Do Those Who Have Eliminated Self-Grasping Still Have Thoughts?

After eliminating the self-grasping, there still remain some thoughts concerning one's own survival. When dealing with people, it is impossible to have no thoughts; when encountering various states, thoughts about how to handle them will arise, and thoughts will also arise when expounding the Dharma to sentient beings according to conditions. These thoughts are relatively pure and slight, all conditional in nature, without deliberately contrived thoughts, and are not thoughts that strongly grasp at the self or the like. When the Buddha came into the world, He also had thoughts, and those thoughts were all pure, selfless, and without any attachment. Because the mental factors of all the consciousnesses include the mental factor of memory/thought (smṛti), thoughts inevitably appear in the operation of the consciousnesses.

However, there is a great difference between the thoughts of one who has eliminated self-grasping and one who has not. Thoughts can reveal whether a person has attachments: the thoughts of one with attachments are intense, while the thoughts of one without attachments are slight, and the state of mind is easygoing and at ease, following conditions.

One who has eliminated self-grasping has no thoughts about future lives and will not make arrangements or plans for future lives. Of course, in this life he lives according to conditions, dealing with everything around him, with no more pursuits—living one day at a time, not contending with others. Regarding the matter of delivering sentient beings, he likewise follows conditions: when there is an affinity, he expounds a bit of Dharma; when there is no affinity, he does not think about it. In short, most of his thoughts arise under compulsion, and he rarely actively generates any thoughts.

Under this attitude of merely coping, the thoughts of the mind consciousness are evident, while those of the manas are very faint. Because the thoughts of the manas are faint and few, the thoughts of the mind consciousness are also few and slight, mostly passive. Since the manas has no major ideas or designs, there are no dreams; ordinarily the mind is at peace and at ease, and the state of mind is calm and balanced.