The Straightforward Nature of the Manas

Ru Chun: Last night I was thinking about my daughter's psychological state, and fell asleep before I could figure it out. I dreamed that my daughter said a whole lot of things, and what she said slowly turned into the shape of a snake, head held high and chest out — it was a fake snake, like a lantern snake, glowing with light inside, with many black flaky substances stuck on the outside. I am afraid of snakes, and I was startled awake. Could this be the manas using the dream to hint at something?

Comment: Very often, psychological and mental illnesses are related to the state of physical health; by regulating the body, the mental state can be adjusted and set right. In the dream, the words your daughter spoke turned into the shape of a snake, which indicates that your daughter's mind has a dark side, with heavy afflictions and mental knots that need to be untied. On the one hand, her mental knots should be addressed through consultation with a psychologist; on the other hand, her body needs to be regulated. Treating both body and mind in combination should produce fairly good results.

The manas constructs a dream, yet the mind consciousness cannot figure out its meaning for a long while — is this mainly because the mind consciousness's capacity to receive is insufficient, or because the manas's capacity for expression and hinting is insufficient? There are mainly two reasons why communication between the manas and the mind consciousness is not smooth: first, the manas itself lacks wisdom, so the states it displays in dreams, in meditative concentration, and in other situations are not very apt or appropriate, with vague and unclear meanings. Second, the mind consciousness lacks wisdom and cannot fully understand the meaning and direction of the states displayed by the manas; it cannot see through the manas's intentions. The dream is presented by the manas, expressing the manas's own state of mind and feelings; it has thoughts about this state but lacks the power to deal with it, and its purpose is to let the mind consciousness understand and handle it.

The manas does not lack a sense of morality at all times, nor does it lack a sense of right and wrong at all times; just regard Him as a normal conscious mind. Whatever a conscious mind should be like and should have, He should be like that and should have that. The manas, as the determining consciousness, has very distinct and important characteristics — He is precisely the self of sentient beings. Whether the manas has morality and a sense of right and wrong depends on the person and the circumstances; this is rather complicated. The manas has weak discriminatory power regarding the six sense objects and needs the assistance of the mind consciousness. Since its discriminatory power is weak, its perception of the six sense objects is not as clear and distinct as that of the mind consciousness; in behavior, without the restraint of the mind consciousness, it appears neither fish nor fowl. For example, after getting drunk, the mind consciousness can no longer restrain the manas, and at that point the manas's true nature is revealed — such a person can do anything, without any moral bottom line. But this is the conduct of some people of low character, not everyone's manas is like this.

In dreams, the manas can present states that are not shameful, without taboo, very direct, straightforward, and open, showing that the manas is indeed simple, honest, and unpretentious. When the manas has been cultivated to relative perfection, this person's behavior is dominated by the manas, embodying the manas's will, constantly displaying a very direct, straightforward, and candid character. Bodhisattvas are just like this — straightforward, with an undistorted mind. The better a person's cultivation, the more upright their character — honest and undeceiving, not obsequious or devious, not engaging in schemes and intrigues. They do not even need overt schemes, without scheming or calculation — spontaneous, natural, magnanimous, sunny, and open, not causing others to feel wary or guarded. The greater a person's merit and the higher their wisdom, the more spontaneous and natural they are, the more straightforward and candid — not calculating, without ulterior designs, open and upright.