Guide to the Cultivation and Realization of the Manas: Part One
Chapter 15: Miscellaneous Discussions on the Manas
1. After Nirvāṇa Without Remainder, the Manas Will Have a Point of Arising
Question: An arhat liberated in both ways (ubhayatobhāgavimukta) has the ability to extinguish the manas, causing the five aggregates and eighteen realms to disappear. After such an arhat has extinguished the manas, is it possible for the manas to arise again from the tathāgatagarbha? If that is possible, would the manas then have a starting point?
Answer: After Nirvāṇa without remainder, when rebirth occurs, the manas will of course have a starting point. Before Nirvāṇa without remainder, however, there is no starting point, because beginningless kalpas ago there was already one thought of ignorance (avidyā) in the mind, and therefore the manas has never been extinguished.
When entering Nirvāṇa without remainder, the manas is extinguished. Who extinguishes the manas? Is there someone who extinguishes it? If there were someone who extinguishes the manas, that would be a self, a master who acts; such a person has not eradicated the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) or self-grasping, and cannot enter Nirvāṇa without remainder. At the time of approaching Nirvāṇa, if the manas thinks: "I want to extinguish myself"—with such a thought, the attachment has not been severed, and one cannot enter Nirvāṇa without remainder. If it were the tathāgatagarbha that extinguishes the manas, then the tathāgatagarbha would have the nature of a master, having the self-nature of the seven consciousnesses, and would not be the selfless tathāgatagarbha. So how is the manas extinguished? At the time of death, when the manas is utterly disheartened and none of its mental factors (caittas) appear, the tathāgatagarbha can do nothing about it and can no longer transmit seeds; the manas then automatically disappears and ceases of itself—this is Nirvāṇa without remainder.
2. What Does It Mean That a Bodhisattva of the First Bhūmi Permanently Subdues Afflictive Obstructions Like an Arhat?
"Nature" (性) refers to the fundamental nature of sentient beings; the fundamental nature of sentient beings is the mental nature of the manas, the mental factors of the manas. Precisely because the mental nature of the manas is not wholesome, it has constantly been obstructing sentient beings from attaining supreme bodhi. Therefore, only by eliminating the obstructions of the manas's mental nature can buddhahood be accomplished.
A bodhisattva of the first bhūmi begins to gradually eradicate all the afflictive habits of the manas, but cannot completely eradicate them. Since they cannot be completely eradicated, some of the afflictive obstructions (kleśāvaraṇa) that affect birth and death within the three realms must be subdued. From another perspective, if the manifest afflictions of the manas were completely eradicated, one would, like an arhat of the fourth fruit, completely eradicate self-grasping with regard to the person, and would enter Nirvāṇa without remainder, unable to accomplish buddhahood. The Buddha requires bodhisattvas from the first to the seventh bhūmi not to enter the definitive stage of the path of liberation—that is, not to take up the fruit of the fourth-fruit arhat—lest they inadvertently enter Nirvāṇa without remainder.
Therefore, a bodhisattva of the first bhūmi must retain a little bit of craving and attachment, to ensure continued birth in the world of the three realms. But one must not retain serious craving; one may only retain a slight, mild craving—a little craving for things like meditative concentration (samādhi) is enough, and there may also be craving for the Mahāyāna Dharma. That is, the craving of the manas is forever suppressed rather than completely eradicated, so that life after life one can benefit oneself and others, and even until becoming a Buddha one does not enter Nirvāṇa without remainder.
3. The Self-Validating Cognition of the Manas
When I say the master is a good master, there is the mind consciousness's self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana). If I am very certain of this view, without any doubt, then at the same time there is the manas's self-validating cognition. The manas's self-validating cognition belongs to direct perception (pratyakṣa) of oneself; if the evidence is insufficient and the mind lacks confidence, there will not be an absence of doubt. The mind consciousness's self-validating cognition is not necessarily direct perception. The manas's self-cognition (svasaṃvitti) is direct perception, whereas the mind consciousness's self-cognition is not necessarily direct perception. What is direct perception is fully grounded in fact, utterly without doubt, without the slightest suspicion; non-valid cognition (non-valid cognition) most easily gives rise to doubt and disbelief; with inference (anumāna) the mind also lacks firm grounding, and doubt still persists unceasingly—therefore these do not belong to actual realization.
Among the results of investigating Chan, there are the perceiving-aspect (darśana-bhāga) and self-cognition of both the mind consciousness and the manas, and there is also the object-aspect (nimitta). The result of investigating Chan is the manas's self-cognition, not its self-validating cognition. Self-validating cognition is used to validate oneself, not to validate other dharmas. Very often, even when the manas's self-validating cognition manifests, it is not necessarily correct; if it has been much misled by the mind consciousness's errors, the manas's self-validating cognition will be mistaken. For example, many views and opinions in worldly dharmas: the mind consciousness believes itself to be right, and the manas also very firmly believes itself to be right, yet in fact they are wrong. For example, beginningless kalpas ago, the manas has always believed the five aggregates to be the self and to belong to the self, and the mind consciousness also believes this; it has been proven that this is the greatest wrong view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi). Even if one is confident now, in the future one will overturn one's own views.
4. How Can One Observe the Four Aspects of the Seventh Consciousness?
The dharmas of the seventh consciousness generally belong to the domain of the seed-wisdom of Consciousness-Only (yogācāra); the principle is extremely profound. One must cultivate until the sixth and seventh consciousnesses are transformed into wisdom as a bodhisattva on the bhūmis before one can engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) directly observing the mental factors and four aspects of the manas—this is very difficult.
To observe the perceiving-aspect, object-aspect, self-cognition, and self-validating cognition of the seventh consciousness, one must first realize the seventh consciousness, and only then can one observe Him directly. Without the wisdom of transformation of consciousness into wisdom, most of it is analysis and inference, not direct observation; at this stage, one mainly familiarizes oneself with these teachings, and only bodhisattvas on the bhūmis mainly engage in direct observation. One must know which dharmas the seventh consciousness corresponds to, where He is, and how He operates, before one can observe His four aspects. The manas's self-validating cognition is the manas's power of introspection (pratyavekṣā-bala), which is even harder to observe—without the seed-wisdom of Consciousness-Only, don't even think about it.
Observing the eighth consciousness also requires first realizing the eighth consciousness. Only after seeing the mind and attaining enlightenment, possessing the wisdom of specific characteristics, can one directly observe the operation of the eighth consciousness and observe its four aspects. Without realizing the eighth consciousness, one's understanding of it is merely approximate and one cannot observe it.
5. Why Do Sentient Beings Lack the Recollection of Past Lives?
Because sentient beings lack the recollection of past lives (pūrvanivāsānusmṛti), they do not know the causes, conditions, and retributions of past and future lives. Only with the recollection of past lives can one know all the causes and effects of one's own and others' past and future lives. Because after death a sentient being's five aggregates change and are no longer the original ones, and the six consciousnesses change and are no longer the original ones, the people, matters, and things of past lives, and everything related to oneself, are all unknown; the matters of causes and effects are even less known. Because the six consciousnesses of this life exist on the same five aggregates and are continuous with memory, the six consciousnesses can cognize the people, matters, objects, and principles of this life, and can remember all the dharmas experienced in this life. But in the next life, it is not the original five aggregates; the six consciousnesses arise anew dependent on the new five aggregates, have not experienced past lives, have no memory of the people, matters, objects, and principles of past lives, and cannot recall the events of past lives.
The manas, however, has continued from beginningless kalpas, has experienced the people, matters, objects, and principles of beginningless kalpas, has accumulated the habits of life after life, and corresponds to the karmic seeds of life after life. Therefore, the five aggregates of this life and the five aggregates of past lives are continuous in terms of habits and afflictions. If one does not cultivate, and in this life newly cultivates some bad habits, the habits will become heavier and heavier. The eighth consciousness has also continued from beginningless kalpas and will never perish in future lives. Therefore, the self of this life and the self of past lives certainly have a connected relationship; they are not unrelated. In our cultivation, we should think more about our future selves.
The acquisition of the recollection of past lives can only be attained after cultivating to the fourth dhyāna. After cultivating to the fourth dhyāna, if one cultivates the five superknowledges, one can attain them as one cultivates.
6. What Connects Sentient Beings Life After Life?
After a person dies, the manas and the tathāgatagarbha do not perish; together they carry the karma into the womb and are born, giving birth to another you in the next life. The manas continues unbroken from past lives to future lives, so there is something that connects each life—and that is you. Because in past lives one did not understand cause and effect, did not care about one's future self, and acted arbitrarily, creating bitter karma, the you of this life suffers continuously. If in this life one continues to act arbitrarily without understanding cause and effect, future lives will still be full of suffering. The one who suffers is always oneself, not others—creating karma life after life, regretting life after life, yet never learning the lesson.
7. Whatever the Manas Is, That Is What the Sentient Being Is
Is a bodhisattva's emanation body a ordinary person or a sage? Guanyin Bodhisattva's thirty-two response bodies: whatever body is needed to be liberated, He manifests that body and teaches the Dharma. Whether one is an ordinary person or a sage depends on the manas. Whatever the manas is, that is what this person is. If the manas has not awakened to the Path, this person is an ordinary person; whatever level of cultivation the manas has reached, that is this person's fruit.
The Buddha manifested countless five-aggregate bodies. Are those five-aggregate bodies the Buddha or ordinary people? Are they monastics or laypeople? The Buddha's manas has no ignorance; He has completely transformed consciousness into wisdom and attained the fruit of Buddhahood. The Buddha's mind-made body (manomayakāya) is of course the Buddha, not an ordinary person, and of course a monastic body, not a lay body. Making offerings to the Buddha's mind-made body and response body is equal to making offerings to the Buddha. Śākyamuni Buddha is an emanation body (Nirmāṇakāya Buddha); we can only see the emanation body, not the Dharmakāya Buddha (dharma-kāya-buddha) or the Sambhogakāya Buddha (saṃbhoga-kāya-buddha). Therefore, making offerings to any body is equal to making offerings to the Buddha.
8. The Difference Between the Manas and the Five Faculties
(1) The five faculties are merely a condition for the arising of the five consciousnesses; the five faculties cannot determine whether the five consciousnesses arise and operate, or how they operate. Because the five faculties are purely material form (rūpa), without the mental factors of a consciousness-mind, they have no masterhood or decisiveness, and so on. The manas, however, is not only the faculty and condition that gives rise to the mind consciousness; it is also a consciousness-mind, having the attributes of a consciousness-mind and the mental factors of a consciousness-mind. Moreover, the manas is not a consciousness-mind equal to the six consciousnesses; He has very special attributes. This specialness is mainly reflected in His constant deliberative examination: that is, the manas always, continually, and constantly examines all dharmas and deliberates (manasikāra/manana) on all dharmas. Why does He examine and deliberate on all dharmas? Because He has the authority, responsibility, and duty to manage all dharmas well.
The mind consciousness cannot do this. It must arise anew with each dharma; only after a dharma has already appeared does it arise, so it cannot be said to manage dharmas. It can only offer suggestions for subsequent dharmas, strategizing for the manas—and only for a portion of dharmas, not all dharmas, because the mind consciousness cannot correspond to all dharmas; it lacks that authority and has no way. Therefore, the mind consciousness's scope is far lower than the manas's scope—this is a matter of vision and limited experience.
(2) The eighteen realms include the six faculties, six sense objects, and six consciousnesses. The six faculties include the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind faculties. The first five faculties are composed of the four great seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind. The gross faculties (浮尘根) are on the surface of the body; sentient beings can see, touch, and feel them with the naked eye; they can be damaged and altered, and have birth-and-death phenomena visible to the naked eye. The supreme faculties (indriya) of the five faculties are located in the back of the brain, visible through surgery; they are also material form that can be seen, touched, and felt, can be damaged and altered, and are impermanent, suffering dharmas subject to birth and death. When the five faculties are damaged, the functions of the physical body are obstructed and abandoned, resulting in a vegetative state or even death.
The manas, however, is a formless faculty, not a faculty of form. The manas is not composed of the four great seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind, but is formed from consciousness seeds; therefore it is not material form but a mental dharma (citta-dharma), with the functions of a consciousness-mind. Material form is a dharma produced by causes and conditions; it has no autonomy and is passively produced and manifested by the combined action of the tathāgatagarbha and the manas; it cannot do without the manas's propelling function. If the manas does not propel it, material form immediately disappears. The manas, however, was not born later; it has coexisted with the tathāgatagarbha since beginningless kalpas, sustained continuously by the consciousness seeds provided by the tathāgatagarbha, requiring no other conditions—it is not a dharma produced by causes and conditions. As long as the manas has anything to be attached to, it will not perish and will continue to exist in the world, and the world of the five aggregates will also continue to arise and cease accordingly. Although the five aggregates and five faculties arise and cease endlessly, the manas never perishes; no one can destroy the manas—except when arhats and pratyekabuddhas enter Nirvāṇa.
The formless consciousness-mind, the manas, differs greatly in function from the five faculties of material form. The five faculties have no cognitive function, no mental factors, no defiled or pure nature; they can be influenced by the manas, and their function of receiving the five sense objects is directed by the manas, but they cannot direct the five sense objects and the five consciousnesses, much less direct the manas—though they can influence the manas's feeling and decision-making.
The functions of the manas as a mental dharma are extremely powerful: it has the role of mastery and decision over the five-aggregate body, dominates the arising, alteration, and even perishing of all worldly dharmas; it has the functions of the mental factors of a consciousness-mind; it has both defilement and purity; it has cognizance, discernment, judgment, and mastery; it has the tendency to seek benefit and avoid harm; it has self-nature and selflessness; it has foolishness and wisdom; it has habits, customs, and afflictions; it has imputed nature (parikalpita-svabhāva); it can determine sentient beings' birth, death, and saṃsāra, determine their turning toward Nirvāṇa and accomplishment of the Buddha Way—heaven above and earth below are governed by the manas. The five faculties of material form lack these characteristics; only the manas as a mental dharma has them. Therefore the manas is a mental dharma, not material form; it is a formless faculty, not a faculty of form.
"Faculty" (根) has the meaning of giving birth to a consciousness-mind, but this so-called birth is not direct production; rather, it can cause the six consciousnesses to arise—it is the most immediate condition for the arising of the six consciousnesses. What directly gives birth to the six consciousnesses is the tathāgatagarbha; the tathāgatagarbha borrows karmic conditions and the six faculties to give birth to the six consciousnesses. But if the manas has no mind toward all dharmas, the tathāgatagarbha cannot give birth to the six consciousnesses. Therefore, the five faculties as conditions of birth are very passive, whereas the manas as a condition of birth is extremely active and proactive; its driving force for giving birth to the six consciousnesses and all dharmas is extremely powerful, and it also determines whether the five faculties arise. Such autonomous, powerful driving force can only be possessed by the formless mental dharma, not by the five faculties of form. Therefore the manas is a mental dharma, not material form; it is a formless faculty, not a faculty of form.
9. How Do Bodhisattvas Play in the Human World?
Bodhisattvas sometimes also accord with sentient beings and act in plays, while in reality the manas's mental conduct is inconsistent with the play; the manas is absolutely pure, while the side shown to sentient beings may appear impure. Why do this? In order to embrace and guide sentient beings, in order to liberate sentient beings, bodhisattvas must use certain methods and means to subdue sentient beings. If the motive is pure and the result is wholesome, the methods are beyond reproach. But if a bodhisattva's manas is not yet pure and still has afflictions, then extraordinary methods cannot be used, because they would correspond to the manas's afflictions and store karmic seeds. For bodhisattvas on the bhūmis of the third fruit and above, the manas has already eradicated the manifest afflictions, and the mind-ground no longer corresponds to afflictions; they can then use some skillful means, such as killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and drinking alcohol—outwardly acting together with ordinary people, but actually in order to subdue ordinary people and bring them back to the correct path.
For a bodhisattva to play in the human world, one must have the ability to play; one's mental conduct must transcend the human world in order not to be shackled by it. Otherwise, one will inevitably sink deep into the mire of the human world, unable to extricate oneself. If one cannot even pull oneself out, how can one talk about rescuing sentient beings? Playing in the human world does not mean enjoying the human world. Those who enjoy the human world certainly cannot play in it. Only by neither accepting nor enjoying can one have the qualification and ability to play in the human world; otherwise it is not called playing—it should be called being imprisoned.
10. The Manas's Deliberation Is Essentially About Seeking Benefit and Avoiding Harm
Can the manas make deliberations about seeking benefit and avoiding harm regarding all dharmas? The people, matters, objects, and principles He has experienced since beginningless kalpas can accumulate into experience and memory, piled up in the mind. Thus, when in later lives and lives after that one encounters the same people, matters, objects, and principles again, one will make selective responses based on past experience and memory, and the result is seeking benefit and avoiding harm.
We should know that the manas has always corresponded to karmic seeds. Whatever the manas experiences leaves seeds, and the manas's mental conduct corresponds to those seeds. When the manas takes rebirth as various kinds of sentient beings, the manas's mental conduct and choices correspond to the current type of being, believing itself to be that kind of sentient being, never thinking that it could be another kind of sentient being—special cases excepted.
When the manas takes rebirth as a human, its mental conduct and behavior should mainly correspond to being human, but this does not exclude very strong habits from past lives, including the habits of being a sage, or the habits of being an animal, or the habits of being a hungry ghost—but it still corresponds most strongly to human habits. When karmic seeds become manifest, the manas corresponds even more to the karmic seeds. For example, when the conditions for major unwholesome karma ripen, the manas becomes evil; when the conditions for major wholesome karma ripen, the manas becomes good—to others this seems inconceivable.
Therefore, everything the manas experiences becomes one's own experience and memory; then, upon encountering conditions, those experiences and memories are released, influencing one's choices—or having an absolute influence—and the result is seeking benefit and avoiding harm, with great self-confidence, not tolerating interference or obstruction from external factors.
11. The Physical Body Affects the Mental Factors of the Consciousness-Mind
When the body's meridians are blocked and the qi is obstructed, a person will want to release that qi. The way of release is also called "venting fire" or "letting off steam"—using oneself, others, or objects as venting targets. For example, slapping the table or throwing things is one way of venting. Only when the blocked qi is fully released does the anger subside and the mind become calm. If the qi cannot be released and remains stuck in the body, qi stagnation occurs and the body will fall ill. Cultured people are unwilling to release their anger outward and suppress it in their hearts; over the long term this forms liver depression and qi stagnation, or even tumors and cancer. When the qi blockage is severe, the qi is great, the anger vented is great, the intensity of the outburst is great, and it lasts long; when the blockage is not severe, the qi is small, the anger is small, the duration is short, and the anger subsides quickly. Getting angry harms the body greatly; no one wants to be angry—everyone wants to be cheerful. Therefore, no one's manas will crave and cling to the flavor of anger or enjoy the feeling of being angry.
12. The Seven Consciousnesses Also Attain Nothing
The seven consciousnesses seem to attain something, as if they had obtained the world's five desires and six sense objects, but in reality they obtain nothing. Because of foolish ignorance, they forcibly believe they have obtained something, when in fact they have obtained nothing and can obtain nothing—laboring and toiling in vain, scheming in vain, exhausting all their cunning, only to end up busying themselves in vain for one life, one lifetime, life after life. These matters need to be quietly pondered in meditative concentration, contemplated and verified over a long period, before one can know that one truly obtains nothing. Studying Buddhism and cultivating the path means letting oneself break through ignorance and recognize that one attains nothing; then one no longer seeks anything, no longer wishes to obtain anything—and thus one is liberated and becomes a Buddha.
Knowing that in the end nothing is attained, the seven consciousnesses will have an empty mind and be non-active (asaṃskṛta-like); yet even in non-action one must still do things to benefit self and others. When doing things with an empty mind, that is without seeking—not thinking of personal gain, having no personal aims or motives, not considering personal gain or loss, success or failure. In this way, although one has done many things, it is as if one has done nothing: not feeling one has merit, not being proud of one's achievements, not being smug, not engaging in exchanges of interests with others or groups. Being unselfish is much easier than being non-attached; first achieve unselfishness, and only then can one achieve non-attachment. Only by not considering personal gain can one gradually achieve attaining nothing and seeking nothing.
