The mind consciousness and the manas perceive different objects

Question: Last night after finishing sitting meditation, I was about to go to sleep. Before long it started raining, and the rain struck the window glass with a crisp sound. I listened as I drifted off, and just as I was about to fall asleep, I felt as if the rain were striking my skull. Before long it had smashed away half of it—pitch black, with only half a skull remaining. I knew it in my mind but wasn't too surprised, and I fell asleep. Was this because the meditative concentration from just coming out of sitting had not yet dissipated, or was it a hallucination?

Answer: When you come out of sitting meditation, the mind is still, and the mind consciousness does not stir thoughts—especially before sleep, when the mind consciousness is also inactive. The manas directly perceives the sound of the rain, and the sound feels enormous, so it was exaggerated a bit: the smashing away of half the skull expressed that the sound of the raindrops was tremendously loud. What the manas perceives differs from what the mind consciousness perceives—perhaps the difference is very great. Therefore, the dharmas we ordinarily perceive are completely and utterly different from the same dharmas seen when realizing true suchness—even the opposite. Only then does one realize that all the views and opinions one previously held were entirely wrong, and one regrets it so much one slaps one's thigh.

Why is it that after engaging in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), although it is still the same seeing of the breath, the same seeing of bodily actions, the same seeing of the marks of the six sense objects, what is seen of the very same dharma before seeing the path and after seeing the path differs so drastically? It is still the same drinking of water, bathing, seeing forms, hearing sounds, smelling scents, tasting flavors, feeling tangibles, and discerning dharmas—so why are the inner feelings and views before seeing the path and at the moment of seeing the path completely opposite?

Before seeing the path, one is so certain: form is form, sound is sound, scent is scent, flavor is flavor, tangibility is tangibility, dharma is dharma, and I am I. After seeing the path, none of it is so: form is not form, sound is not sound, scent is not scent, flavor is not flavor, tangibility is not tangibility, dharma is not dharma, I am not I, and a person is not a person. Why is there such a great difference? What the mind consciousness perceives and what the manas perceives within meditative absorption (samādhi) are completely different. That is why the mind consciousness attaining the fruits is a joke—such "attainment" and non-attainment are not the slightest bit different; it is the view of a fool. The more foolish sentient beings are, the more confident they tend to be. Confident in what? Confident in their own foolishness.

Before seeing the path, the mind consciousness races with deluded thoughts, holding all sorts of views, delivering lengthy discourses, and feeling immensely pleased with itself. After seeing the path, the mind consciousness finally settles down, and everything must be turned upside down. Whoever loves to talk the most, whoever has the most views and opinions, whoever is the most stubborn—that person is the most upside-down and deluded.