The Manas Does Not Only Discern Significant and Changing Mental Sense-Objects—Clarifying Misunderstandings about the Manas (Part Three)

Over the years I have met many people who keep reciting the claim: "The manas only attends to significant and changing mental objects." Every time I hear this, my head aches and I feel especially helpless. Sometimes I correct someone several times, yet the notion still cannot be changed—the poisoning is too deep. In fact, whether this claim is right or wrong is very easy to determine. The insignificant and unchanging sense objects that each of us discerns—if the manas cannot discern them and only the mind consciousness can discern them alone, then when the mind consciousness ceases and does not manifest, if the manas does not discern those minute, unchanging sense objects, how is it that we know about them and respond to them in time? For example, after falling asleep, the air conditioner's wind blows unchangingly; when the body feels cool, we automatically burrow into the quilt or curl up. When a mosquito buzzes, sleep becomes restless and the body automatically dodges. When there is a faint, distinctive odor in the air, we cough and wake up automatically. How are all these accomplished?

In fact, whether or not the mind consciousness discerns them, the vast majority of the sense objects we contact are minute, and most are unchanging. If the manas could not discern these sense objects, then for whichever sense object the manas does not discern, we would not know that object—even if it harmed body and mind, we would not know. How does the mind consciousness discern? The manas must contact the mental objects for the mind consciousness to arise. If the manas could not attend to these sense objects nor discern them, the mind consciousness could not discern them either. The mind consciousness is born with a task; if the manas does not need the mind consciousness to handle problems, there would be no need for the mind consciousness to be born at all.

That the manas pervasively attends to all dharmas is what the Buddha said. If our power of contemplation and observation were strong, even without the Buddha saying it, we should be able to understand this principle. Because the six consciousnesses arise and cease from moment to moment, not arising of their own accord—they are born only because the manas needs them, and on which dharma they arise is decided by the manas. Of all the dharmas produced by the tathāgatagarbha, if the manas did not attend to them or discern them, the six consciousnesses would not arise to discern them either—then what meaning would there be in the tathāgatagarbha producing those dharmas? If the manas does not discern minute, subtle, and unchanging dharmas, the six consciousnesses cannot discern them either. If these dharmas affect the five aggregates, whether beneficially or harmfully, we could not handle them or respond to them.

The manas grasps and regulates all dharmas, whether significant or subtle, whether changing or unchanging; only thus can the completeness of the five aggregates' functions be guaranteed. These dharmas include dharmas outside the body and dharmas within the body. Dharmas within the body include breathing, pulse, heartbeat, and all the activities of life; the slightest mishap and the manas will sound an alarm for the six consciousnesses to handle. If the manas did not discern, how could He sound an alarm? Dharmas within the body are generally very minute and subtle, constantly operating without change, beyond the mind consciousness's attention; but the manas must attend to and discern them moment by moment in order to guarantee the normal operation of the five aggregates—this is also one reason the manas clings to the body. If dharmas within the body were always significant and changing, the five aggregates would be restless and agitated, both body and mind would be damaged, and one could not live healthily and normally.
There are also many dharmas outside the body, the vast majority of which are likewise minute, subtle, and unchanging, and the manas discerns them all ceaselessly from moment to moment. There is no dharma that the manas does not attend to or discern; those with obvious influence on body and mind will alert the six consciousnesses to know and handle them. For example, a gentle breeze blows for a long time: the manas discerns it ceaselessly from moment to moment, and the mind consciousness can also discern it accordingly, but sometimes this is interrupted—one forgets that a breeze is blowing—yet the manas still discerns it. For example, the sound of a mosquito: the manas discerns it ceaselessly from moment to moment, and the mind consciousness can also discern it accordingly, but it will be forgotten and cut off, whereas the manas is not cut off. Because it knows there is a mosquito, it remains alert and refuses to sleep, or sleeps uneasily. There are too many such minute, unchanging dharmas outside the body to enumerate exhaustively, but the manas discerns them all, whereas the mind consciousness discerns selectively and is often interrupted.

Observing these dharmas is not really difficult as long as one is attentive; even if one cannot observe them directly (pratyakṣa), they are not hard to understand. Why is there such a great misunderstanding about the manas? The reason is that the Dharma teachers are blindly self-confident and irresponsible toward sentient beings and Buddhism; unable to observe directly, they show off and insist on making claims to attract attention, while their followers, ignorant and mindless, blindly follow.

The level of a Dharma teacher's wisdom can be judged from the Dharma he teaches. If one cannot directly observe the profound dharma of Consciousness-Only and makes mistakes and omissions everywhere, then the mind consciousness lacks the wonderful observational wisdom (pratyavekṣaṇā-jñāna); the sixth and seventh consciousnesses have not transformed consciousness into wisdom—let alone being a bodhisattva of some bhūmi, one has not even reached the first bhūmi or the stage of the ten dedications. If one has many misunderstandings about the prajñā dharma and one's wisdom is shallow, let alone the heavy barrier and the final barrier, one has not even passed the first barrier. If in teaching and conduct one everywhere reveals afflictions with deeply entrenched self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi), then one has not even eliminated self-view. Most sentient beings have studied Buddhism for only a short time and have poor discernment, unwittingly encouraging certain people's ambitions; lacking awareness and restraint of the afflictions in their own minds, their teaching goes more and more wrong the more they teach.

Protecting the Dharma and protecting Buddhism is the fundamental duty of every bodhisattva. When encountering Dharma with major errors and omissions that mislead sentient beings and hinder the normal development of Buddhism, one must come forward to correct and stop it; to watch and do nothing is dereliction of duty, a betrayal of the teachings of all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Regarding serious misunderstandings of the Consciousness-Only dharma of the manas, one must constantly clarify the misunderstandings and constantly correct the deviations, and must not allow the errors and omissions to continue spreading and ruin Buddhism's future.