Which Is Wiser: the Mind Consciousness or the Manas?

There are some crucial dharma principles, or some important matters in worldly affairs, that should not be analyzed and understood with the mind consciousness; instead, entrust them to the manas to process and to deliberate upon, and the result will be unexpected—results the mind consciousness could never have imagined. Between the mind consciousness and the manas, which one is actually smarter and wiser? The mind consciousness can be rather clever, but the manas is wiser. Because the mind consciousness's experience is limited, and the dharmas it takes as objects are fewer than those the manas takes as objects, many dharmas are beyond the reach of the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses, so the solitary consciousness's imagination is restricted, and the mind consciousness's wisdom is therefore low. So give the manas more space, leave more room for deliberation, and wisdom will advance quickly, with relatively complete results.

Do not constantly employ the shallow mind consciousness, using shallow methods to reach shallow conclusions, only to be forced to revise those former shallow views when wisdom eventually advances. Frequently using the manas to handle problems is steady and reliable, and one's views need not be changed back and forth. When the manas deliberates on and handles problems, the results are often beyond the mind consciousness's imagination—sometimes even beyond the mind consciousness's ability to understand or conceive, astonishing and surprising the mind consciousness. Therefore the manas is not, as some people claim, devoid of deliberative capacity and possessing very few functions, like a fool entirely dependent on the mind consciousness's pushing and manipulation.

Of course, for ordinary people the mind consciousness is wiser than the manas, whereas those who are focused in their work and have good meditative concentration possess greater wisdom in the manas. For either kind of person, the manas's potential for wisdom is greater than that of the mind consciousness, and after wisdom is developed, its merit is also greater. When the manas's wisdom advances, the mind consciousness's wisdom subsequently grows along with it—this is the principle of the manas as the master consciousness.

There is much evidence that the manas is wiser than the mind consciousness. For example, at the time of realizing the fruits, the mind consciousness cannot clearly confirm its own state of realization; there is doubt in the mind and it cannot reach a decisive conclusion. When I realized the fruit, I doubted whether I had seen the true mind and been enlightened, yet since I could not thoroughly comprehend the Chan public cases, I could not be completely certain that I had awakened to the true mind. Because ever since I began studying Buddhism I had devoted my mind to the Mahāyāna dharma and paid no attention to the Small Vehicle; I had spent less than three months exclusively reading, reciting, and contemplating the Small Vehicle Āgama sūtras, and had no concept or pursuit of eliminating self-view and realizing the fruit. Finally, on the platform of the Three Platforms Great Precepts, through the arrangement of Dharma-protecting deities, I at last confirmed that I had realized the fruit rather than seen the true mind. This situation belongs to the mind consciousness's insufficient theoretical knowledge, to the point that it could not make a clear judgment.

That the mind consciousness has studied relatively little dharma and lacks theoretical knowledge does not hinder realizing the Way. In the Buddha's time, many disciples had not studied much theory on eliminating self-view; they heard only a few relevant sentences and realized the fruit. Some people, after realizing the fruit, could not summarize and organize the relevant theories with their mind consciousness, and could not expound the dharma of eliminating self-view. Meanwhile, some modern people have not eliminated self-view at all, yet they speak with a glib tongue and produce works stacked as high as themselves. Such people's mind consciousness is adept at learning, summarizing, and organizing theoretical knowledge, but their actual practice cannot keep up; their bodily, verbal, and mental actions remain the same as before, and their virtue cannot keep up. So which is better: a clever mind consciousness or a wise manas? It should be what is capable of determining karma and the direction of future lives that is better—what has actual merit and benefit is better. Whether realization of the fruit is achieved with the mind consciousness or with the manas—this principle could not be more obvious.

ADA: I studied Yi-ology (the study of the Book of Changes) for many years, and last year I encountered a difficult problem in Yi-ology. The mind consciousness could not solve this problem, and at the time I could not find any reference material on the market. But because my interest was truly so intense that I could not think of tea or food, I did not give up the research in my heart. The more unsolvable it was, the more I wanted to explore it. For nearly a month or two I was in deep contemplation; in my mind there was only the problem itself and nothing else.

At that time I did not yet understand anything about the manas or the mind consciousness, but I was already sitting in meditation, and on the cushion I would involuntarily deliberate, thinking only about the problem (analysis was simply impossible). This state persisted through who knows how many sittings; I thought about it before sleep and while bathing. Later, during several sittings, inspiration began to appear. The process of its appearing was: there was a very deep, faintly discernible feeling within, and only after the brain captured it could it gradually form the actual content in the shape of words.

After many such occurrences, a logical chain formed, though it still could not count as a complete answer. After continuing for a while, a relatively complete line of thought appeared in dreams, and this happened several times. Later, after further integration by the mind consciousness, a portion of a theoretical system was finally formed. Until last winter, when I met a teacher who understood this field. After listening to his lectures, I found that his approach coincided exactly with my overall line of thought—the direction and thinking were correct; it was just that the teacher's was more complete and more detailed.

Ru Chun: The manas's thinking is profound, steady, powerful, and domineering—it will not rest until it reaches its goal. When He begins to work deeply, the functions of the other six consciousnesses can all be weakened: seeing yet not seeing, hearing yet not hearing, food losing its flavor, sleepless nights, an absent mind, the soul not guarding its abode—the whole person seems to be in a dissociated state. It is also as if one were in another space, another dimension, where time and space are altered; some people can experience special states such as the fleeting instant or passing through walls.