Guide to the Cultivation and Realization of the Manas: Part One

Chapter 13: The Manas and Hypnosis

I. The Principle of Hypnosis (1)

Now let us discuss the principle of hypnosis, using the three hypnosis cases from yesterday. In the first case, as soon as the hypnosis master gave the hypnotized subjects the command to sleep, those subjects immediately fell asleep leaning against one another. Afterwards, the master gave the command to wake up, and so those people all woke up from deep sleep. After waking up, they had no knowledge that they had leaned against one another while in the sleep state.

Why does such a situation occur? When we are normally awake, the mind consciousness and the manas are able to trust each other, rely on each other, and guide each other. Normally, the manas follows the guidance or control of the mind consciousness, obeys the mind consciousness's commands, and is influenced by the mind consciousness. Now the manas is no longer influenced by its own mind consciousness—by whom is it influenced? By the hypnosis master. The role of the hypnosis master is equivalent to the role of the hypnotized person's mind consciousness, and the manas completely obeys and completely trusts all the hypnosis master's commands—believing whatever is said, with one hundred percent obedience, exceeding its trust in its own mind consciousness; the hypnotist's commands override the commands of one's own mind consciousness. Therefore, whatever the hypnosis master says, the hypnotized person's manas believes, and as soon as it believes, it can immediately act on it.

Why can it act on something as soon as it believes it? Because the manas is the consciousness that makes decisions and has power; whatever He wants to do, as long as there are no factors interfering with Him, He can accomplish. The hypnosis master tells him to sleep, and because there is no mind consciousness to control and guide the manas, the manas obeys, immediately decides to sleep, and so lets go of all conditions; with no mind consciousness participating, He falls asleep instantly. In the sleep state there are neither the five consciousnesses nor the mind consciousness, so when these people leaned against one another during sleep, their own mind consciousnesses did not know it, and of course after the mind consciousness woke up, it still did not know. During sleep the mind consciousness has ceased, so it does not know what its own sleep state was like during sleep.

Why can one fall asleep so quickly under hypnosis, while normally sleep does not come so fast? Because when preparing to sleep normally, one must first extinguish the discernment of the five consciousnesses, and then extinguish the mind consciousness's discernment and mental activity; extinguishing the mind consciousness is somewhat more difficult. Under hypnosis, however, the mind consciousness simply ceases to function, and so one falls asleep the moment sleep is called for.

If each of us, through cultivation and sitting in meditation, enters deep meditative concentration (samādhi), the manas will discover the realms of the six sense objects, discover one's own physical body, and discover all realms as being different from before, because in deep dhyāna the manas's mind is concentrated and wisdom is developed; He then knows that the physical body can be controlled by Himself, knows that the realms are illusory and not so real, or does not take the realms seriously. Because in deep dhyāna there is no control by the mind consciousness, whatever the manas wants to do, He can accomplish; if He wants to manifest supernatural powers, He can bring forth their wondrous functions.

For example, in the fourth dhyāna, if the manas thinks: "I want to fly up into the sky," at that time there is no interference from the six consciousnesses—the mind consciousness does not interfere with Him, He has no concept of the sky, and no attachment to the physical body—and He can immediately fly into the sky, passing through mountains and over ridges. If the manas thinks: "I want to hear distant sounds, or sounds in the heavens," because there is no mind consciousness interfering, as soon as He thinks it, He can hear sounds from extremely far away. How does the mind consciousness interfere? The mind consciousness keeps telling Him that this is impossible, that that is impossible; once it says "impossible," the manas feels it truly is impossible, and the thing cannot be accomplished.

Without the mind consciousness's interference, when the manas says "I want to do such-and-such," He immediately goes and does it, and while He does it, the boss behind the scenes helps Him accomplish it—thus the immeasurable supernatural powers are developed in this way. When the mind consciousness interferes, it influences Him based on its own life experience and worldly habits, saying this cannot be done and that cannot be done; because the mind consciousness has never seen true reality, all its ideas ands toward the imagined realms, endlessly, thus living and playing without any meaning; the result is that life after life we toy with ourselves, suffering always exceeding joy, and even joy is not true joy. What, in the end, is every sentient being doing in the world of the three realms? Like clowns leaping about and stage actors, yet not knowing they are in a play, not knowing they are acting, still earnestly performing their roles—is that not foolish? These matters and these principles, we should contemplate and deliberate well in meditative concentration, carefully experience them with the mind, and we will feel that we are indeed too foolish, too stupid. When will we ever awaken?

If we do not awaken, we will forever fool ourselves, celebrating April Fools' Day every day, fooling ourselves until we are unspeakably miserable, yet still craving, still clinging relentlessly, still seeking something. In the great drama of birth and death we have played every kind of role, tasted every flavor, experienced every feeling—which of these things is real? None is real; from beginning to end there is not one real thing. The aggregate of feeling and the aggregate of perception are both unreal—deluded thoughts, wild imaginings, false perceptions, all are pathological imagining; where is there anything real? To imagine false realms and then have to undergo the suffering of birth and death within those realms is far too unworthy.

III. The Principle of Hypnosis (3)

There was once a person who was sitting in meditation in his own home's Chan hall and entered meditative concentration; after entering concentration, he forgot where he was and what he was doing. In concentration he suddenly thought of something and immediately decided to go to the adjacent room to find an object. The door, in fact, he himself had locked, yet he walked directly through the wall into the adjacent room. Upon arriving in the adjacent room, he immediately remembered that he was sitting in meditation in the Chan hall next door—how had he come out of that room into this one? The door was still locked, yet he had come through the wall. He had forgotten that he was sitting in meditation, and walked straight into the adjacent room, never considering that the Chan hall and the adjacent room were separated by a wall, that the Chan hall was locked; he had forgotten the circumstances of both rooms, forgotten the matter of the wall, and with one step he was in the next room.

At that time the mind consciousness did not analyze for the manas that the two rooms were separated by a wall and he could not pass through, that he needed to open the door, exit this room, and enter that room; the mind consciousness gave the manas no such suggestion. The manas had no concept of two rooms, no concept of a wall, and the thing He wanted to do was accomplished immediately; if there had been mental deliberation by the mind consciousness, this could not have been done. When he arrived in the adjacent room and the mind consciousness woke up, it thought: how did I come to be here? Then wanting to go back, he could not return. The mind consciousness has an obstructing effect on the manas; once the manas understood the situation the mind consciousness told Him—"I am now in this room, having just come out of that room"—the concepts of the two rooms emerged, the concept of the wall emerged, and when the manas wanted to return to his original room, He could not go back.

This is actually the same principle as hypnosis: regardless of whether there is someone hypnotizing you, as long as the manas believes—whether believing the hypnotist, believing oneself, or believing anyone—whatever it believes is what it is, beyond question. Some people, from childhood to adulthood, give themselves bad self-hypnosis, always mentally telling themselves that they are no good at this and incapable of that; whenever they encounter anything, they say "I can't," giving themselves a bad hypnosis, so that at a certain point, when they encounter anything, they truly become incapable—this is hypnotizing oneself.

Some people accept hypnosis from others: for example, when they intend to do something, others tell them: "You can't do it." They believe they cannot, and so do not do it. The next time they want to do something, others tell them: "You can't do it." Hypnotizing them with "can't," they believe it; over time, back and forth, when facing every matter, they no longer have the courage to act. They truly believe they are incapable, and their actions truly become incapable—this is hypnosis given by others. Since whatever the manas believes can be accomplished, this characteristic is tremendously powerful: whatever the matter, true or false, it will certainly be accomplished—the prerequisite being that there are corresponding karmic seeds. Then let us believe that we ourselves are Buddhas, with true faith, correct faith, and realized faith; after mastering the theory of becoming a Buddha, in the deepest meditative concentration, let the manas turn the theory into reality—then once we become a Buddha, we have attained buddhahood.

In meditative concentration, the manas's mind is concentrated, deliberating on dharma principles, and wisdom easily arises, able to change previous mistaken understandings of the dharma. If He believes that His own body is fundamentally not real, the body cannot obstruct Him; if He believes that the mountains, rivers, and great earth outside are also fundamentally not real, the mountains, rivers, and great earth cannot obstruct Him, and He can do whatever He wants. There is no real mountain opposite Him; if He wants to pass through the mountain, He passes through—the mountain forms no obstruction to Him, and He passes through immediately.

If He considers the sky to lack reality, then He can fly as high as He wishes; if He considers the great ocean also to lack reality, He will naturally pass through mountains and over ridges and cross the great ocean, crossing over in an instant without a single drop of water touching His body; if He considers time not to be a really existing dharma, He can go to future lifetimes by thinking of them, and return to past lives by thinking of them—this is supernatural power. The manas has such functions and powers; if grasped well, through cultivation one can attain buddhahood; if not grasped well, one remains an ordinary person life after life, transmigrating and revolving through birth and death life after life, suffering life after life, and then in saṃsāra continuing to falsely perceive, falsely feel, and falsely suffer. In learning Buddhism we should make good use of this principle, cultivate diligently, and be a Buddha rather than an ordinary person.

IV. Sleepwalking Is Similar to Hypnosis

In the hypnotic state, the manas completely obeys the hypnotist's commands; whatever the hypnotist says, the manas believes and accepts, and does whatever it is told to do, becoming completely a puppet. The mind consciousness is numbed and no longer serves as an advisor; after the hypnosis, the mind consciousness knows nothing of what it did in the hypnotic state. It is like being under the anesthetizing influence of alcohol—what one did and said, after waking up the mind consciousness knows nothing of. Alcohol anesthetizes the mind consciousness while the manas remains normal; at that time the mind consciousness's function is weak, has no restraining effect on the manas, and completely complies with the manas. Promises made by the mind consciousness while drunk are forgotten upon waking and will not be acknowledged.

The phenomenon of sleepwalking is also similar to the hypnotic state: the manas is awake while the mind consciousness is muddled, becoming the manas's puppet, completely obeying the manas's commands, without any independent judgment. The manas follows its own habitual tendencies, wandering north, south, east, and west, and the mind consciousness complies. After the sleepwalking ends, however, the mind consciousness is entirely unaware, not knowing what it actually did during sleep. In sleepwalking, all five consciousnesses are functioning, with the eye consciousness and body consciousness dominant, so the mind consciousness is consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna), but this mind consciousness is not sufficiently clear-headed, blindly following the manas. The behavior in sleepwalking manifests the manas's habitual tendencies.

I once thought of using hypnosis to enable students to eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), realize the fruits, and see the mind and attain enlightenment; thinking of it now, it seems an impractical idea. In the hypnotic state, even if the manas complies with the guidance and acknowledges that the five aggregates are without self and that the eighteen realms are without self and unreal, the mind consciousness is not clear-headed; after waking, the mind consciousness does not know that the five aggregates and eighteen realms are without self, and there is no eradication of the view of self with realization of the fruit—it is the same as not having eradicated the view of self. The so-called "mystery of the intervening aggregate" refers precisely to the state where the manas knows but the mind consciousness does not. Eradicating the view of self in the hypnotic state is, upon waking, the same as the mystery of the intervening aggregate: the mind consciousness has not eradicated the view of self, which is the same as not having eradicated it. Therefore, eradicating the view of self and seeing the mind to attain enlightenment require the mind consciousness and the manas to understand the principle together and realize it together; if either is missing, that mind's conduct is incomplete.

V. Hypnosis Is a Technique for Communicating with the Subconscious

Hypnosis is a technique that uses psychological suggestion to communicate with the subject's subconscious. Because a person's subconscious has a weakened function of doubting and resisting external information, the practitioner uses positive hypnotic suggestions, also called information—such as confidence, courage, and dignity—to replace the subject's original negative information, also called experience—such as anxiety, fear, and depression—thereby enabling the subject to enter a state different from the original one. What do the above articles about hypnosis illustrate? Where do people's thoughts and emotions all come from? Especially those thoughts and emotions that are relatively hidden, hard to see, and difficult to deal with and overcome—where do they come from? Are these thoughts and emotions feelings? Are feelings very complex? Why are there feelings?

The articles illustrate that people's thoughts and emotions all originate from the manas—they are the manas's reactions to objects, its feelings toward realms, that is, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness. Because when facing objects, the realms are taken as truly existent, one cannot be without mind, and so feelings arise. Those thoughts and emotions are not fun, not joyful, not comforting—that is why one lies awake all night and tries every means to treat and eliminate those thoughts, emotions, and feelings, not wanting them to continue. Among these feelings there are pleasant feelings, painful feelings, and neither-painful-nor-pleasant feelings—not just one kind of feeling.