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 her words gradually 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 to 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 restored. 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 counseling with a psychologist; on the other hand, her body needs to be regulated. Treating both body and mind in combination should yield fairly good results.

When the manas creates a dream and the mind consciousness cannot figure out its meaning for a long while, is this mainly due to the mind consciousness's insufficient capacity to receive, or the manas's insufficient capacity to express and hint? 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 meditation, and in other situations are not quite 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 to express the manas's own state of mind and feelings; the manas has thoughts about this state but lacks the power to process 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 is it devoid 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 characteristics of the manas as the determining, decision-making consciousness are still very evident and important—He is the self of sentient beings. Whether the manas has morality and a sense of right and wrong depends on the person and the situation; this is rather complicated. The manas's discriminatory power regarding the six sense objects is weak and requires 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; and in behavior, without the restraint of the mind consciousness, it appears inappropriate and unseemly. For example, after getting drunk, the mind consciousness can no longer restrain the manas, and at this point the manas's inherent nature is revealed—one can do anything, without any moral bottom line. But this is the conduct of only some people of low character; not everyone's manas is like this.

That the manas can present shameless states in dreams, without any taboo, very directly, frankly, and openly, shows that the manas is indeed simple, honest, and undisguised. 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, frank, and genuine character. Bodhisattvas are just like this—straightforward, with an undistorted mind. The better a person's cultivation, the more upright their character: honest and without deceit, not sycophantic or crooked, not engaging in schemes and intrigues. They do not even need overt stratagems, using no scheming or calculation—spontaneous, natural, magnanimous, sunny, and open, never 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 frank and genuine—scheming against no one, applying themselves to nothing, utterly open and at ease.