. If one has preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) or the concentration of the first dhyāna, then when the manas deliberates on the Buddhadharma, the elimination of self-view (ahaṃkāra-mamakāra-parityāga) and seeing one's true mind/awakening to the true mind become relatively much easier. If the power of concentration is insufficient, it may feel as if the manas is deliberating, but in fact the mind consciousness has not stopped and is still participating in the thinking; the result will then contain elements of the mind consciousness's analysis and inference, and the result is not very genuine.

Once one learns to apply this skill, one will achieve great accomplishments both in worldly dharma and in dharma beyond the world, possessing unique and profound wisdom, able to handle all kinds of affairs with multiplied efficiency and remarkable results. This skill can be cultivated starting from elementary school. Once mastered, not only will one achieve twice the results with half the effort, but one's capacity for self-learning may increase severalfold; outstanding talent will emerge in great numbers across all walks of life. Such creative, original talent can never be caught up with or replaced by robots, no matter what.