The Right Understanding of Manas
Chapter 5: The Habitual Tendencies and Inertia of the Manas
1. The link between each lifetime's birth and death of sentient beings is the tathāgatagarbha and the manas. At death, the six consciousnesses all cease and do not go on to the next life. The manas, however, cannot cease and must go on to the next life; it can continue all the way until buddhahood, and after attaining buddhahood it will cease even less. The tathāgatagarbha is even more the principal consciousness that continues from past lives to future lives, because without the tathāgatagarbha there would be no five-aggregate bodies of sentient beings, life after life. In the five aggregates of the next life, the manas is still the original one, the tathāgatagarbha is the original one, and the other consciousnesses are all newly generated. Therefore, the afflictive habitual tendencies of the manas are the original form of every sentient being.
Because the mind consciousness can discern the people, affairs, things, and principles of the current life and has memory, once it is replaced by a new mind consciousness, it only knows the people, affairs, things, and principles of the current life, not those of past lives. The manas does not change; it is still the one from the previous life, so it carries the habitual tendencies and habits of the previous life into the present life. The temperament, disposition, and character of this life are the same as those of the previous life, and the attachments are also the same; hence He is called the innately arisen self-grasping (innate satkāya-grāha). The manas is like this from birth, without needing later conditioning, and moreover He conditions the six consciousnesses that arise later, causing the bodily, verbal, and mental actions to operate according to the habits of the previous life. After the bodily, verbal, and mental actions are completed, the karmic seeds are stored away, further increasing the manas's habitual tendencies and attachments.
Therefore, whatever sentient beings liked in their previous lives, in the next life, no matter which realm they are in, when conditions are complete, they will still be that way. Those who like music will still like it even as ghosts or animals. So sometimes when one sees a dog being very deferential to its companions, one knows that it was like this when it was a human, and when it becomes human again in the future, it will still be the same. The flavors it liked as a human, it will still like as a ghost. A ghost being that has been conditioned by the Mahāyāna Dharma will, when it becomes human again, take joy in cultivating and studying the Mahāyāna Dharma and will attain the Path quickly.
Those conditioned seeds are all stored by the tathāgatagarbha; when causes and conditions are complete, they are transmitted forth, letting the seeds become manifest. Therefore, when encountering very profound Buddhist Dharma, there is no need to avoid it; once the eyes pass over it, the tathāgatagarbha stores it away, and in the future there will be great use. Within the eight consciousnesses there are countless mysteries; the more one realizes them, the less ignorance one has; when all are realized and ignorance is completely severed, one accomplishes the buddha path. After enlightenment, when one cultivates to a certain point and has passed all three barriers of the Chan school, the teachings of the Chan school are no longer of use, and one cultivates entirely the Consciousness-Only Dharma. Only by studying the Dharma of the eight consciousnesses can one advance from bhūmi to bhūmi, with wisdom complete and perfect.
2. The Cognitive Habits of the Manas
The scope of the manas's knowing nature is extremely broad and also extremely powerful; relying on the seeing-awareness of the tathāgatagarbha, He can know all dharmas. For all dharmas, the manas knows first and the mind consciousness knows afterward; moreover, for many dharmas, the manas knows them but the mind consciousness still does not know and has no ability to know. Even after the manas alerts and prompts it, it still does not quite understand, and only after the event has occurred does the mind consciousness suddenly realize, becoming a "wise strategist after the fact." How powerful is the manas's deliberation (manasikāra)? When the mind consciousness does not know something and cannot serve as an advisor to the manas, the manas relies entirely on His own solitary deliberation and weighing to formulate a response, reacting extremely quickly; in situations involving His own safety and danger, the choices He makes are almost always correct, showing that the manas's deliberation is both fast and accurate—simply beyond reproach. It is only when matters involving personal interests arise that, due to the habit since beginningless kalpas of protecting one's own interests without considering the interests of others, the choices made are strongly selfish.
3. The manas is greatly related to the conditioning of the five aggregates in past lives. The five aggregates have past lives, but the manas has no past life; the events experienced by the five aggregates are the events experienced by the manas. Strictly speaking, it is the manas who brings the experienced events to the five aggregates: the manas contacts first, the five aggregates contact afterward; the five aggregates cease, the manas does not cease; the manas is the principal, the five aggregates are the auxiliary. The manas brings the events and experiences He has undergone to the five aggregates of this life, influencing the actions and creations of this life's five aggregates, yet the manas has no notion of past life, present life, or future life.
How does the manas bring past experiences and lessons to the five aggregates of this life? Because the manas has never ceased. Whatever temperament and habits He has been conditioned into, when encountering conditions He will manifest that kind of temperament and habits. Even when the five aggregates are in the womb, even when the five aggregates have just been born, the manas is still as He originally was, until new events occur that change the manas's temperament and habits.
Why does the manas correspond to karmic seeds? The so-called karmic seeds are nothing other than the events experienced by the manas and the five aggregates serving as seeds, stored in the tathāgatagarbha through the manas. Because the manas does not cease and has never ceased, the events the manas has experienced have conditioned Him; when the manas encounters conditions, He must manifest the conditioned habits, corresponding to the karmic seeds, and He will not easily change Himself.
For example, a person who as a human was vicious at heart—the manas has already corresponded to the vicious habit, and the karmic seeds of toxicity are stored in the tathāgatagarbha; when conditions ripen they are transmitted forth, and after the five aggregates die, one is born into the animal realm of venomous types, such as venomous snakes, centipedes, scorpions, and so on. These venomous beings, consciously or unconsciously, continue to poison sentient beings with the venom in their bodies. The vicious bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the previous life are stored as seeds in the tathāgatagarbha; in the next life, the manas corresponds to the karmic seeds, carrying the venomous habit, and the poison of hatred will frequently erupt, harming other sentient beings. So how does the manas carry over the toxicity of the previous life, how does He inherit the habits of the previous life, by what means does He perpetuate the various habits of the previous life, and how does He have various inertial effects? This has already been explained above; the principle is the same.
In these inertial effects of toxicity, the mind consciousness does not play much of a role, because the mind consciousness does not know past lives; having not experienced them, it has no memory, and it cannot, through thinking, guide and control the manas to poison other sentient beings. In most cases, it must rely on the inertial effect of the toxicity that the manas Himself has been conditioned into. If these beings, when they are human, receive a lesson and the mind consciousness becomes somewhat clear-headed and understands the principle, then through analysis and thinking it must supervise the manas to reduce or eliminate the toxicity, to cleanse the heart and reform, turning from evil to good—but this is very, very difficult.
4. Sentient beings often display the workings of the subconscious and the unconscious, including beings of the three evil realms. For example, a person may be very dull in the head, not very good at thinking through problems, and constantly does wrong things. But once matters involving personal interests arise, he becomes extremely clever and reacts very quickly, almost without much thinking, and his reactions are all advantageous to himself. This is the manifestation of the selfishness and self-grasping of sentient beings' manas over countless kalpas—knowing what is beneficial to oneself and what is unbeneficial or harmful, and thus naturally avoiding harm and pursuing the auspicious. Therefore, even the least wise sentient beings are selfish, protecting their own interests everywhere, including some small children. This is the habit and inertia of sentient beings' manas; the self-grasping is extremely heavy.
Each person's tastes differ. Some are born that way and cannot be reversed unless conditions do not permit; others are influenced by the later environment. Innate, inborn habits are brought by the manas and correspond to the manas. For example, some people are born liking to eat chili peppers, some are born fond of gambling, some are born loving cleanliness, some are born liking quiet solitude, some are born loving reading, some are born with strong logical thinking ability, some are born loving music, chess, calligraphy, and painting; while some are born disliking reading, some are born disliking thinking, some are born lazy, some are born loving liveliness, and so on without end. These innate, inborn habits are brought by the manas and belong to the habits of the manas.
As for those formed later, acquired after birth, they are formed by the mind consciousness being influenced by the environment and correspond to the mind consciousness. The manas's innate habits influence the mind consciousness, and the mind consciousness then likes eating chili peppers, likes reading, likes music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, likes gambling, likes cleanliness, likes diligence and frugality, likes quiet solitude, likes logical thinking, likes not depending on others, likes laziness, likes liveliness, likes...
Here one must distinguish whether the mind consciousness's likes and dislikes arise from conditioning by the manas or from conditioning by the later environment. This is extremely important, because from here one can locate the manas and understand the nature of the manas, giving rise to wisdom, so as to avoid confusing the manas and the mind consciousness. The foolish cannot distinguish between the root (faculty) and the consciousness; one who can distinguish between root and consciousness is no longer an ordinary Buddhist practitioner, nor an ordinary awakened one. Therefore, being able to distinguish root from consciousness is extremely, extremely difficult, requiring cultivation of at least one incalculable kalpa of time.
5. No matter what the manas is attending to, when encountering danger, He will first protect the body, feeling that the body is Himself and is extremely important. He also knows which parts of the body are most critical; when an accident suddenly occurs, He instinctively decides which part to protect first—this is the innate inertia and instinctive function.
Some people always take extremely good care of themselves: eating only nutritious and delicious food, living in comfortable, soft, high-grade quarters, being excessively fastidious in living. This shows that such a person's manas greatly cherishes and grasps at Himself. In fact, the manas is very ignorant; He does not know that only by severing the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) can the great matter of birth and death be resolved, and that this is what is most beneficial to Himself. Because of ignorance, He grasps at worldly dharmas, grasps at the five desires and six sense objects, grasps at His own five-aggregate body. But the more He grasps, the heavier the karma of birth and death and the more distress, sinking ever deeper into the cycle of birth and death—a principle the manas absolutely does not understand. For the sake of the five aggregates, the manas must constantly weigh various advantages and disadvantages, gains and losses; sometimes He may decide to make a small sacrifice in exchange for greater benefit—this, of course, is a decision made based on the mind consciousness's analysis and instruction. Sometimes the manas can also achieve temporary forgetting of body and self, but that is for something more important and more beneficial to the self, and it is also a decision made based on the mind consciousness's instruction.
The mind consciousness's shrewdness in worldly dharmas is precisely the manifestation of its ignorance. The shrewd people in the world are often the truly ignorant and extremely ignorant people. Conversely, those in the Buddhist gate whom the world calls fools are often people whose cultivation has borne fruit; their manas perhaps does not grasp at the worldly, does not reckon worldly benefits—exactly the opposite of worldly people. This point leaves worldly people utterly baffled, which is why they are called fools by the world.
Cultivation means grasping the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses, changing the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses, perfecting the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses, so that the mental factors (caittas) of the seven consciousnesses are all twenty-one: the five universal factors, the five object-specific factors, and the eleven wholesome factors. In the end, the manas too has twenty-one mental factors, and the psychology of sentient beings is completely overturned—only then is it flawless and perfect, the perfect mind and wisdom of a Buddha.
6. A practitioner should not always think in his heart of surpassing others, being stronger than others, or being superior to others. A strong self that cannot tolerate even the slightest bit of others will itself suffer severe closure and shackling, unable to unfold. If a person has heavy afflictions yet is arrogant, haughty, and self-conceited, not knowing that he has so many afflictive habits, and does not awaken to this himself, then his path-cultivation cannot advance. Cultivation is to remove the defilements of the consciousness-mind and transform consciousness into wisdom, letting the consciousness-mind be perfectly clear and know all dharmas, endowed with vast wisdom, virtues, abilities, and functions; then all worldly dharmas can be brought to perfection.
7. Some people engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) to sever the view of self, yet after a lifetime of contemplative practice there is still no news at all; even after ten lives and ten lifetimes of practice, there is still no message. This is because the manas has had too little contact with such matters, for too short a time; the conditioning of the manas is insufficient to influence the manas, so the manas still does not understand, does not know, and cannot.
Addiction to anything is the inertial effect of the manas—long conditioning becomes addiction. If there is no addiction, it means the manas has no habit and has not been conditioned, and then it is easy to change. With the mind consciousness, anything can be managed; the difficulty lies with the manas. When studying Buddhism becomes an addiction, it is called diligence (vīrya), a wholesome mental factor. When studying Buddhism has not yet become an addiction, one cannot be diligent and will still be lax—this is an afflictive mental factor. Quitting other addictions and developing an addiction to studying Buddhism gives great hope for ending birth and death.
8. Is Human Nature Originally Good or Originally Evil?
The fundamental nature of a person refers to the mental nature one possesses innately: one is the mental nature of the manas, and one is the tathāgatagarbha nature; the nature conditioned after birth is the mental nature of the mind consciousness. The root of human nature, viewed from the five aggregates, is the manas; viewed from the whole, it is the tathāgatagarbha. To observe a person's mental nature as it manifests, one must look at the manas: the manas is the root, and the mind consciousness is the branches and leaves. Although the luxuriance of the consciousness's branches and leaves can conceal the root of the manas, the consciousness's branches and leaves will always wither and fall at some time, and then the root of the manas will be completely exposed without remainder.
From the five aggregates, one must look at the mental nature of the manas; from the essence, one must look at the mental nature of the tathāgatagarbha—but generally speaking, one looks at the mental nature of the five aggregates. Whatever nature the manas has had since beginningless kalpas, that is the nature of humanity; whatever mental nature the manas has, that is the mental nature of humanity; and even further: whatever mental nature, that is the nature of animals; whatever mental nature, that is the nature of ghosts and spirits; whatever mental nature, that is the nature of asuras; whatever mental nature, that is the nature of devas; and even further: whatever mental nature the arhat has, whatever mental nature the pratyekabuddha has, whatever mental nature the bodhisattva has, whatever mental nature the Buddha has. More fundamental than the manas is the mental nature of the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha; therefore, a person's original nature is the tathāgatagarbha nature.
9. Does Human Nature Possess the Ten Dharma Realms in Full?
The tathāgatagarbha possesses the natures of the ten dharma realms in full, but the manas cannot possibly possess the natures of the ten dharma realms in full. If the manas had buddha-nature, then within one thought-moment He would be a Buddha. If that were so, could extending this one thought-moment to ten, a hundred, a thousand thought-moments make one a Buddha for half a day or a day? The manas of a Buddha, the manas of śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas, cannot possibly possess the evil nature of beings of the three evil realms, nor does it possess the nature of ordinary beings of the six realms.
The fundamental nature is precisely the mental factors (caittas). By looking at the manas's mental factors, one knows a person's fundamental nature; by looking at the tathāgatagarbha's mental factors, one can even better know sentient beings' future destination—without doubt they will become Buddhas.
The manas of an ordinary being differs enormously from the manas of śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas, and from the manas of a Buddha. And the manas's mental factors also differ from the tathāgatagarbha's mental factors; only the Buddha's manas and the mental factors of the Buddha's undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna) have no difference. If sentient beings were Buddhas—Buddhas in the true sense—then the manas's mental factors should be identical to the tathāgatagarbha's mental factors: no afflictive mental factors, the five universal mental factors complete, the five object-specific mental factors complete, and the eleven wholesome mental factors complete.
