Proving That Mind Consciousness Is the Tool of the Manas Through the Arising of Language

Before language is produced, a stream of qi must first be gathered in the dantian. During the process of gathering, although the qi is in the dantian, the qi field will manifest and radiate outside the body. A person with a meditative mind and subtle perception can capture this qi field, as well as the direction of the breath and energy, and sense in advance what is about to happen. What is about to happen? It is that this person is about to speak. Based on this person's qi field, facial expression, and the atmosphere of the scene, one can roughly know what he is going to say—this is the ability to predict and foreknow.

It is like an excellent sniper targeting a running person: whether the person runs in a straight line or in an S-shaped pattern, the sniper can accurately predict in advance the position he is about to reach, and then fire at that position ahead of time, successfully shooting the running person. A person with strong meditative concentration also has this ability of prediction and foreknowing. Based on the breath and qi field emanating from the person before him, he senses a surge of energy and knows its direction, and thus knows what this person is going to do, what words he is about to utter, and what meaning he intends to express.

When the qi has gathered sufficiently in the dantian, it will move upward along the body's channel toward the navel, chest, throat, and mouth. Once it converges with the teeth and tongue, language is produced. A person with meditative concentration will feel a stream of qi flowing out of the speaker's mouth, and will feel a vibrating energy radiating forth. The more abundant a person's qi, the more confident, controlled, and infectious his speech, and the more able to captivate people's hearts. A person with an upright mind has abundant central qi, with great influence and infectious power, giving people a feeling of sincerity and easily convincing them—this is also the result of a person's virtue and its power of attraction.

Language is the behavioral fabrication of the mind consciousness; it cannot be separated from the body consciousness, and together with the body consciousness it expresses emotion and intention. But the mind consciousness's fabrication arises at the very end of the qi's movement. The movement of the qi is controlled by the manas. Before the movement, the manas has the intention to express, which impels the qi to gather in the dantian; subsequently it moves into the mouth, and the mind consciousness together with the body consciousness produces the language. From this we can know that the mind consciousness is merely a tool used by the manas to achieve its aims; the mind consciousness exists to serve the manas.

Thus the mind consciousness's language, words, and sounds represent the manas's purposiveness, produced under the manas's dominion; likewise the mind consciousness's bodily and mental activities represent the manas's purposiveness, produced under the manas's dominion. Therefore, the afflictive nature and pure nature contained within the bodily, verbal, and mental actions represent the manas's afflictive nature and pure nature—it is the manas's afflictions and purity that fabricate bodily, verbal, and mental actions imbued with afflictive or pure nature. From this we can know that the mental factors (caittas) of the manas must include all afflictive mental factors, all wholesome mental factors, and also the unwholesome-and-unwholesome-neutral mental factors. This shows that the manas is the consciousness that holds dominion, exerting the fundamental decisive role over all dharmas.