The Mind Faculty and Consciousness
Chapter 7: The Mutual Perfuming Relationship Between the Manas and the Mind Consciousness
1. Generally speaking, because the mind consciousness has strong discriminating wisdom and can analyze and deliberate, it has the opportunity to understand principles; the manas has poor discriminating wisdom, does not easily understand principles, and its own habitual tendencies are too heavy. The mind consciousness always wants to guide the manas to transform in a wholesome direction, but the manas is stubborn and hard to change. If someone, when creating afflictive and unwholesome karma, has no inner conflict of thought, no back-and-forth deliberation, that shows both the manas and the mind consciousness are heavily afflicted, and neither one understands principles; such a person is still very far from practice. If a person can create afflictive karma with a clear conscience, without the slightest inner awakening, without shame, without inner struggle, then that person's afflictions are especially heavy and he is almost beyond being rescued.
If the mind consciousness clearly knows something is wrong yet still creates afflictive and unwholesome karma, that is because the manas's habitual tendencies are too heavy. If after creating unwholesome karma one still does not realize it, both the manas and the mind consciousness are ignorant and do not understand principles, heavily afflicted; such people are very hard to rescue. A person who does wrong and creates unwholesome karma but never has inner struggle, who never knows shame or regret, is extremely difficult to deal with; with such a person one can only temporarily keep some distance, otherwise one will frequently invite afflictions upon oneself.
Shame and remorse are wholesome mental factors; being without shame and without remorse are unwholesome mental factors. Most people create unwholesome karma without shame or remorse, yet never realize it themselves. When the mind consciousness frequently contemplates and analyzes wholesome dharmas and unwholesome dharmas in accordance with the Dharma, perfuming the manas, the manas will gradually be able to act according to the mind consciousness's ideas.
2. The manas's capacity to be the master operates in two ways: one is according to its own experience and habitual inertia, the other is by following the mind consciousness's suggestions. How exactly the manas exercises mastery and makes decisions depends on which side is stronger, the mind consciousness or the manas. If the mind consciousness is strong, the manas will follow its analysis and suggestions; afterward, there may be cases of regret and cases of no regret. When the mind consciousness is too strong, the manas has no choice but to comply, agreeing on the surface; but upon later reflection, it regrets it, showing that the manas has not truly thought it through.
The mind consciousness is the one holding the reins; whichever road it leads the manas down, the manas will go down that road. If the mind consciousness is not in mistaken awareness, the manas will gradually come to correct awareness, and buddhahood is within hope. Since beginningless kalpas, the mind consciousness has been wrongly teaching the manas, telling Him that all dharmas are real, all belong to me and are possessed by me, that the five-aggregate world is real, beautiful, and worth pursuing; thus the manas has accepted the mind consciousness's false teachings, continuously craving and grasping the five aggregates and all dharmas, sinking deep into the mire of birth and death, unable to escape, and not even realizing it. The mind consciousness of the past can be called a false teacher; from now on, we must make the mind consciousness a good teacher and helpful friend, assisting the manas so that together we accomplish the Buddha Way.
Who does "we" here refer to? It is the manas letting the mind consciousness act, and the mind consciousness letting itself act. The mind consciousness's self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana) functions to supervise itself, with the manas's consent. The mind consciousness's self-validating cognition is what proves the mind consciousness's own capacity to know; only when the mind consciousness can introspect upon itself can it govern itself and supervise itself. The mind consciousness's self-validating cognition has nothing to do with the manas.
Self-awakening means, on one hand, the mind consciousness awakening the mind consciousness itself; on the other hand, the mind consciousness awakening the manas—first awakening the mind consciousness itself, then awakening the manas. Awakening others means first awakening another person's mind consciousness, then letting that person's mind consciousness awaken his manas—then it succeeds. Can one simultaneously awaken another person's manas as well? Directly awakening another person's manas is the fastest way, but it requires several conditions: first, one's own degree of awakening—whether one has persuasive power, that is, how strong one's direct perception is; second, the degree of awakening of the other person's mind consciousness; third, the degree of heaviness of the other person's manas's afflictions, that is, his spiritual faculties (indriya); fourth, whether the other person's karmic conditions and timing have arrived. If all these conditions are fulfilled, then one can directly persuade another person's manas, making him immediately accept and act. We can say such a person is of very sharp faculty—one nudge and he turns, without any obstruction.
3. The Coordination Between the Mind Consciousness and the Manas
The mind consciousness and the manas are sometimes in harmony and sometimes in mutual conflict and discord. When the mind consciousness frequently persuades and educates the manas, over time the manas is successfully perfumed and can follow the mind consciousness's exhortations; wherever the mind consciousness's deliberation reaches, the manas can carry it out—this is called "doing what one says," and the manas no longer acts contrary to what the mind consciousness says. When the heart and mouth are not in accord—when the mind consciousness says a matter should be done one way but the manas decides to do it another way—that is called "not keeping one's word," also called false speech, and can also be called violating one's conscience (the mind consciousness's correct, principled understanding).
If the manas encounters matters without afflictions, but the mind consciousness, perfumed by the后天 environment, has afflictions, and the mind consciousness tries to persuade the manas to comply with its afflictive nature, the manas may comply or may not, depending on which side's power is stronger. If both the mind consciousness and the manas have the same afflictions, then in dealing with people and affairs, the two will harmoniously create afflictive, defiled karma—like adding wings to a tiger, unstoppable. If both the mind consciousness and the manas have no afflictions, pure and undefiled, the two operate in harmony, and in dealing with people and affairs the mind is incomparably pure; encountering any adverse circumstances, it does not waver.
If the manas's afflictions are very heavy, yet the mind has never had any inner conflict, such a person is one whose mind consciousness has not even awakened, let alone the manas; he cannot reflect on himself, is habituated to afflictive tendencies, habituated to unwholesome thoughts and deeds—this is the mental activity of a person with not the slightest practice. A person who has no inner conflict when doing unwholesome karma has not even awakened the mind consciousness, much less the manas; such a person is still very far from practice.
The reason conflicts frequently arise between the mind consciousness and the manas is that the mind consciousness, perfumed by new environments, easily develops new ideas and concepts, while the manas is habituated to old views and opinions, so the two temporarily cannot be in harmony. The mind consciousness's wisdom mental factor is relatively strong and can discern good from bad, beautiful from ugly; the manas clings to too many dharmas, lacks meditative concentration (samādhi), and its wisdom is shallow and weak, so it needs a mind consciousness with strong discriminating wisdom to continuously perfume it. If the manas's wisdom mental factor also strengthens, practice becomes easy—but that comes only after the transformation of consciousness into wisdom. Bodhisattvas at the first bhūmi and above have already transformed consciousness into wisdom in the manas, so their wisdom mental factor is somewhat stronger.
4. "Do no evil, practice all good, purify your own mind—this is the teaching of all Buddhas." Whether to do evil or not is decided by the manas as master; likewise, whether to do good or not is also decided by the manas as master. If all evil is no longer done, the manas must have eradicated all afflictions and also all afflictive habitual tendencies; at that point one must at minimum have cultivated to the level of an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva, with segmented birth-and-death (pariccheda-maraṇa) already ended.
As for being able to practice all good, one must not only broadly make the bodhisattva's pure great vows but also extensively and earnestly carry them out; whenever conditions arise for enterprises that can benefit sentient beings, one must do them, paying no heed whatsoever to personal benefit. Only thus can one receive great benefit in return, because in sacrificing oneself for others, one actually still benefits oneself, ultimately attaining buddhahood.
"Purify your own mind": at the beginning, the mind consciousness can purify its own mind, but it is often still defiled by the manas; the mind consciousness purifying its own mind is not yet ultimate, so one must perfume the manas and purify the manas's mind. Once the manas's mind is purified, all bodily, verbal, and mental actions will necessarily be pure, and the defiled seeds will all be replaced with pure seeds; thus ignorance is completely severed and the Buddha Way is accomplished. The above is what all Buddhas teach; we disciples vow to follow the Buddhas' teaching, to accept, believe, and practice it!
5. Full self-confidence: there is the mind consciousness's self-confidence and the manas's self-confidence; if both are confident, then one is full of self-confidence. When the mind consciousness gives rise to deliberation with non-principled attention, through observing its own five aggregates (pañca-skandha), observing its own eighteen realms, and possibly comparing with other people's five aggregates, it may feel that it is excellent and powerful, believing that all its thoughts and views are correct, believing that its talents and wisdom are absolutely without problem, believing that everything it does is completely correct and without error, believing that it surpasses others, believing that it can surely accomplish certain things.
Such self-confidence may be influenced by the manas's afflictions such as self-grasping and arrogance, and also stems from the manas's craving and grasping of self, reflecting the manas's arrogance affliction; therefore full self-confidence also includes the manas's self-confidence. It is also possible that the mind consciousness has truly observed that it does possess a certain ability, and the manas, relying on this, also believes it. To eliminate this non-principled overconfidence, one must cultivate and study the Buddhadharma in accordance with principle; after recognizing the truth of no-self, one can know that the self is false and unreal, know that there is no true self to show off about or be proud and arrogant over, and thus view oneself and others correctly and reasonably—both are in fact equal and without self-nature—and from then on there will no longer be self-exaltation, arrogance, or self-grasping.
Since beginningless kalpas, sentient beings, due to their mistaken cognition and grasping (upādāna) of self, have caused themselves immeasurable kalpas of suffering in the cycle of birth and death. Now that they have encountered the Buddhadharma, they should follow the Buddha and practice earnestly, correctly hearing and contemplating the Dharma, then engaging in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of the Dharma in accordance with principle, and finally realize no-self. When great wisdom opens, one can know the true reality of all dharmas, no longer be deluded and inverted, arrogance can be subdued, and one can view oneself fairly and objectively, no longer having a proud mind.
The foremost essential in studying Buddhism and practicing is to eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), especially the manas's view of self—no longer taking one's five aggregates and eighteen realms as real and as "mine," but realizing in accordance with principle that the five aggregates are truly not self, that they are arising-ceasing, impermanent, and subject to change, yet also not different from self. Second, one must cultivate Mahāyāna prajñā wisdom, recognize the tathāgatagarbha of self-nature, and realize that He is the source of all dharmas, that the false self of the five aggregates is merely an illusory appearance produced and sustained by Him, not truly existent. From then on, the excessive self-confidence arising from "self" will disappear, arrogance will be eliminated, the karmic obstructions of birth and death can be exhausted, and then one accomplishes the Buddha Way and broadly benefits those with karmic affinity.
6. Even though the Buddha's manas has already completely transformed into the wisdom of equality, there is still an effect of inertia, but its operations are all wholesome in nature, fully corresponding with the eleven wholesome factors. The manas's inertial force can be changed by the mind consciousness; according to external environmental factors, the mind consciousness tells the manas what is beneficial and what is harmful and unbeneficial to oneself, and the manas can then make choices beneficial to itself, perhaps thereby changing its inertial force in certain respects. For example, quitting smoking and drinking depends on the mind consciousness's persuasion and education; the manas itself has no ability to recognize and change this inertial force—and originally this inertial force was also formed with the help of the mind consciousness.
The manas's volition mental factor has a function of choice, used for deliberation (manasikāra/manana) and making decisions. The five universal mental factors operate at every moment, cannot be interrupted, and have never been interrupted. Sometimes the manas acts willfully, refusing to listen to the mind consciousness's analysis and guidance—this is due to karmic force; the manas has no way to resist karmic force and must rely on the mind consciousness's long-term perfuming to slowly change its bad habits, and only finally can it abandon evil and follow good—this is the result of the mind consciousness's successful teaching.
7. The Influence of the Manas's Emotions on Body and Mind
Wild with joy, terrified out of one's wits, heart palpitating with fear, scared out of one's wits, drenched in sweat, heart-rending, gut-wrenching, in agony wishing for death, bristling with rage, dumbstruck—these are all words describing the mind commanding the body, with body and mind changing simultaneously. Changes in body and mind are controlled by the manas; when the mind changes, the body changes. Once the manas is touched, changes may occur from head to toe, in all the internal organs, showing how severe the manas's control over and attachment to the body-mind world is. Once the manas knows that neither body nor mind is itself, imagine what He will do—He will no longer control the body and mind, and the body and mind will relax, with changes appearing such as tranquility (praśama), comfort, inner joy, increased meditative concentration, reduced sleep, receding illness, and a form-body that becomes tall and light. After practicing for a further period, once the manas has exhausted its attachment to the five-aggregate world, the inner mind changes, and the state of mind then is like this: "Let the wind blow and waves strike—I stroll leisurely in my courtyard; suddenly confronted, I am not startled; unjustly treated, I am not angered."
The seven emotions—joy, anger, worry, pensiveness, grief, fear, and fright—are all related to the internal organs, corresponding respectively to the heart, liver, spleen, stomach, lungs, and kidneys. That is to say, body and mind mutually influence and depend on each other: psychological activity can affect the health of the internal organs, and the condition of the internal organs can affect psychological activity. Joy moves the heart, anger moves the liver, pensiveness moves the spleen, worry moves the stomach, grief moves the lungs, fright and fear move the kidneys. These psychological reactions are produced by the manas's stirring of mind and commanding of activity, controlled by the manas, corresponding with the manas; when the manas reacts, it pulls the form-body into change, and the internal organs move accordingly.
If one does not want to harm the body's internal organs, one should not stir the mind, not generate emotions, keep one's temperament mild, subdue afflictions, and weaken the five desires. This requires using the mind consciousness to subdue the manas, maintaining meditative power, seeing through worldly affairs, and reducing desires. For example, some people get cancer yet feel no fear or worry within, and the cancer soon disappears—the manas does not attach to the form-body, so the form-body is healthy; others are afraid and worried, unwilling to let go of and set aside the form-body, and soon die—this is being scared to death; the manas is too attached to the form-body, causing the illness to worsen and instead losing life. Because of the different degrees of the manas's attachment to the form-body, two opposite results arise.
In the five-aggregate world, the mind consciousness toils busily while the manas reaps the benefits, yet final accomplishment still lies with the manas. In fact, the manas is also busy—busy grasping, busy reckoning, busy with all matters related to saṃsāra. The manas is also the most toilsome: since beginningless kalpas it has never rested. Among all dharmas, it is also the manas that is most delighted and most worried, most shaken—even able to shake the internal organs, turning everything upside down. He can make a person wild with joy, unable to think of food or drink, refusing even a drop of water, face full of sorrow, worried and anxious, grief-stricken, heart-rending, mingling sorrow and joy, dejected and despondent, exasperated with rage, and finally scared into trembling terror, panic and disarray, terrified out of wits—how heavy the manas's afflictions must be!
Then at liberation, how relaxed He must be, like a burden lifted! Once the heavy burden is unloaded, that is the most relaxed moment; body and mind both feel light and at ease—a giant boulder has finally been pushed over, and the manas has finally attained liberation. We should quickly eradicate the view of self, remove afflictions, push over the giant boulder, and transform from cocoon into butterfly! Possessing a liberated mind is more important than anything. The world has many sufferings and layers of afflictions—press down the gourd and the ladle pops up; in the six realms there is forever suffering. In worldly dharma, there are very few adjectives and idioms describing the mind attaining liberation, ease, and freedom; yet there are many adjectives describing heavy afflictions and attachments. What does this show? It shows that the world is full of suffering, filled with all kinds of distress; therefore one should see through the world, seek liberation as early as possible, and attain great ease and freedom.
8. If a Buddhist practitioner has many dreams, then he must subdue the manas's imputed nature (parikalpita-svabhāva); through the mind consciousness's analysis and deliberation, persuading and guiding the manas so that it no longer craves and grasps any dharma—then not only will one no longer dream, but daytime wandering thoughts will also decrease and disappear. The process by which the mind consciousness, through principled deliberation, persuades and guides the manas is precisely the process of subduing one's mind. Through correct hearing and contemplation of the Buddhadharma in accordance with principle, and contemplative practice in accordance with principle, one eradicates the view of self; only afterward can one truly subdue one's mind, thereby severing afflictions and afflictive habitual tendencies; only then can self-grasping be fully exhausted, the manas no longer attaching to the five-aggregate world, attaining liberation—only then has one achieved some small success in practice.
9. What Is Meant by "Cultivating the False in Dependence on the True"
Because there is the true mind, the false mind arises, with the false mind's activities and creations. Cultivating the false means the false mind—the seven transforming consciousnesses—taking the true mind's nature as reference to correct its own bodily, verbal, and mental actions, subduing the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, and extinguishing ignorance. Moreover, at all times and places, the process and results of practice are stored as seeds into the true mind, so that all practice is never in vain, and in future lives one will continue to enjoy the fruits of this life's practice. Until buddhahood, these seeds of practice are never lost or corrupted; only when the seeds of wholesome karma have accumulated to perfection and all seeds of unwholesome karma have been cleared away is the Buddha Way perfectly accomplished.
In perfuming and cultivating the Buddhadharma, to remove the false mind's ignorance, first perfume the mind consciousness: the mind consciousness studies and understands the true mind's nature, then perfumes and cultivates the manas so that the manas also understands. Then both realize the true mind's self-nature; after that, one can constantly observe the true mind's operations and will know how the intrinsically pure mind remains pure and undefiled amid the operations of all dharmas. The mind consciousness will then correct its own mental activities accordingly, thereby changing its own mental nature and removing defilement. When the mind consciousness deeply contemplates the principles of the Buddhadharma and understands the essence of all dharmas, it will perfume the manas, making the manas also change its mental activities, removing defilement and ignorance.
If the mind consciousness does not engage in deep contemplation, or does not contemplate at all, then the understood Buddhadharma only stays on the surface of the mind consciousness, will not enter the manas's mind, and no real change will occur in the inner substance, nor can mental activities change. If the mind consciousness does not deeply contemplate the true principle of the Buddhadharma, it cannot perfume the manas, because the manas's discriminating wisdom is inferior; the mind consciousness must repeatedly contemplate the principles thoroughly and transmit them to the manas before the manas can understand. He is not like the mind consciousness, which easily understands principles, because the mind consciousness has logical capacity and extremely strong discriminating wisdom.
The manas's discriminating wisdom regarding the details of the six sense objects is weak and lacks logical inference; it is rather straightforward, so the mind consciousness must analyze the principles clearly and thoroughly, analyzing them in extremely fine detail, before the manas can understand. Otherwise the manas cannot understand principles and its thinking cannot change; if the manas does not change, practice yields no real benefit, because bodily, verbal, and mental karmic actions are governed by the manas. Therefore many Buddhist practitioners, in studying and practicing, only recite sutras orally without contemplating the true meaning of the Dharma; then neither the mind consciousness nor the manas understands the true meaning of the Dharma, and in that way neither can wisdom open nor can mental activities transform; afflictions cannot be subdued and ignorance remains deep and heavy.
The most fundamental purpose of studying Buddhism is to open wisdom, not merely to learn knowledge; the accumulation of knowledge is also a conditioned, arising-ceasing dharma. If mental activities do not change and ignorance is not broken, one still remains in the cycle of birth and death, unable to escape. And all this practice is carried out in dependence on the true mind—He is the beacon and cornerstone of our practice. Suchness (tathatā) and Buddha-nature are inherently complete within us, not obtained from outside; He inherently possesses all wholesome dharmas, perfect and unobstructed, so we need not perfume or change Him. We only need to successfully perfume the seven consciousnesses, transforming them into pure ones and exhausting ignorance—then we become Buddhas.
10. When we can observe the operation of the manas's mental factors, we know that the manas's inner world is quite profound and hard to fathom, quite hidden, quite rich and colorful; He is extremely busy, extremely attached, always calculating and clinging without cease, not resting for a single moment; all dharmas must manifest through Him, and His dynamic capacity and objects of cognition are also very broad—so the manas is by no means empty.
The manas deliberates (manasikāra) at all times and acts as master everywhere. All mental activities of the mind consciousness are related to the manas; the operation of all mental factors is related to the manas. The mind consciousness's incessant wandering thoughts are precisely because the manas's deliberation is incessant and its attachment is incessant; the six consciousnesses' incessant bodily, verbal, and mental actions are because the manas's attachment and clinging are incessant—He never willing to stop.
If one frequently recites mantras so as to perfume the manas, and the manas becomes habituated to mantra recitation, it can continuously take the mantra as object; then even when sleeping and dreaming one can recite mantras, and in daily life one can also recite mantras. If the manas is not habituated to mantra recitation, then in dreams the mind consciousness cannot recite mantras no matter what, and while walking, standing, sitting, or lying down one cannot think to recite them.
After practicing, if the manas has been well perfumed and trained, one can practice even in sleep, and sleep can test a person's level of practice. So if one wants achievement in practice, one must penetrate to the manas; if one has not yet penetrated to the manas, only staying on the surface of the mind consciousness without influencing the manas, that practice is very shallow and basically does not count as genuine practice—studying Buddhism is merely a surface display. It is the same in dealing with people: if the manas is attentive, it is genuinely caring for people, treating them with sincerity; if the manas does not value the people and matters being faced, the mind consciousness's behavior will be perfunctory, dealing with them with false sentiment, superficially agreeing but actually not acting.
11. When the mental faculty and dharma objects meet as conditions, the mind consciousness arises: the manas and the mental sense-objects (dharma-objects) make contact, and the eighth consciousness produces the mind consciousness; the mind consciousness contacts the manas and the dharma-objects, and can then know the manas's intent, and thereupon discriminate the dharma-objects and act. The manas is the last of the six faculties, a formless faculty; He has the nature of consciousness, and is also called the seventh consciousness, also known as the manas-consciousness (manas). The eighth consciousness is the true mind, the body of suchness (tathatā); according to the sequential ordering of the seven consciousnesses, it is named the eighth consciousness. Its nature is greatly different from the seven consciousnesses: the seven consciousnesses only perform discriminating functions upon the five faculties and six sense objects; everything else is the business of the eighth consciousness. Therefore the eighth consciousness discriminates the faculty-body, the material world, and seeds, is responsible for transmitting karmic seeds and the seeds of the four great elements and seven great elements, and creates the five-aggregate worlds of sentient beings.
In studying Buddhism and practicing, the mind consciousness is changed first, because the mind consciousness is subtle and can analyze, judge, and infer; it is quickly perfumed and quickly changed. The manas, the seventh consciousness, is very difficult: He is the innately self-grasping consciousness, uninterrupted from beginningless kalpas until now, possessing very deep and heavy afflictions and habitual tendencies—the attachment mainly refers to this mind. To change Him, one must rely on the mind consciousness's long-term perfuming.
By the time of attaining buddhahood, these two consciousnesses will have transformed three times in total, becoming complete wisdom-consciousness. The first transformation occurs upon entering the first bhūmi, the second upon reaching the eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva stage, and the third at the moment of attaining buddhahood. After that, the first five consciousnesses transform into the wisdom of perfect accomplishment, and finally the eighth consciousness transforms into the great mirror-like wisdom (ādarśa-jñāna), because by then the manas has completely changed, karmic seeds have completely transformed into pure karmic seeds, and the eighth consciousness becomes the undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna) and the great mirror-like wisdom. Only when all the seeds of the first seven consciousnesses contained in the eighth consciousness have been thoroughly transformed into purity, without a trace of defilement, does the eighth consciousness completely restore its own original face—this is the true self, no longer holding the defiled seeds of the seven consciousnesses. Therefore our present eighth consciousness still stores the defiled seeds and ignorance of our seven consciousnesses; we need to purify the seven consciousness-minds and sever ignorance in order to become a magnificent Buddha. We are now only Buddhas in principle—we have the Buddha's essence but not yet the Buddha's function; in actuality and in fact we are not yet Buddhas, and we need to diligently strive in the practice of the bodhi path.
When we have clearly understood the natures of all eight consciousnesses and found all seven consciousnesses, and after fulfilling the conditions of a bodhisattva, we can find the eighth consciousness, suchness (tathatā), and attain enlightenment. After finding suchness, wisdom will arise, and one can observe His functional natures in various different aspects, understand more of His pure, unconditioned nature, and know how He thus transforms, generates, and manifests all dharmas; that wisdom of observation will continuously grow, never standing still. The key is whether what is found is truly the suchness mind, whether it accords with the nature of the suchness mind. If that mind has arising-ceasing nature, has changeability, has increase and decrease, exists one moment and not the next, and requires constant maintenance to exist, then it is the false mind, not the true mind. This is an extremely crucial point.
12. The transformation of consciousness into wisdom of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses occurs in three stages; the complete transformation of consciousness into wisdom occurs at the buddha stage. The first is at the first bhūmi, where the sixth and seventh consciousnesses reach initial untaintedness, though taints are not yet exhausted—two great immeasurable kalpas are needed to exhaust them. Even initial untaintedness is already remarkable. Before this, the manas is tainted and afflicted; after this, there are still afflictive habitual tendencies. And the manas's afflictions are often unknown to the mind consciousness, which will then think it already has practice—actually an illusion. When the mind consciousness temporarily does not manifest afflictions, it thinks itself fine; but in fact the mind consciousness does not know the manas's afflictions. The manas's afflictions are deeply rooted, hidden very deeply, not easy to detect, and they can only transform after the mind consciousness has transformed. So do not think that because the mind consciousness has improved, you are fine—do not forget that the manas has not yet transformed.
13. To change habitual tendencies and afflictions, the mind consciousness must first understand what afflictive habitual tendencies the manas has and what harm they cause, then tell the manas of the harmfulness of these habitual tendencies, letting the manas know, continuously perfuming the manas. Once the manas understands, it can change or suppress the afflictive habitual tendencies.
If the afflictive habitual tendencies are too heavy, they are very hard to subdue and suppress, let alone change. The longer one is perfumed in the human world, the heavier the accumulated habits of affliction become; the mind consciousness finds it harder to understand principles, and the manas even more so—changing even the tiniest habit is difficult. Therefore practice while young; do not wait until old age to practice. When old, practice is truly difficult: habits have become fixed, and even recognizing that one has habits is not easy, let alone changing them.
14. The manas has existed since beginningless kalpas and will never perish in the future, except when an arhat enters Nirvāṇa without remainder (Anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa) and extinguishes Him; therefore the manas is also subject to arising and ceasing, impermanent. Because the manas is the mind that acts as sovereign, the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of sentient beings are directed by Him. If His ignorance is deep and heavy, greed, hatred, and delusion blaze fiercely, and attachment to self is intense, then sentient beings will create defiled karmic actions of greed, hatred, and delusion, with the result being rebirth in the six realms, birth and death without end.
The manas is harder to change than the mind consciousness, because He has existed since beginningless kalpas, has experienced eons too remote, and has been perfumed by the six sense objects too deeply, plus the innately possessed ignorance and afflictions—His defilement is extremely heavy. The mind consciousness, however, appears only after birth, new in every life, without innate ignorance and afflictions, all newly perfumed; He receives both the manas's innate perfuming and the perfuming of the后天 environment. Because the mind consciousness's power of wisdom (prajñā-bala) is relatively strong and can skillfully discriminate all dharmas, it is easily perfumed and transformed, whereas the manas is hard to perfume and change, and eradicating the manas's self-grasping is very difficult. Practice means thoroughly changing the manas, making the manas thoroughly pure and exhausting ignorance—only then can one attain complete liberation and freedom.
15. When the manas contacts the dharma-objects, if the manas wants to clearly discriminate them, it gives rise to choice; the eighth consciousness, in accordance with the manas's choice, produces the mind consciousness, which then discriminates the dharma-objects. If the manas does not want to clearly discriminate the dharma-objects, it does not attend, does not deliberate, does not choose, and the mind consciousness cannot arise—this is equivalent to shutting off the mind consciousness. Shutting off the mind consciousness is actually subduing the manas; when the manas changes, everything changes.
Practicing the dharma until it reaches the manas is ultimate; realizing the eighth consciousness is only the beginning of Mahāyāna practice. Finding the switch of all dharmas is the key; the manas is the controller of the switch. When the switch gate is opened by the manas, all dharmas will gush forth and fully manifest. At this point we need to subdue the manas, not letting Him open the switch too wide—a steady, long-flowing stream is best. Even so, when karmic seeds have not changed, the manas still cannot fully control the switch, and matured karmic seeds will shatter the manas's illusions.
The tathāgatagarbha outputs the manas's consciousness seeds moment by moment; only then can the manas exist and operate, only then can He cling and attach. The manas's clinging is in essence clinging to Himself: He takes all dharmas as being Himself and His possessions, and therefore attaches without letting go. If He knew that all these dharmas are not Himself and do not belong to Him, His attachment would be severed and birth and death would be ended. After that, only by making pure great vows can the existence and operation of the false life-form be sustained, constantly benefiting self and others, without rest until buddhahood.
Therefore, being able to realize that all dharmas are not self—this is the most crucial point, and also the ultimate result of sentient beings' practice. The one thoroughly without self is the Buddha! As long as we can realize no-self, and ultimate no-self at that, we can attain ultimate liberation. The so-called self has bound us tightly since beginningless kalpas, which is why we live so unfreely. To break free of the bonds and shackles, one must eradicate the view of self and extinguish self-grasping; when not a single dharma is grasped, that is great liberation and great freedom. But saying it is easy; doing it takes immeasurable kalpas of time, requiring us to have endurance, with an indomitable, courageous, unyielding spirit and great wisdom, in order to reach the land of ultimate no-self as soon as possible.
16. Ordinary people's mind consciousness is rather scattered, and the cause of this scatteredness lies in the manas. Because the manas's objects of cognition are broad, since beginningless kalpas the manas has had no meditative concentration and is habituated to scatteredness, so He has a scattered, clinging mind—going wherever there is something happening, switching objects of clinging moment by moment, with no fixed target, wandering everywhere. For example, I am sitting here relaxed, with no particularly important matter to attend to; the mind consciousness attends to visual objects one moment, then sounds, smells, and tactile objects, then goes off thinking about matters unrelated to the present circumstances—all these are results of the manas's attention directing the mind consciousness. Since these are all unimportant matters, how does the manas attend to them? This is scattered attention, driven by habitual inertia, completely without pattern, random in nature.
The manas at all times takes as object all dharmas manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; because of ignorance, since beginningless kalpas He has become habituated to clinging to the six sense objects, and this clinging habit is deeply rooted, hard to subdue for a while. When there is nothing to do, the manas clings everywhere, unconsciously attending to form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharma objects. Because these circumstances are currently unimportant, the manas's attention to these dharmas requires no concentration, will not last long, has no fixed target; often whatever it contacts it contemplates, and the six consciousnesses accordingly wander east and west with no fixed abode. This wild child, the manas, has long been undisciplined and habituated to unruliness; only when the mind consciousness receives proper education—taking whip and staff, combining firmness with gentleness, coaxing and cajoling—can it be disciplined little by little. When the mind is not at all scattered, one has reached the fourth fruit (arhat).
17. Question: I often have this kind of experience: while sitting in meditation, sometimes itching appears on the skin; the manas decides to scratch, while the mind consciousness resolves to persist in not scratching, contending with the manas. Thus I persist until the itching disappears. Is this beneficial for subduing the manas?
Answer: Only when the manas is not very attached can one oppose Him in this way without causing Him mental breakdown or collapse. If the manas's attachment is very strong, He will not be able to bear it, and then one must take a roundabout, winding route and cannot force things. When the manas can accept it, if the mind consciousness does not comply with the manas's afflictive nature and does not execute the manas's improper instructions, the manas will reflect on itself, may realize it is wrong, and will abandon improper ideas, adjusting its own mind and changing itself. When the mind consciousness does not comply with the manas in scratching the itch, the manas, unable to outstubborn the mind consciousness, will then not cling, or cling less, to the body faculty; thereafter it will not care about the form-body's various reactions, attachment to the body becomes light, and meditative concentration can gradually appear. Once the manas forms this habit, it will disregard the form-body, easily forget the body, reduce attachment, and meditative concentration is easily accomplished.
18. The Goal of Subduing One's Mind Is to Subdue the Manas
The situation of "face unchanged, heart not beating" occurs when the mind consciousness receives information but the manas does not accept it or care, so even the complexion does not change—it does not go into the heart, that is, it does not go into the manas's heart. "In one ear and out the other" also means the manas does not care, it does not go into the heart. The colloquial saying about the "big radish face" neither red nor white means that no matter what others say, the manas is not moved, so the complexion does not change. So what truly moves the heart refers to the manas: once the manas moves, thoughts appear, body and mind react, and complexion changes—this is called the mind being moved, the heart stirred.
Does the "mind" in "subduing one's mind" refer to the mind consciousness or the manas, or both simultaneously? First the mind consciousness is subdued, then the manas; only subduing the manas is true subduing, ultimate subduing—only then is the goal achieved. Practice begins with subduing the mind consciousness's thoughts of greed, hatred, and delusion, gradually deepening from there, slowly perfuming and transforming to subdue the manas's greed, hatred, and delusion. Only when both are subdued is there complete subduing. Subduing only the mind consciousness is useless: if the manas commands the mind consciousness toward greed, hatred, and delusion, the mind consciousness has no choice but to obey.
The poisonous effects of greed, hatred, and delusion on the body-mind world are in fact all afflictions arising from the manas, which then affect the body and mind, causing adverse reactions. When the mind consciousness alone gives rise to afflictions, there is almost no effect on the body; but when the manas gives rise to afflictions, it is terrible—helpless, unable to eat well or sleep soundly, prone to inner heat; complexion and color can change, appearing anxious and restless, and even bodily illness can appear. So the most stubborn and most powerful ox is still the manas—He is too forceful, and also has authority, able to command. Only subduing the manas's afflictions is true subduing of afflictions.
19. Taints mean having the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion; being untainted means being without the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion. The six consciousnesses all have the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, and the manas also has them. If the manas's afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion are not severed, He will direct the six consciousnesses to create karma of greed, hatred, and delusion, and the six consciousnesses cannot be untainted; therefore "untainted" mainly refers to the manas's untaintedness. From this we can see how important changing the manas is.
How can the manas be made to keep the precepts? The mind consciousness must study the Buddhadharma, understand the function of the precepts, know the benefits of keeping precepts and the consequences of not keeping them, then continuously analyze and contemplate the various merits of receiving and keeping precepts, and contemplate what bitter fruits come from not receiving and not keeping precepts, thereby perfuming the manas and making the manas understand this principle. Once the manas understands, it will actively receive and keep the precepts—that is true receiving and holding of precepts, not merely the mind consciousness's verbal, false receiving and holding. When the manas has not been successfully perfumed, He does not want to receive precepts or keep precepts; sometimes He is passively incited by the mind consciousness to receive precepts, but will absolutely not keep them. When the manas does not understand cause and effect, He will absolutely not spontaneously and consciously keep the precepts; the mind consciousness must then force the manas—this is called suppressing the manas, and the manas is not willing. When first receiving precepts, one must thus forcibly constrain oneself (the manas); later, once the manas understands principles, it will automatically keep the precepts without violating them.
20. A person with genuine practice, even when encountering evil conditions in dreams, knows to keep the precepts and not create unwholesome karma—this is someone whose practice is truly effective. Bodily, verbal, and mental actions in dreams better reveal a person's level of practice; if one can be master in dreams and not create unwholesome karma, there is a certain assurance for the intermediate state (antarā-bhava). In dreams, the mind consciousness's control is weaker, and the manas's habitual tendencies completely dominate. If in dreams the manas has no defilement of habitual tendencies and afflictions, it shows that this person's practice has perfumed the manas and the manas has been subdued. Because the manas in dreams is the same manas as outside dreams, the same manas as in the daytime—the manas does not sleep, does not cease, is continuous—therefore one's usual practice can influence dreams.
If the mind consciousness practices very well, it knows it is in a dream and can resist the manas's defilement, not creating unwholesome karma. Therefore true practice should be able to change the manas; practice that has not reached the manas is not yet effective. Many people have not even successfully perfumed the mind consciousness—the mind consciousness still blatantly and self-righteously creates unwholesome karma and does not even want to keep the five precepts; such a person has not yet begun genuine practice and is still a beginner in Buddhism.
