Let the Manas Develop the Habit of Practice

Question: I have now developed a habit: every night before going to sleep, I converse with the manas. Through testing, I have found that anything related to the Buddha-dharma (all of which involves the manas) will certainly produce dreams on that topic throughout the night. If the topic is something other than the Buddha-dharma—not related to the manas—then no related dreams appear. Does the manas really have such a great power of selection?

Answer: The deliberative mental factor (cetanā) of the manas is extremely powerful in its functioning. He must act as the master moment by moment, and must make choices moment by moment. He deliberates (manasikāra) with respect to all dharmas, weighing and balancing everything. His functions of mastery and decision-making are very strong, and no other consciousness can substitute for Him. When the manas, through the mind consciousness, comes into contact with the Buddha-dharma and is firmly steeped in it, then every thought and every moment of the mind will be about the Buddha-dharma, cultivating a habit of practice and forming a habitual tendency (vāsanā) toward cultivation. Thus, even while asleep, He continues to deliberate. Because He cannot deliberate on content that is too detailed and specific, dreams are produced, in which the mind consciousness is brought in to participate. After the manas has been steeped in the Buddha-dharma, He may abandon some worldly dharmas, considering them unimportant, or judging that they are contrary to the Dharma and should be discarded, and thus no longer deliberates on or cognizes those unimportant dharmas. Consequently, in dreams, apart from the Buddha-dharma that He values, nothing else will appear.

The forgetting and remembering of the mind consciousness arise precisely because of the manas's power of selection. Matters that the manas considers important, He continually pursues and keeps in mind; matters that the manas considers unimportant or bad, He no longer pursues or keeps in mind. When faculty and object do not make contact, the mind consciousness does not arise, and thus the mind consciousness does not cognize matters in which the manas has no interest, while it can recall and bring to memory the matters in which the manas is interested and considers important—this is the principle of remembering and forgetting. Therefore, of all the dharmas cognized by the mind consciousness, there is not one that does not pass through the manas's pursuit and cognition, and not one that is not brought forth by the manas's mindfulness. If the manas does not mind them or propel them, the mind consciousness will not arise and will not cognize. After the manas first cognizes a mental object (dharma-viṣaya), if He is not interested in it, the mind consciousness cannot arise, and one will not know that mental object; all the more will dreams about that matter fail to appear.