The Mode of expression of Manas in Perceiving Sense Objects

Ru Chun: Last night after finishing meditation I was about to go to sleep, and soon it began to rain. The rain struck the glass with a crisp sound, and I listened as I drifted off. Just as I was about to fall asleep, I felt as if the rain were striking my skull, and before long it had smashed away half of my skull—pitch black, with only half a skull remaining. I knew it in my mind but wasn't too startled, and I fell asleep. May I ask, Master, is this because the meditative concentration from just coming out of sitting had not yet dissipated, or was it a hallucination? 

Assessment: This is because when you rise from the sitting meditation, the mind is extremely tranquil and the mind consciousness does not give rise to thoughts—especially before sleep, when the mind consciousness is also still, so the manas directly perceives the sound of the rain. Because the perception is very subtle, any slight sound becomes prominent, and thus it feels as if the sound is extremely loud, and the mind feels greatly shaken. When the shaking becomes severe, it gets exaggerated, using the image of half the head being smashed away to express this scene. The manas is quite interesting. What the manas perceives differs from what the mind consciousness perceives, and perhaps the difference is very great. Therefore, the dharmas we ordinarily see are completely different from the same dharmas seen when realizing the true reality. 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 own thigh. 

Why is it that after engaging in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), when seeing the breath, seeing bodily actions, and seeing the marks of the six sense objects, the understanding of the same dharma before seeing the Path and after seeing the Path feels vastly different? Whether drinking water, bathing, seeing forms, hearing sounds, smelling scents, tasting flavors, feeling tangibles, or knowing dharmas, why does it feel vastly different before seeing the Path and at the moment of seeing the Path? 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 self is self. After seeing the Path, everything is no longer 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, and self is not self. Why is there such a great difference?

The more foolish sentient beings are, the more self-confident they are—and what are they confident about? Confident in their own foolishness. Before seeing the Path, the mind consciousness races with deluded thoughts, various views and opinions, long-winded discourses, and one is terribly pleased with oneself. After seeing the Path, the mind consciousness finally settles down—everything is turned upside down. To put it precisely, it is the manas that finally settles down, and the mind consciousness has no choice but to settle down as well. Whoever loves to talk the most, whoever has the most views and opinions, whoever is the most stubborn, whoever is the most blindly self-confident—that person is the most upside-down.

 Ru Chun: Indeed, at the time I felt as if the rain were striking directly on the glass, extremely loud. Do you mean that the image of half my skull missing was the manas expressing things in an exaggerated way? I didn't particularly mention that the rain was very loud just now—how did you know? Why were you able to discern details that even the person involved had overlooked through the smashed-away half of the skull? Is this also a function of the manas?

Assessment: This is a correct and truthful judgment of the state of imagery produced by the manas. In the image, half the head was shown as smashed away—could the sound have been small? This is speaking through facts, not telling through words, and thus a reasonable judgment can be made. The manas used the smashed-away half of the skull to indicate that the sound of the raindrops was very, very loud.

Ru Chun: Contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) means making the mind consciousness cease giving rise to thoughts, letting the manas alone and personally perceive all dharmas, and thereby seeing the true reality of the dharma realm—that is, seeing the Path.

Assessment: It is the manas that personally perceives, but not necessarily alone; in many cases it perceives together with the six consciousnesses. Even though the mind consciousness does not give rise to thoughts, it will transmit the states it has discerned to the manas, and the manas relies on the discernment of the mind consciousness and the discernment of the five sense consciousnesses to perceive and experience states, thereby making judgments in accord with reality and giving rise to wisdom. At this time, the mind consciousness only discerns, without analyzing, interpreting, or speculating, and does not use its own views to interfere with the manas's unique deliberation (manana). Only conclusions drawn in this way are true and reliable; once the mind consciousness is involved, there is distortion.