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

In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Bodhisattva Mahākāśyapa describes the dharma gate of perfect penetration that 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 observed that the six sense-object realms in the world constantly arise and cease—coming into being from nothing, and from existence passing into decay, cessation, and emptiness—none of them can be relied upon. Only by means of the tranquil mind of emptiness did I cultivate the cessation of perception and feeling, 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 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 outflows. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration; as I myself realized it, the dharma as the cause is supreme.

In the cessation of perception and feeling (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. The six sense objects are a condition for the arising of the six consciousnesses; when the condition is not complete, consciousness cannot arise. If the six consciousnesses cease, only the manas and the tathāgatagarbha remain, and Mahākāśyapa then abides in the samādhi of the cessation of dharmas. So does Mahākāśyapa still emerge from samādhi or not? Does he still respond to the people and affairs of the mundane world? What should he do when a response is needed? Mahākāśyapa cultivated to the point where dharmas are utterly ceased; although he can very easily enter the cessation of perception and feeling, as a great bodhisattva he bears the responsibility of benefiting sentient beings and cannot remain in nirodha-samāpatti doing nothing at all. Upon emerging from nirodha-samāpatti, he still abides in the samādhi of ceased dharmas, while carrying out all manner of work to benefit sentient beings. This is inconceivable: if all dharmas are emptied, how can he carry out work that benefits beings? After all, the work of benefiting beings is also dharma, is it not?

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 handled affairs and responded to people and matters. How did he handle and respond to affairs? Without using the mental activity of the mind consciousness, he could know the six sense-object realms completely, clearly, and lucidly.

For ordinary people, is this state not too mystical and inconceivable? Without using the mind consciousness, he could know the six sense-object realms, and moreover know them more completely, lucidly, and thoroughly than ordinary people—how did he know them? It was the manas that knew. The manas took over the discerning function of the six consciousnesses; in other words, the manas discerned directly by itself, without the assistance of the six consciousnesses. The master could do everything by himself, having dismissed all the assistants. This means the master's energy was abundant and his capability had increased: he could cope with all matters single-handedly, without helpers. How formidable is such a manas! Is this the kind of manas an ordinary person can possess? To put it precisely, can a person with such a manas be an ordinary person? That is Mahākāśyapa, who was the equivalent of an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva!

What then is meant by "long ago extinguishing 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 any such person as Mahākāśyapa existing in the world—how then could there be any talk of complete, lucid knowing?

What, then, 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 dharma sense-object realm, and most importantly the attention (manaskāra) of the manas, the seventh consciousness. After the dharma sense-object realm appears, if the manas does not attend to it, does not discern and know it—being without mind toward the object, and the object without mind—the mind consciousness cannot arise. This is the most crucial point in cultivation. If the manas is without mind to discern 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 he could still know completely and lucidly. Since the manas is without mind and no longer wishes to discern objects, how can it still know, and know completely and lucidly? This is the manas's natural discerning function operating spontaneously without mind. It is like a camera that is switched on: all scenes naturally enter the camera. The manas is like this—without mind to discern, 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, for with it switched on, one can along the way carry out the work of benefiting sentient beings. All work benefiting sentient beings is done by the manas alone. Does the manas, then, possess wholesome mental factors? Is the manas's wisdom powerful or not? It is absolutely not weak and inferior, is 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. The manas's functions are so excellent—how can we not strive to cultivate and train Him?