Consciousness Realizing the Fruit and Illuminating the Mind Is Merely a Phantom City

When a person is conscious and under conscious control, their mental activities and conduct manifest as more civilized, virtuous, rational, cultivated, and upright compared to when they are unconscious and lack conscious control. The difference in behavior between these two states is immense. Why is there such a significant disparity? It is because the mental factors and activities of the manas (the fundamental mind) and the consciousness differ greatly. Consciousness discerns subtle distinctions within the six sense objects; it is relatively intelligent, knows what is beneficial for oneself, and understands how one ought to behave in front of others. In contrast, the manas discerns the six sense objects unclearly, is burdened by heavy habitual tendencies, is relatively stubborn, and does not know how to behave in ways beneficial to oneself. Consequently, once consciousness becomes impaired through hypnosis or alcohol intoxication, it becomes similar to the manas, unable to control the manas or maintain its usual performance. The innate nature of the manas is then exposed, and the behavior becomes drastically different from when conscious, with all sorts of unseemly conduct emerging.

A person's inner world refers to the mental factors and activities of the manas. These can be concealed by the superficial mental activities of consciousness. Covering up the mental activities of the manas is called pretense, and the inconsistency between consciousness and manas is called hypocrisy. Merely focusing effort on consciousness yields little effect. For a Bodhisattva who has transformed consciousness into wisdom, the manas has transformed into the wisdom of equality, and afflictions have been eradicated. Even if hypnotized or intoxicated, their manas remains as it was, similar to when conscious. The manas is truly the fundamental aspect of a person, representing their genuine conduct and moral character. The performance of consciousness alone does not constitute true virtue.

While conscious, consciousness can conceal the ignorance and lack of wisdom of the manas. However, in the antarābhava (intermediate state), consciousness is weak and unable to continue concealing or controlling the manas. The ignorance, delusion, and afflictions of the manas will manifest without obstruction, ultimately leading to rebirth driven by the ignorance and afflictions of the manas, continuing the cycle of ignorance and afflictions in future lives. If consciousness has realized the fruit and understood the mind, it cannot maintain the wisdom of that realization and understanding in the antarābhava. The manas, which has not realized the fruit or understood the mind, will manifest ignorance, with deep-seated self-view and self-attachment. Consequently, rebirth occurs driven by the self-view and self-attachment afflictions of the manas, perpetuating self-view and self-attachment in future lives, continuing the cycle of birth and death. Therefore, truly wise individuals should strive for genuine eradication of self-view and true understanding of the mind, not stopping at the intellectual understanding of consciousness. This intellectual understanding is merely a phantom city, not the true place of rest and refuge.