All Dharmas Must Be Reviewed and Vetted by the Manas

The character "scrutiny" (审) in the manas's continual scrutiny and deliberation reveals the manas's mental activities, and also reveals the functions the manas performs. This shows that the manas is not a useless ornament or mere decoration; it has a very important decisive role and is a lively, active conscious mind.

Whenever the manas contacts any dharma, it must scrutinize it. Whatever dharmas the six consciousnesses discern, the manas must scrutinize them all. If the review is passed, it will make a decision and proceed to handle the matter. So what role does the manas play in investigating Chan? What role does it play in eliminating self-view? What role does it play in seeing one's true mind and awakening to one's nature? What role does it play in realizing all dharmas? In all of these, it plays the decisive role.

All dharmas must pass through the manas's gatekeeping. If the manas has not approved the review, no handling can be done. From this we can see the manas's leading position and its role as the master. When the manas scrutinizes, it has its own conscious mental activity; it must make its own deliberation and does not simply obey the six consciousnesses, immediately approving whatever they discern. Therefore, everything seen by the six consciousnesses must be clearly and distinctly understood by the manas. If the manas does not understand, the review fails, it cannot pass the gate, and the manas cannot make a decision. Eliminating self-view as well as seeing one's true mind and awakening to one's nature must all pass through the manas's scrutiny and review. If the manas does not agree, self-view cannot be eliminated, and one cannot see the true mind and awaken to one's nature. When the mind consciousness eliminates self-view or awakens to the true mind on its own, that is merely the mind consciousness's own understanding and belief; if the master, the leader, does not agree, it does not count. For the mind consciousness to arbitrarily decide on its own, without the leader's consent, that it has eliminated self-view and awakened to the true mind—there is no such principle.

How can one let the manas arrive at its own result and answer? The mind consciousness should analyze and reflect less, and let the manas deliberate and ponder more by itself—this is the most effective way. Once the mind consciousness knows the answer, it no longer wants to investigate, and the manas then has no opportunity to inquire, so enlightenment can never be realized. Therefore, if the answer to seeing one's true mind is casually inquired about or casually told to someone, once the mind consciousness knows it, the manas can no longer apply effort, and realization becomes impossible. The same applies to the content of eliminating self-view: one cannot demand that the master explain it in too much detail. If the mind consciousness already knows everything, the manas can no longer ponder it, and eliminating self-view becomes very difficult.

The "deliberation" (思) in the manas's continual scrutiny and deliberation means examination, reflection, and discernment; "measure" (量) means measuring, gauging, evaluating, and weighing. The manas's mental activities of scrutiny, deliberation, and measuring are extremely deep and subtle, difficult to discover and observe, yet its conscious mental activity is still very powerful, carrying a kind of regal momentum. Its selection and judgment regarding all dharmas occupy the dominant position and are irreplaceable.