The Power of the Manas

As one's practice deepens and meditative concentration (samādhi) and wisdom become increasingly complete, the manas will gradually grow strong. The sign of a strong manas is the transformation of consciousness into wisdom — the mental factors (caittas) have transformed. The strength of the manas represents the strength of the mental factors; when the mental factors are strong, the manas becomes powerful and invincible, endowed with the five universal mental factors, the five object-specific mental factors, and the eleven wholesome mental factors, while the afflictive mental factors have long been completely eliminated — perhaps there remain some extremely subtle afflictive habits and some slight attachment to dharmas. When the manas becomes strong enough, it will replace the six consciousnesses; without needing the supporting conditions of the six consciousnesses, it can by itself discern the objects of the six sense-objects, whether coarse or subtle — no problem at all. At this point, the great supernatural powers will manifest.

Answer: The function of the manas is the same in all sentient beings; only the mental factors differ, and the degree of ignorance they contain differs, as does the degree of enlightenment. When it operates, there is a distinction between good and bad functioning. For example, all knives have the function of cutting, but because knives differ in sharpness, the results of what they carve out differ. What a sharp knife carves out is perfect, neat, and valuable; what a dull knife carves out is uneven and unusable, and it may even destroy things, with no good result. The different wisdom of the manas creates different undertakings; different afflictions create different karmic actions, and thus different retributions. A manas with slight ignorance can be used well; a manas with deep and heavy ignorance will be used for evil, and the results differ greatly. Because the degree of ignorance in the manas differs, and the degree of enlightenment also differs, sentient beings in the world are divided into various ranks — there is the distinction between ordinary beings (pṛthagjana) and sages, and the eons required for sentient beings to become Buddhas differ.

The differences between each individual are caused precisely by the differences in the mental factors of the manas. Whether or not one acknowledges it, this is the fact — does fact care whether you acknowledge it or not? Fact does not care who acknowledges it or not; it will never change. Truth, even if not a single person in the Saha world acknowledges it, remains forever the truth; it does not cease to be truth because others refuse to acknowledge it. The true Buddhadharma — no matter who slanders it, the Buddhadharma is the Buddhadharma, and truth is truth.