A Guide to the Cultivation and Realization of the Mind: Part Two
Chapter 6: The Functions and Roles of the Manas
1. The Manas's Function of Receiving and Processing Information
Some materials state: the brain receives a large amount of information every second, yet it can only process a very small portion of it; if it were to process all of this information, the brain would be overwhelmed. In order to function normally, the brain automatically filters information, automatically ignoring information it does not care about or that is trivial, and only pays attention to some important information that is useful to itself. Because each person's focus differs, different phenomena are seen in the same information, and thus attitudes and methods of handling it differ. When encountering a problem, how can one remember the key points and the main theme, enhance wisdom, and solve the problem? One must proactively pose questions to the brain, and these questions should point to the core and key points of the problem, as well as the methods of solution. In this way, the brain will think along these directions and thereby solve the problem.
What does "brain" refer to? Worldly people do not understand that the brain is material form, lacking the functions of a conscious mind; what they call the brain generally refers to the manas. It is the manas that receives large amounts of information and selectively processes problems—not the brain, and not the mind consciousness. Because at that time the mind consciousness has not yet appeared, all the information falls into the manas, and the manas does not have the capacity or energy to face and process all of the information; it can only screen out what is useful and relatively important to process. Only after this selection does the mind consciousness appear to help the manas process the information.
From this, we can see the manas's nature of silently encompassing all dharmas, and the manas's mastership over all dharmas. All dharmas of course include the five sense objects of form, sound, smell, taste, and touch, as well as the six sense objects. If the manas only contacted the mental sense-object (dharma-viṣaya) and did not contact the five sense objects, where would the information of the five sense objects fall? Who would receive and screen it? Who would decide how to handle it? Only after the manas has made a preliminary screening of the five sense objects are the five consciousnesses brought forth to recognize and process them; therefore, the manas holds the power of decision and handling over the five sense objects and the five consciousnesses.
It is the manas that automatically filters information and automatically attends to useful information relevant to itself; this is the preliminary screening stage for the large amount of information. At this time the mind consciousness has not yet appeared and is unaware and insensate of the manas's activities and all the information, so the mind consciousness has no power to participate, decide, or master; it can only passively accept the information the manas gives it, governed and regulated by the manas. If the manas did not filter and screen information, it could not cope with the massive amount of information and might even collapse. Even the information remaining after screening is still enormous and very difficult to deal with entirely; this causes the manas to simultaneously condition on an extremely large number of dharmas, and therefore it cannot concentrate its energy to deal with this information, appearing to lack wisdom.
How can the manas be made to generate wisdom? Of course, one must continually filter out and reduce useless information, attending only to the information that should be handled in the present moment and paying no attention to anything else. Only when energy is concentrated in this way can the attended-to information be handled wisely. However, concentrating one's energy is extremely difficult; it requires continual training through cultivating meditative concentration (samādhi), so that the manas can firmly settle on one dharma to contemplate.
It is also the manas that remembers key information and main themes, and attends to and deliberates upon them; this is the functional role of the master-consciousness that can receive all information. When the manas performs these functions, the mind consciousness does not know and cannot participate. Only after the manas has remembered the information can it deliberate on how to handle it, deciding whether to discard and ignore it or to deepen the recognition of it. If it wishes to deepen recognition, the six consciousnesses will appear and recognize this information; after the recognition, the manas understands and will decide again how to face and handle it. From this it can be seen that at every stage, it is the manas that makes decisions and dominates, while it is the six consciousnesses that perform specific recognition and analysis; the six consciousnesses are subordinate to the manas.
Who poses questions to the brain? It is the mind consciousness posing questions to the manas; it is the mind consciousness wanting the manas to deliberate upon, select, and process the large amount of information, and to attend to the key points and useful information. Posing questions is not something the manas can do, because questioning involves silent language, words, and sounds, with which the manas does not correspond; the manas can only use hints toward the mind consciousness, and the mind consciousness is directed without realizing it. The brain described by worldly people as being able to receive and process information refers to the manas; what can temporarily store information is the supreme faculty (indriya), and the manas can contact, know, and process the dharmas within the supreme faculty. The Śūraṅgama Sūtra says the manas silently encompasses all dharmas, and the manas's extensive characteristic of grasping is fully revealed in this material.
Is the manas busy? Does He passively receive large amounts of information or actively receive it? There is both active and passive reception. Actively receiving large amounts of information is called extensive grasping; passive reception is done out of necessity, because karmic seeds have matured and the tathāgatagarbha must manifest and transmit them over—for example, information such as illness or car accidents, which He cannot miss. Active thinking, more than passive acceptance, can enhance wisdom. So who poses the questions, who thinks, who solves the problems, who enhances wisdom? If you know what problem needs to be solved, you will know who should solve it. The problem of screening information and attending to information to be solved is the manas's responsibility.
2. Why Must the Five Consciousnesses' Recognition of the Five Sense Objects Be Decided by the Manas?
Question: When my body itches, I cannot help wanting to scratch it, and then immediately realize that this is all the body consciousness contacting the sense object—where is there any itch? Do not fabricate. So I stopped attending to that spot, and the itch immediately disappeared. If I continued attending to it, the itch remained; stopped attending again, and the itch disappeared again. Back and forth twice, with a slightly longer interval in between, and then no longer attending, the itch disappeared completely. Did the itch truly disappear?
Answer: When faculty and object contact, consciousness arises; once consciousness is born it recognizes the object realm, and after recognition, feelings arise, sensing cold, heat, touch, pain, itch, and so on; afterwards, emotions of suffering, happiness, sorrow, joy, and neutral feeling arise—this is the sequence of operation of the six sense bases (ṣaḍāyatana), contact, and feeling among the twelve links of dependent origination. Whether faculty and object should contact is decided by the manas. For example, when the body itches, if the manas does not attend to the itchy spot and shifts attention, then the mind consciousness and body consciousness cannot appear at the itchy spot, the touch-object of itch is not recognized, feelings do not arise, and one does not know or feel the itch. This is the manas shifting attention, causing the six consciousnesses not to arise at that spot and thus not recognize it—it is not that there is no itch. If the manas does not shift attention, the body faculty contacts the touch-object of itch, the body consciousness and mind consciousness arise to recognize the touch-object of itch, one feels the itch, and afterwards the manas will choose to scratch, and so the body consciousness and mind consciousness scratch the itch.
This shows that the manas is the master-consciousness, dominating the contact of faculty and object, dominating the arising and ceasing, coming and going of the six consciousnesses, dominating the recognition of the six consciousnesses, and dominating bodily, verbal, and mental actions. This also shows that whether the five faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body should contact the five sense objects of form, sound, smell, taste, and touch must all be decided by the manas, and the recognition of the five consciousnesses must also be decided by the manas. Here a question arises: why does the manas dominate the arising and recognition of the five consciousnesses? Why is the recognition of the five sense objects by the five consciousnesses decided by the manas? Since the manas can make such decisions, He must first have recognized the five sense objects before He could take or discard them, make judgments and decisions. This shows that the manas can recognize the six sense objects, not merely the mental sense-object alone; otherwise, how could the five faculties contact the five sense objects, and how could the five consciousnesses arise?
3. Which Conscious Mind Can Perfectly and Clearly Know Without Relying on Mental Thoughts?
There is a passage in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra: 如此会中摩诃迦叶，久灭意根，圆明了知不因心念。Question: When Mahākāśyapa long extinguished the manas, which consciousness was extinguished? What is meant by "extinguished"?
Answer: A person with the supernormal power of knowing others' minds can perceive others' thoughts anytime and anywhere, as long as the other person has thoughts. If the other person is rather deep and has no thoughts, or has meditative concentration and does not raise thoughts arbitrarily, then their thoughts cannot be perceived, and the power of knowing others' minds becomes useless. Which mind's thoughts does this "mental thought" refer to?
What the power of knowing others' minds knows is the thoughts of the mind consciousness, because the mind consciousness's thoughts involve language and words or sounds, and sounds include the inner voice; in this way, the mental activities of the mind consciousness have shape and form and are easy to recognize. The manas's thoughts, however, have no language, words, or sounds, and no obvious characteristics of activity, making them hard to recognize; the manas's mental activities must be recognized through bodily, verbal, and mental actions, through the workings of the body faculty and the mind consciousness.
So when Mahākāśyapa long extinguished the manas, what was extinguished such that he could perfectly and clearly know without relying on mental thoughts? Of course, this "mental thought" refers to the mind consciousness's thoughts. Mahākāśyapa's perfectly clear knowing was not through the mind consciousness's knowing; it was the manas knowing directly, knowing the inner and outer realms of the six sense objects, directly substituting for the knowing of the six consciousnesses. Therefore, what Mahākāśyapa extinguished was the mind consciousness and the mind consciousness's thoughts, not the manas. If the manas had been extinguished, Mahākāśyapa's five aggregates would not exist, and he would have entered Nirvāṇa without remainder.
4. Does the Manas Have Self-Validating Cognition (Svasaṃvedana)?
Some say the manas has no self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana) and no power of introspection (pratyavekṣā-bala), that He never knows His own past, and can only know His own past through the mind consciousness's observation. This statement is far off the mark, because only the manas and the tathāgatagarbha continue unbroken and unceasing life after life. The manas has knowing; He can know all the dharmas manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, and He corresponds with karmic seeds. From countless past lives up to this life, everything He has experienced has never been forgotten; what He knows far exceeds what the mind consciousness knows. The information known by the mind consciousness in a single lifetime is far too little, incomparable to the manas. Moreover, the mind consciousness of this life has not experienced those past experiences—how could it serve as the manas's reliance? On the contrary, much information can only be known by the mind consciousness through relying on the manas, especially information from past lives; the mind consciousness must entirely rely on the manas to know it. This is so for those without supernormal powers, and equally so for those with them—without exception.
For example, when a person meets another person in a certain setting and feels this person is very dear and familiar, like a long-parted family member, instantly feeling surging emotions and being unable to control himself, even moved to tears—in fact, these two people were family in a past life with deep karmic affinity, and meeting in this life they feel especially close. This is absolutely not something felt after the mind consciousness came to know it; the mind consciousness knows nothing and can only know by relying on the manas—it is the one who knows belatedly, and even then only when the mind consciousness has wisdom. When the mind consciousness lacks wisdom, even if tears well up, it does not know why, remaining muddled and confused. The mind consciousness does not know why tears would suddenly well up; of course it is that the manas, unable to control Himself, has tears welling up. If the manas were not moved, even if the mind consciousness were moved, tears would not well up—except for actors.
Another example: a person feels uncomfortable inside upon seeing another person, and the mind consciousness does not know the reason, but the manas knows it—He just cannot express it so that the mind consciousness understands clearly: it turns out this person often speaks ill of him behind his back. The mind consciousness did not witness these things and certainly does not know them; the feeling of discomfort is of course the result of the manas alerting the mind consciousness.
Now, does the manas have the power of introspection, self-validating cognition? Of course He does—this is beyond any doubt. A person with cultivation: his manas will constantly introspect and examine whether he has done wrong, whether he has harmed others, whether his words and conduct are appropriate and proper, and so on. A person without cultivation: when encountering major, urgent matters and extremely important people, his manas will also introspect and examine whether what he says and does is appropriate, whether there might be bad consequences, and so on. Only the extremely foolish might have a manas without the power of introspection and examination, often remaining unaware and insensate, not even knowing when great disaster has been invited.
The manas's introspection is the manas's introspection; the mind consciousness's introspection is the mind consciousness's introspection; the two cannot substitute for each other, because each has its own mental factors (caittas) and they do not use each other's—there is only mutual influence between them. The manas cannot take the mind consciousness's introspection as His own introspection and confirm it, ceasing to examine and introspect Himself. Even if such a case occurs, it is under special circumstances where the manas's wisdom is insufficient; afterwards, once the manas can introspect Himself again, He will mostly regret His previous decisions. For another example: a person does something and forgets it afterward, no longer thinking about it. But before long, encountering a condition, he remembers it, and slapping his thigh says: "I did that thing wrong." Is this regret the mind consciousness's regret or the manas's regret? Was it the mind consciousness's introspection that discovered the mistake, or the manas's introspection?
Here there is no time or opportunity for the mind consciousness to analyze, yet the manas very quickly decides to slap the thigh, expressing regret. The more quickly the thigh is slapped, the more it is the manas's introspection that discovered the error, although slapping the thigh is an action jointly performed by the mind consciousness and body consciousness; the harder the thigh is slapped, the more the manas regrets. It is like when hot water scalds the hand and it is instantly flung away—there is no time for the mind consciousness to analyze; if one waited for the mind consciousness to analyze before flinging the hand away, the hand would long since have been scalded beyond recognition, and flinging it or not would no longer matter. If everything required the mind consciousness, many things would be left cold like yesterday's cucumber dishes, beyond remedy. When one does wrong and deeply reflects and repents—sincere repentance, earnest repentance, heartfelt repentance—these are all the manas's repentance, reflection, and introspection. The mind consciousness's repentance is not sincere at all; saying but not doing refers to the mind consciousness's failure to keep its word, this lack of mastership.
5. Evidence That the Manas Has Self-Validating Cognition
First, from the behavior of retracting and regretting, it can be proven that the manas has self-validating cognition. The behavior of retraction occurs because earlier, when the manas lacked the wisdom to discern, He blindly trusted the mind consciousness's analysis and guidance and made a hasty decision; afterward, the manas discovered things were not so, that the original decision was wrong, and thus a sense of regret arose in His mind. The manas discovering that the decision He made was wrong—this is the functional role of the manas's self-validating cognition: after observing Himself, He discovered His own erroneous decision.
Second, from the transformation of the manas's mental activities, the manas has self-validating cognition. Through Buddhist practice, through continual perfuming by the mind consciousness, the manas gradually recognizes the truth, recognizes his former foolishness, makes a vow to correct himself, and walks the path to buddhahood. Continually raising self-awareness during practice is the functional role of the manas's self-validating cognition; continually correcting oneself is the functional role of the manas's self-validating cognition; changing one's own mental activities and changing one's mental factors is the functional role of the manas's self-validating cognition.
If the manas had no power of introspection and no self-validating cognition, the manas could not correct Himself. It is true that the manas relies on the mind consciousness's perfuming and guidance, but the one who ultimately recognizes the truth and changes himself must be the manas himself, not the mind consciousness. If the mind consciousness could change the manas, there would be no need to perfume and guide the manas—one could just change it directly. Perfuming means that the mind consciousness's ideas and views are accepted and agreed to by the manas, so that the manas also possesses the same ideas and views, and with the transformed ideas and views makes correct decisions and actions, whereupon bodily, verbal, and mental actions change.
The mind consciousness can only change itself, not the manas; if the manas does not want to change Himself, it is impossible for the mind consciousness to forcibly change Him. If the mind consciousness could forcibly change the manas, then Buddhist practice, even becoming a Buddha, would be easy. But changing oneself must be an active behavior, not a passive one; passivity may last a moment but can never last forever—otherwise anyone could be changed by the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, escape the suffering of saṃsāra in the six realms, and walk the path to buddhahood, and everyone would not be far from buddhahood—but the facts are not so. This principle can be understood through careful contemplation; it is not hard to grasp.
6. The Manas's Self-Validating Cognition
When I say the master is a good master, there is the mind consciousness's self-validating cognition; if I believe this very firmly, without any doubt, then simultaneously there is the manas's self-validating cognition. The manas's self-validating cognition belongs to direct perception recognizing oneself; if the evidence is insufficient and the heart 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, but the mind consciousness's self-cognition is not necessarily direct perception. What is direct perception has ample facts, absolutely no doubt, not the slightest suspicion; non-valid cognition most easily gives rise to doubt and disbelief; with inference, the heart also does not settle, doubts still persist unceasingly, and therefore it does not count as realized realization.
Among the results of investigating Chan, there are the perceiving-aspects (darśana-bhāga) and self-cognitions of both the mind consciousness and the manas, and there are also object-aspects (nimitta). The result of investigating Chan is the manas's self-cognition, not 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 there has been much erroneous guidance from the mind consciousness, the manas's self-validating cognition will be erroneous. For example, many views and opinions in worldly dharma: the mind consciousness believes itself right, and the manas also very firmly believes itself right, yet in fact they are wrong. For example, for beginningless kalpas 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; results prove this to be the greatest wrong view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi)—no matter how confident now, in the future these views will be overturned.
7. In Cultivating the Mind, Is the Onlooker and Supervisor the Manas or the Mind Consciousness?
Question: In my moving, standing, sitting, and lying down, and as my thoughts flow, there is an onlooker, a supervisor, staring fixedly at all these behaviors. Is this onlooker and supervisor the manas or the mind consciousness?
Answer: The questioner himself is certainly observing and supervising himself; without cultivating to a certain degree, one cannot supervise and observe oneself. Such awakening and self-discipline come only after one recognizes one's own afflictions and deficiencies and wants to change oneself; only after having this thought can one observe and supervise one's own words, deeds, and thoughts.
Generally speaking, it is the mind consciousness that observes and supervises itself, and this "self" is the five aggregates. These thoughts and bodily and verbal actions are all created under the manas's mastership; although the mind consciousness also participates, it is not the one leading—the mind consciousness mostly participates passively. That is why the mind consciousness needs to observe and understand its own mental activities, and observe and understand the manas's mental activities. Why can the mind consciousness constantly introspect and supervise itself? It is still because the manas, through practice, has gained awakening, which prompts the mind consciousness to introspect and supervise itself. When the manas has not yet awakened, He is very unwilling to deeply dissect and understand His own thoughts and mental activities; generally, He conceals Himself more often.
When the manas's afflictions are heavy and He is not yet awakened, He always likes to deceive Himself and deceive others. Since He wants to deceive Himself, how could He let the mind consciousness introspect and supervise Him, understand and dissect Him? So even less would He want others to understand and dissect Him. Such unawakened people extremely shield their own faults; those who shield their faults also like to praise and boast about themselves—if others do not praise them, then they will praise themselves, exalt themselves, so as to gain self-consolation and self-satisfaction. Such people are fragile inside, which is why they need affirmation from themselves and others to feel secure. As long as a person has the behavior of shielding his faults, he is unwilling to heed others' advice and suggestions; at such times, debating with or advising him has little effect. Only for those willing to correctly recognize and change themselves does advice have meaning and effect, and only then will one not be despised, or even come into conflict.
8. The Manas's Modes of expression
Question: In a dream, two people, A and B, converse. A asks: "Is there a self in feeling and consciousness?" B answers: "There is no self." Both the question and the answer are the mind consciousness's mode of expression using language—does the manas participate in the question and answer?
Answer: The entire dream is presented by the manas, using the person A to raise His own question, with the purpose of getting His mind consciousness to think and solve this problem on His behalf. The manas needing the mind consciousness to solve the problem means He has already given rise to doubt and wants to resolve the doubt, and so produced this dream.
Expressing through language and words is the mind consciousness's function; behind the mind consciousness's expression there is the manas's decision and impetus, and the manas's thinking. The mind consciousness is impelled by the manas to express; what is expressed may be the mind consciousness's own view, may be the manas's view, or may be a view shared by both. If the manas has no questioning doubt about this issue and does not want to know the answer, He would not have this dream.
If the manas already knows the answer to the question, how should He express it when the other party asks? Because the manas has no function of language and words, if He wants to express, first, it is through the mind consciousness's language, words, and sounds, and the mind consciousness will answer quickly without deliberation, as if not passing through the brain, without needing to think; if there is a moment of thinking and hesitation, what is expressed is generally more the mind consciousness's own view. Second, the manas may express through a mental realm, or what is called a state; the manas will present a realm representing His own ideas, views, and psychological state. The deepest state is usually called a meditative absorption (samādhi) state; both the eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) and seeing the mind and seeing the nature involve the appearance of a samādhi state of the equal cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā, representing the manas's realization of emptiness and no-self. When the manas abides in a samādhi state, that is seeing the path.
If the manas has understood and realized that feeling and consciousness are without self, what manifestations will there be in daily life? What differences from before? What mental dispositions and habits have changed?
Bai Xuexiang's experience: The changes in daily life are extremely, extremely great. Only habitual tendencies will arise from time to time, but they are instantly noticed by awareness, and gradually the habitual tendencies become less and less powerful—these habitual tendencies are karmic power.
Ru She's experience: One no longer cares about the cognitive disturbances brought by feeling and consciousness, and has no motivation to raise greedy or deluded thoughts; afflictions rarely arise in the mind; the pace of life slows down a lot; experiencing people and affairs feels like watching from outside, with a sense of detachment—but I don't know whether compassion will increase.
Having a sense of detachment from people and affairs means a certain degree of cutting off from people and affairs, no longer so closely attached and dependent—this is a psychological state approaching emptiness; practice has achieved certain results, entering the stage of the four aids to penetration; after passing this stage, the view of self is eradicated.
9. The Truth of Death
What is the difference between cardiac death and brain death? Why can a person still blink at the instant of being decapitated? Why, at the instant the head and body separate, does one still feel one has limbs and a torso, only that the sensations do not obey one's command? Why do people all feel the most important part of the body is the brain, and instinctively cover the head when in danger?
Cardiac death is when the heart and pulse stop beating, blood stops being delivered, and breathing stops. Brain death is when the brain's central nervous system has no reflex activity; the eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body have no reaction at all, no neural activity; the pupils of the eyes dilate and do not react to light; examination of the ear, nose, and tongue shows no reaction whatsoever; the body's muscles are limp and without elasticity; and one can no longer control urination and defecation. These phenomena show that the brain, the supreme faculty, has completely lost its function. At cardiac death, the brain is not necessarily dead, because there may still be supply of qi and blood to the brain, the six sense objects can still be transmitted into the supreme faculty, and faint six consciousnesses may exist; whereas at brain death, cardiac death has certainly occurred. Brain death is true death, but if the examination for brain death is not thorough, there may also be misjudgment—deeming someone dead who is not yet dead.
At the instant of decapitation, there is still qi and blood supplying the brain, the supreme faculty; the six sense objects can still be transmitted to the brain's supreme faculty, and the manas can still control the central nervous system's activity, directing the five faculties and six consciousnesses, so at this time one can still blink. Because at this time the information of the six sense objects still remains in the supreme faculty, and the body's information is also in the supreme faculty, the manas and mind consciousness habitually believe the body still exists, and the manas still wants to control the body's activities; only when He feels He cannot control it does He know the body has separated from the head (oneself). The manas knows many things—some are His inherent functions, but most are purely experience; having experienced so much, He knows them innately, yet He cannot express this knowing, so the mind consciousness does not understand it. Of ignorance, does the manas have more, or the mind consciousness?
If the death is not natural, then what manner of death is the quickest, taking extremely little time, with the least suffering? It is direct decapitation. The qi and blood needed for the brain's activity are only those in the supreme faculty; once consumed, death occurs—very fast. When the qi and blood are gone, the six sense objects are no longer transmitted into the supreme faculty, the six consciousnesses vanish, suffering stops, and the person dies. If another part of the body is cut, the farther from the brain, heart, and internal organs, the longer the qi and blood supply the brain, and the slower the death. The cruelest and most painful death is death by slow slicing (lingchi)—cutting one knife at a time away from vital points; the six consciousnesses do not cease, and pain is felt in an endless stream.
What is the most comfortable way to die? Death supported by wholesome karma and meritorious karma, ascending to the heavenly realm, is very comfortable and happy: body and mind soft and pliant, countenance radiant, surpassing that in life; the heavenly realm appears before one, heavenly music comes to welcome, heavenly fragrance fills the chamber; the moment the mind rejoices, the breath ceases, and the consciousness appears in the heavens. An even more comfortable death is being welcomed by the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, with the antarā-bhava riding on a lotus and, in a finger-snap, being reborn in the land of bliss (sukhāvatī) or other Buddha lands—but this requires greater and vaster wholesome karma and meritorious karma as support, which ordinary people cannot cultivate.
10. The Manas's Regulation of Life Activities
All movement, flux, and activity of the material body belong to the scope of the aggregate of volitional formations, directly regulated by the manas; the body consciousness and mind consciousness participate, but there is not necessarily the mind consciousness's deliberative analysis and directive function. The manas grasping these activities as self and as belonging to self is the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi). External activities of the body necessarily involve the mind consciousness and body consciousness; for example, when walking along a relatively familiar stretch of road, without the mind consciousness's deliberation and direction, the manas can lead the mind consciousness and body consciousness to complete that stretch of road; if the stretch of road is unfamiliar, the manas must rely on the mind consciousness's deliberative analysis and guidance to lead the mind consciousness and body consciousness to complete it.
However, the autonomous activities of the material body's organism—such as the activities of internal organs, heartbeat, pulse, gastrointestinal peristalsis, the metabolism of cells and tissues, the growth of hair and nails, changes in tissue structure, the growth and changes of muscles and bones, and so on—are not regulated by the mind consciousness or the manas; they all change in accordance with karmic seeds and karmic conditions; they are the tathāgatagarbha's activities of upholding the living being in accordance with karmic seeds and karmic conditions.
11. The Influence and Control of the Material Body by the Eight Consciousnesses
Even without the body consciousness, the material body can have faint movements; for example, some beings, after their heads have been cut off, can still have their bodies twist. This is because when the manas grasps the body, although He cannot regulate the brain's central nervous system, the spinal nervous system still exists, and the manas will make the body twist by controlling the spinal nervous system—at this time the body consciousness and mind consciousness do not necessarily participate. Another example: after falling asleep, even in deep sleep, there are phenomena of faint bodily movement, which also belong to nervous system activity. Talking in one's sleep in the middle of the night and the fluttering of the eyelids are also unconscious activities, with neither the mind consciousness nor the body consciousness manifesting.
Internal bodily activities—such as heartbeat, pulse, breathing, nervous system activity, gastrointestinal peristalsis, digestion and absorption, cellular metabolism, and so on—are generally autonomously regulated and upheld by the tathāgatagarbha; the seven consciousnesses are often unable to exert force. The activities of the internal organs do not require the body consciousness; they continue even during sleep—otherwise the person would die. Many bodily activities cannot be mastered by the body consciousness or mind consciousness, nor by the manas. A person's birth, aging, sickness, and death are not things the manas can control, still less the mind consciousness—all are done by the tathāgatagarbha in accordance with karmic seeds. Observe any function within the body: if it does not obey our direction and control, then it is upheld solely by the tathāgatagarbha. Blood pressure and body temperature are both like this—not whatever we wish them to be—except for those with meditative concentration and supernormal powers, and except for those with strong power of intention.
However, the seven consciousnesses' emotions and psychological activities can influence and change the operation of the body's internal organs; the manas can influence and change the tathāgatagarbha's upholding function over the material body; the activities of the six consciousnesses are led by the manas and can also influence the tathāgatagarbha. The seven consciousnesses' influence and regulation of the body's internal organs differs greatly from the tathāgatagarbha's manner of upholding, controlling, and regulating. The tathāgatagarbha also heeds the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, and also heeds the five consciousnesses—that is why our practice is of use; otherwise everything would be fixed and unchanging, and practice would be useless. Through frequent sitting in meditation and quiet sitting, everything within the material body can change. Practice mainly involves applying effort on the sixth and seventh consciousnesses; when the sixth and seventh consciousnesses are well cultivated, earth-shaking transformations occur, all the way to buddhahood.
12. Does Matter Truly Have Weight?
Facing an object many times heavier than one's own body weight, if in an extremely, extremely, extremely urgent situation one forgets the object's weight, or has no time to consider the question of the object's weight, and only thinks of rescuing the person beneath the object, then that person can instantly push that object away. After the person is rescued, upon seeing that what he pushed was something so heavy, his heart startles—and then, trying to push that thing again, no matter what, he cannot move it the slightest bit. Why is this so?
In the urgency of the moment, the mind consciousness loses its power of deliberation and does not tell the manas that the object is extremely heavy; the manas does not consider the question of the object's weight, and only attends to and decides to push the object away to save the person—and as a result, the manas achieves His goal. Afterwards, the mind consciousness sees the object and is astonished, learning of its weight, and tells the manas; once the manas knows, He knows that by His own strength He could never push away such a heavy object, and so the tathāgatagarbha will no longer help the manas.
All dharmas are created by mind alone—created solely by the tathāgatagarbha, and also solely by the manas, and also solely by the mind consciousness. As long as the mind consciousness and manas want to create some dharma, the tathāgatagarbha will provide the raw materials and produce the product—the prerequisite being that it accords with karmic power. Without meditative concentration, the mind consciousness's thoughts run wild and it gives blind commands; if the manas obeys, there is obstruction. In meditative concentration, the mind consciousness's power is weak and cannot control the manas; the manas does whatever He wants and succeeds. Those who only know how to grasp at the mind consciousness only know how to circle around the mind consciousness, not knowing to grasp the master, the trunk, the key point, the root—how shallow that wisdom must be. In hypnosis, controlling the mind consciousness and not letting it give blind commands allows one to use the manas to dig up many secrets; changing the manas is not very difficult either—returning to the past, going to the future, all are no problem.
No matter how heavy the matter, even as large as Mount Sumeru, as heavy as Mount Sumeru, it is matter composed of the seeds of the four great elements; the seeds of the four great elements have no weight, and the material form composed of them should also have no weight. Sentient beings are obscured by ignorance and do not know this principle; due to karmic power, they feel the weight of material form. A person with profound meditative concentration, having subdued ignorance and opened the power of the mind, is not constrained by matter or its weight, and can handle matter at will—lifting, pulverizing, combining, passing through, and so on—and can also manifest matter at will, able to play with the four great elements and play with material form.
13. Can One Become a Buddha Simply by Thinking of Becoming a Buddha?
The Śūraṅgama Sūtra: 心想登高，足心酸涩，色身为坚固第一妄想。When the mind thinks of climbing to a height, the manas believes He is really standing on top of a high mountain; feeling fear in His mind, He causes the soles of the feet to ache. By the same token, the material body is also imagined forth by the manas, the product of the most, most solid imagination.
Then, if the mind thinks of becoming a Buddha, can one also become a Buddha? The key is that the manas has not cultivated to the point of wanting to become a Buddha; more precisely, the manas's faith in becoming a Buddha is insufficient. If the faith were full and complete, one certainly could become a Buddha—it would only be a matter of sooner or later. Now our faith is increasing bit by bit, and we draw bit by bit closer to buddhahood. One who truly wants to become a Buddha has extremely great diligence in practice, able to disregard all obstacles, renounce all worldly dharmas, and single-mindedly cultivate the path.
14. The Principle of Turning Stone into Gold
The supernormal power of so-called "turning stone into gold" works thus: the manas issues the command, and the tathāgatagarbha changes the seeds that produced the stone, changing them into seeds that can combine into gold, and the stone becomes gold. The manas can make His own tathāgatagarbha transform stone into gold—but is it possible to make the external objects jointly upheld by the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings, such as stone, turn into gold? Or is it possible to make another person's tathāgatagarbha transform stone into gold? The answer is: it is possible, and entirely achievable. Through inner power, sentient beings can take external shared matter as their own and use it for themselves. For example, all edible food and drink, all wearable clothing, all usable items—these materials are either destroyed by oneself, or used by oneself alone, or changed by oneself. Stone turning into gold is shared stone being changed by oneself, becoming matter possessed by oneself alone.
Turning stone into gold relies mainly on one's personal power of meditative concentration, and at the same time also on the power of merit (puṇya-bala); if merit is insufficient, even if one can turn stone into gold, one personally cannot enjoy it. Merit is an indispensable and important condition for accomplishing all endeavors; a true practitioner will never disdain having too much merit, will never be satisfied with his merit, and will not casually consume his merit.
15. The Relationship Between the Material Body and the Conscious Mind
Why does poor rest of the material body affect the manas? Body and mind lean upon each other. This "mind," on the surface, seems to refer to the six consciousnesses, seems to refer to the mind consciousness, but in fact it is the manas relying on the material body, using the material body to perceive realms, after which there is some activity. What is relatively obvious is that when there are no six consciousnesses, the manas lives entirely by relying on the material body; when His own capacity falls short, He awakens the six consciousnesses to handle matters on His behalf, and thus bodily, verbal, and mental actions appear.
A poor state of the material body can affect the six consciousnesses and the manas. The body faculty is merely a wooden thing composed of the four great elements, without any feeling; what has feeling is the body consciousness, not the body. If the body had sensations, then a corpse's body should also have sensations, and wood and stone should also have sensations. Therefore, what can feel must be the conscious mind, not material form.
Body and mind mutually influence each other. Because the states of the body's four great elements differ, the inner six sense objects manifested by the tathāgatagarbha in accordance with them differ—especially the touch-objects differ—so the feelings experienced after the conscious mind's recognition differ, thoughts and behaviors differ, and the decisions made differ. By the same token, the conscious mind can also influence and change the body's four great elements. If the manas believes He can do certain things and His willpower is tenacious, then even if the material body's condition is not very good, He can still do them well, and the material body's condition can also change.
16. The Function of the Power of Intention
Why can a person of deep meditative concentration heal a patient's illness with the power of intention? Is it the result of direct interaction between one eighth consciousness and another? The power of intention is chiefly the function of the manas's power of mindfulness, and secondarily also the function of the mind consciousness's power of mindfulness. If the manas's power of mindfulness is strong, the power of the mind is great and the will is firm, and the eighth consciousness will cooperate, complying with the manas's power of mindfulness to realize what the manas thinks, envisions, and wishes. For the manas's power of mindfulness to be strong, there must be very deep meditative concentration, ensuring that the manas's power of attention (manaskāra) is entirely concentrated on one point; only then is the force of action strong, prompting the eighth consciousness to comply with His mind and fulfill His wish.
If the power of mindfulness is strong, intending to kill a person can also kill them; mental killing has the raising of thought and karmic activity, so like bodily action it constitutes the karmic offense of killing, with evil retribution; intending to save a person can also bring them back to life—there is the raising of thought and karmic activity, this belongs to wholesome karma, with wholesome retribution; intending to change a person can also change them—there is karmic retribution. So never deliberately provoke a person whose power of intention is extremely strong; try to comply with them. If you anger them, the moment they raise an intention, without even moving their eyeballs, you will meet with misfortune, and you yourself will not know why you are unlucky. A person with extremely strong power of intention can stand against ten thousand, even a hundred thousand—equivalent to the strength of an army—and can change an opponent's fortune. Strong power of intention arises, first, from merit; second, from the power of meditative concentration; third, from the power of wisdom (prajñā-bala). Practice takes oneself as the principal and the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas as the auxiliary; trust in your own power and gradually reduce dependence, and you will gradually grow strong.
