The Dharma Gate of Perfect Penetration through the Manas of Bodhisattva Mahākāśyapa (Manas Training Section)

In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Bodhisattva Mahākāśyapa recounts the perfect penetration method he cultivated and realized: 我观世间。六尘变坏。惟以空寂。修于灭尽。身心乃能。度百千劫。犹如弹指。我以空法。成阿罗汉。世尊说我。头陀为最。妙法开明。销灭诸漏。佛问圆通。如我所证。法因为上。

Mahākāśyapa said: "I observe that the six sense-object realms of the world arise and cease ceaselessly—coming into being from nothing, passing from existence to decay, to extinction, to emptiness—none of them can be relied upon. Only by means of the tranquil mind of emptiness did I cultivate the nirodha-samāpatti, whereby body and mind were able to pass through hundreds of thousands of kalpas as if in the snap of a finger. It was by emptying all dharmas that I became an arhat. The World-Honored One declared me to be foremost in dhūta practice. The wondrous dharma opened and illuminated, extinguishing all the defilements. The Buddha now asks about perfect penetration; as I myself realized it, the dharma as the cause is supreme."

In the nirodha-samāpatti, the six sense-object realms are all extinguished and emptied from the mind. What does this show? It shows that the six consciousnesses have also ceased and can no longer arise, for the six sense objects are a condition for the arising of the six consciousnesses; when the condition is absent, consciousness cannot arise. If the six consciousnesses cease, only the manas and the tathāgatagarbha remain, and Mahākāśyapa accordingly abides in the nirodha-samāpatti. So does Mahākāśyapa still emerge from samādhi? Does he still respond to the affairs and people of the mundane world? What should he do when a response is needed? Mahākāśyapa has cultivated to the point of extinguishing all dharmas, and although he can enter the nirodha-samāpatti with ease, as a great bodhisattva he bears the responsibility of benefiting sentient beings and cannot remain forever in the nirodha-samāpatti doing nothing. Upon emerging from the nirodha-samāpatti, he still abides in the samādhi of extinguished dharmas, and at the same time carries out all manner of endeavors to benefit sentient beings. This is truly inconceivable: if all dharmas have been emptied, how can he carry out endeavors to benefit beings? Are such endeavors not also dharmas?

Another passage in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra states: 摩诃迦叶久灭意根。圆明了知。不因心念。 This passage describes how Mahākāśyapa ordinarily handles affairs and responds to people and matters. How does he handle and respond to them? Without relying on the mental activity of the mind consciousness, he knows the six sense-object realms completely and perfectly, with utter clarity.

For ordinary people, does this state not seem too mystical and inconceivable? To know the six sense-object realms without the mind consciousness—and to know them more completely, more clearly and thoroughly than ordinary people do—how is such knowing accomplished? It is known by the manas: the manas takes over the discriminating function of the six consciousnesses. In other words, the manas discriminates directly by itself, without the assistance of the six consciousnesses; the master can accomplish everything on his own, having dismissed all the assistants. This means the master's energy is abundant and his capacity has increased—he can handle all affairs single-handedly, without helpers. How formidable is such a manas! Is this the kind of manas an ordinary person could possess? To put it precisely, could someone with such a manas possibly be an ordinary person? That is Mahākāśyapa, the equivalent of an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva!

What, then, is meant by "long ago extinguished the manas" mentioned in the text—did Mahākāśyapa extinguish the manas long ago? Here the manas does not refer to the seventh consciousness that acts as the master, but to the root from which the mind consciousness arises. If the seventh consciousness were extinguished, one would enter nirvāṇa without remainder, and there would no longer be anyone called Mahākāśyapa existing in the world—how then could there be any complete and perfect knowing?

So what does the root from which the mind consciousness arises refer to? The arising of the mind consciousness requires several conditions; lacking any one of them, the mind consciousness cannot arise. Among these conditions are the mental sense-object realm, and most importantly the mental engagement (manaskāra) of the manas, the seventh consciousness. After the mental sense-object realm appears, if the manas does not mentally engage to discern and know it—being without mind toward the object, and the object without mind—then the mind consciousness cannot arise. This is the most crucial point in cultivation. If the manas is without mind to discriminate the six sense-object realms, having emptied the six sense objects and all dharmas, the six consciousnesses cannot arise. Therefore, cultivating until the manas is without mind toward objects extinguishes the root from which the mind consciousness arises—this is Mahākāśyapa's samādhi state of "long ago extinguishing the manas."

Yet there is still complete and perfect knowing. Since the manas is without mind and no longer wishes to discriminate objects, how can it still know, and know completely and perfectly? This is the manas's natural, effortless discriminating function operating without mind. It is like a camera that is switched on: all scenery naturally enters the camera. The manas is the same—discriminating without mind, the sense-object realms naturally present themselves. If this camera of the manas were not switched on, one would enter nirvāṇa without remainder; a bodhisattva would not do this, but keeps it on so as to conveniently carry out endeavors that benefit sentient beings. All endeavors to benefit beings are accomplished by the manas alone. Does the manas, then, possess wholesome mental factors? Is the manas's wisdom powerful or not? Surely it cannot be weak and inferior, can it? Especially after the first bhūmi, when the bodhisattva has transformed consciousness into wisdom, how could the manas's wisdom still be weak and inferior? Even the manas of an ordinary person sometimes has wisdom and is not weak and inferior. Since the manas's functions are so extraordinary, how can we not strive to cultivate Him and train Him?