Mental Factors of the Mind base\: A Practical Compass (Second Edition) (with over 30,000 additional words, reorganized)
Section 4: The Mental Factor of Volition (cetanā)
1. The Meaning of the Manas's Constant Deliberation and Scrutiny
The manas possesses the nature of constant deliberation and scrutiny. "Constant" refers to permanence and perpetuity—the nature of scrutiny and deliberation always accompanies the manas. As long as the manas exists, it will scrutinize and deliberate upon all dharmas. Since beginningless kalpas, sentient beings' manas has never ceased to exist; only when one cultivates to the stage of the fourth fruit arhat of the Small Vehicle or the pratyekabuddha fruit does one gain the ability to extinguish it. Apart from this, for other sentient beings, the manas will not perish in future lives all the way to the Buddha stage, and even after the Buddha stage it will not perish. Thus the manas will exist permanently and perpetually, and it will impel the eighth consciousness to continuously manifest all worldly dharmas. This non-ceasing nature of the manas is called "constancy," and its deliberative nature also accompanies the manas's active functioning moment by moment, never stopping—this is the constancy of the manas.
"Scrutiny" (shen) means careful consideration, examination, and assessment, as well as judgment. It also represents a quality of doubt, wanting to probe and clarify some situation, wanting to understand some principle of affairs. Because one cannot know for certain and there is doubt in the mind, scrutiny and deliberation are needed to judge how a certain dharma actually is, whether it is truly correct and factual, whether it is a certain situation—this mental activity is called "scrutiny." The annual inspection, examination, assessment, interrogation, and questioning in worldly affairs all carry this meaning of "scrutiny." The manas has this scrutinizing nature; without scrutiny, He would be unable to make choices and decisions. He is usually engaged in examining, considering, and assessing, and only after the mind has become clear can He make the final choice.
"Deliberation" (siliang) means that the manas performs a certain degree of weighing, selecting, choosing, considering, investigating, measuring, planning, and discerning regarding all dharmas—weighing what the content and meaning of a certain dharma is, how it actually is, whether it is beneficial to oneself, what is the right way to act, how to fulfill one's wishes and achieve one's goals—only after this can selection and choice be made. Therefore the manas has a deliberative nature. Only after the manas has deliberated can He, based on the results of His deliberation, make a decision—to take or to discard—and then He can direct the six consciousnesses to carry out the corresponding bodily, verbal, and mental actions to achieve the goal. The eighth consciousness then has no choice but to revolve around the manas's deliberation and choices, complying and cooperating to give rise to all dharmas.
2. The Decisive Role of the Manas's Constant Deliberation and Scrutiny
The character "scrutiny" in the manas's constant deliberation reveals the manas's mental activities and also reveals the functions the manas performs. This shows that the manas is not a mere ornament with no use whatsoever; He is a lively, active conscious mind with a very important decisive role.
The manas must scrutinize any dharma He contacts; whatever dharmas the six consciousnesses discern, the manas must scrutinize them. If the review passes, He will make a decision and proceed to handle it. So what role does the manas play in investigating Chan? What role does He play in eradicating the view of self? What role does He play in seeing the mind and seeing one's nature? What role does He play in realizing all dharmas? In all of these, He plays the decisive role.
All dharmas must pass through the manas's checkpoint; if the manas has not approved the review, no handling can occur. From this we can see the manas's dominant position and His role as the master. When the manas scrutinizes, He must activate His own mental activities, constantly considering, deliberating, and choosing; He does not simply follow the views and opinions of the six consciousnesses, nor does He immediately approve whatever the six consciousnesses discern. Therefore, everything the six consciousnesses perceive must be clearly and distinctly understood by the manas; if the manas does not understand, the review fails, does not pass the checkpoint, and the manas cannot make a decision. Eradicating the view of self, as well as seeing the mind and seeing one's nature, must both pass through the manas's review and approval; if the manas does not agree, the view of self cannot be eradicated, and seeing the mind and seeing one's nature cannot occur. The mind consciousness's unilateral eradication of the view of self and seeing of the mind is merely the mind consciousness's own understanding and belief; if the master and superior does not agree, it does not count.
How can we let the manas arrive at results and answers by Himself? The mind consciousness should analyze and think less, and let the manas deliberate and consider more by Himself—this is the most effective approach. Once the mind consciousness knows the answer, it no longer wants to investigate, and the manas then has no opportunity to investigate; in that case, realization and enlightenment can never occur. Therefore, if the answer to seeing the mind is casually inquired about or casually told, the manas cannot apply effort, and enlightenment becomes impossible. The same applies to the content for eradicating the view of self: one cannot demand that the teacher explain it too finely; if the mind consciousness already knows everything, the manas cannot think further, and eradicating the view of self becomes very difficult.
The "deliberation" (si) in the manas's constant deliberation and scrutiny means reflective selection, careful consideration, and discrimination; "measure" (liang) means measuring, gauging, discerning, and weighing. The manas's mental activities of scrutiny, deliberation, and measuring are extremely subtle and deep, difficult to discover and observe, but His mental activities are still very powerful, carrying a kind of kingly momentum; His choices regarding all dharmas occupy the dominant position and are irreplaceable.
3. The Manas's Deliberative and Choice-Making Function
The manas's nature of constant deliberation and scrutiny has operated this way since beginningless kalpas. He always clings to the notion of self, constantly deliberating on what is most advantageous to Himself, how to achieve His own goals and fulfill His own wishes; He always measures all the dharmas He encounters, deliberating on how to select or discard them. After deliberation, He decides to take or discard and to act, but He needs tools such as the six consciousnesses to carry out the actions; the manas Himself cannot act, and can only direct the six consciousnesses to perform bodily, verbal, and mental actions, with the eighth consciousness cooperating moment by moment. Only after the manas has subdued self-grasping and transformed consciousness into wisdom does His deliberative and weighing nature regarding self diminish, and He no longer always deliberates and chooses around His own self-interest.
Whatever dharma the manas decides to act upon, the eighth consciousness can discern it at every moment, and then complies with Him, outputting the corresponding consciousness seeds according to karmic seeds, producing the six consciousnesses, and bodily, verbal, and mental actions are carried out. Therefore, all bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses necessarily comply with the manas; if occasionally they do not comply with the manas's mental activities, when the manas's habitual tendencies are heavy, one will inevitably feel irritated and restless. Only by subduing the manas can bodily, verbal, and mental actions be purified; if the manas is not subdued, bodily, verbal, and mental actions cannot be purified. If the manas does not change, the six consciousnesses' bodily, verbal, and mental actions will not change, karmic actions and karmic seeds cannot change, and the cycle of birth and death will not cease.
Upon what does the manas base His deliberation? That is to say, what is the content of His deliberation? The manas is itself a consciousness and has the nature of consciousness, so it has a perceiving-aspect (darśana-bhāga). The perceiving-aspect operates mainly in the form of mental factors—the five mental factors of attention (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), and volition (cetanā). The objects perceived by the manas's perceiving-aspect are object-aspects (nimitta)—that is, the objects and content of attention, contact, feeling, perception, and volition. All these object-aspects are images manifested by the eighth consciousness based on the underlying objective realm. After the manas contacts these images, He can activate His deliberative nature, and then choose how to act and handle them. In addition, the content discerned and the choices made by the six consciousnesses regarding the six sense-object realms are fed back to the manas; after receiving them, the manas must also deliberate, and then make choices.
4. When the Manas Deliberates Selectively, Meditative Concentration Appears
The manas constantly deliberates and scrutinizes based on all the object-aspects manifested by the eighth consciousness, but in His deliberation there are priorities and degrees of urgency, there are focal points, there are primary and secondary matters; He does not deliberate on all dharmas simultaneously. Because the manas can condition all the dharmas manifested by the eighth consciousness, only after conditioning them can He activate His deliberative nature, or deliberate selectively. The object-aspects manifested by the eighth consciousness can be extremely extensive; the manas's range of deliberation is extremely broad, making it difficult for Him to settle on one place or a few limited places, which makes it hard for Him to concentrate and hard to have meditative power. Unless through special training the manas gives attention and deliberation only to a few dharmas, or the manas eliminates His grasping and clinging nature toward some dharmas and no longer clings excessively, can meditative concentration arise and wisdom increase.
For example, a person who has cultivated the four dhyānas, eight absorptions, and preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) must have a manas with meditative concentration; a person with various meditative absorptions (samādhi) must also have a manas with concentration. Even those who cultivate non-Buddhist paths, such as practitioners of qigong, yoga, and other practices, as well as researchers and scientists in various fields, all have meditative concentration in their manas. Of course, the best and deepest concentration is that of the Buddha's manas—the profound and supreme meditative concentration possessed after the manas has completely and ultimately transformed consciousness into wisdom. The manas of bodhisattvas at the first bhūmi and above begins to transform consciousness into wisdom, possessing one portion or more of the wisdom of the selflessness of dharmas; they have already eradicated grasping at the self of persons and have eradicated one portion or more of grasping at the self of dharmas; their clinging nature has greatly diminished, and their manas's concentration is certainly not shallow. Up to the eighth bhūmi bodhisattva and the Buddha stage, the various meditative absorptions are inexhaustible and unfathomably varied, and the manas's concentration is incomparably deep and vast. Because the manas's meditative power is good, His deliberation on dharmas is relatively concentrated and focused, and wisdom becomes deep and vast.
5. Which Dharmas Does the Manas Deliberate Upon?
The object-aspects manifested by the eighth consciousness include two parts: material sense-objects and mental sense-objects, and the manas deliberates upon all of them, including deliberation on the material sense-objects of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas, and deliberation on the mental sense-objects of the six consciousnesses and their mental factors. He can also deliberate upon the manas Himself; when He deliberates upon Himself, the manas's self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana) is manifestly operating. After enlightenment, the manas gains great wisdom and can even deliberate upon the eighth consciousness. Many object-aspects that the six consciousnesses cannot discern or contact, the manas can also deliberate upon, without needing the mind consciousness to provide information and assistance. From this we can see that the range of what the manas conditions is extremely broad, and the objects and content of His deliberation are extremely numerous; therefore attaining meditative concentration is considerably difficult for Him, and subduing Him is far more difficult than subduing the mind consciousness.
Regarding the manas's deliberation on material sense-objects—for example, deliberation on the physical body: relying on the eighth consciousness, He can condition the body faculty and discern its various states. Then He deliberates on how to make the body faculty act and change, how to keep the body in the most comfortable and pleasing state, how to eliminate discomfort and pain, how to avoid dangers and accidents, how to let the body rest and recover from fatigue, how to reduce the body's burden, how to make breathing smooth, and so on. Also, during sleep He deliberates on what posture the body should be in to be stable and comfortable; if uncomfortable, He will make the body turn over, scratch itches, urinate and defecate, and so on. Regarding bodily discomfort or accidents, after deliberation, He will wake the six consciousnesses to discern and handle them, to prevent the body from being damaged or becoming abnormal.
The manas first performs a rough deliberation on the contacted form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas; only after deliberating can He decide whether to let the six consciousnesses discern in detail and act, or direct the six consciousnesses to avoid, letting the body accept or evade. Some mental sense-objects, after the manas deliberates, the six consciousnesses have no ability to contact and handle, and can only be handled with the eighth consciousness's cooperation; therefore, after some matters conclude, the six consciousnesses do not know about them and have no awareness. For the mental sense-objects the manas deliberates upon, if the deliberation is not complete, He will not make a choice; He must keep deliberating, to the point that it manifests in dreams at night, though the mind consciousness may not necessarily know what significance it has.
The manas's deliberative nature operates simultaneously with the six consciousnesses' bodily, verbal, and mental actions, without mutual obstruction; this is the seemingly mindless performance of bodily, verbal, and mental actions, which people call "absent-mindedness." Yet the manas's deliberation is very deep, often with a persistent, unrelenting drive, not easily detected. Some Chan practitioners' state of effort in investigating the huatou is like this: whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, every thought is on it, unrelentingly, deeply suspending a huatou in the mind's thoughts, penetrating deep into the manas—not the shallow thinking and analysis of the mind consciousness.
Activating the manas's deliberative nature enables deep awakening, thereby opening the treasure trove of wisdom. Once the manas recognizes and realizes something, the mind's activities will undergo a qualitative leap, and the body and mind will change greatly—far more profound and clear than the knowledge casually gained by the mind consciousness. Because this is personally realized by the manas, not hearsay acquired by the six consciousnesses, not obtained from others or conjectured by the six consciousnesses, one will therefore believe deeply without doubt; the mind is shaken, mental activities will change, and this kind of cultivation fundamentally solves the great problem.
The manas's deliberation on mental sense-objects is deliberating on the six consciousnesses' discernment of the six sense-objects—whether the discernment is complete, whether the six consciousnesses are tired, whether they need rest or should continue discerning, and whether the six consciousnesses like or are averse to the six sense-objects. After deliberating, He will decide whether to let the six consciousnesses stop acting and cease their current bodily, verbal, and mental actions, or decide to switch the six consciousnesses to another six sense-object realm, transferring to other objects and content.
The manas also has a deliberative nature toward Himself; this is part of His self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana). He will deliberate on whether His recent choice was correct and in accord with principle, whether it is complete, and whether it needs supplementing or revision. After deliberating, He may change His choice, or become more firm in His choice, determined to put it into action and achieve the goal. Some people's manas has great inertial force—those called very stubborn are like this: the manas clearly knows His recent choice was wrong and should be changed, yet persists to the end regardless of the outcome; He also lacks the wisdom to deliberate on and consider the outcome of matters. Therefore some people's manas has wisdom, while some people's manas lacks wisdom; their deliberative natures differ, their choice-making abilities differ, and the results vary enormously.
The manas's deliberation on the eighth consciousness can only proceed by relying on the mind consciousness's thinking and guidance; the manas cannot automatically awaken to the eighth consciousness by Himself. Because the manas's ignorance is deeply rooted, having existed since beginningless kalpas—for beginningless kalpas He has been together with the eighth consciousness yet does not know Him, and even appropriates the eighth consciousness's functions as His own. After the mind consciousness studies the principles of the eighth consciousness, it continuously perfumes the manas, letting the manas also discern the eighth consciousness's nature. The manas will then deliberate upon and know the eighth consciousness's nature; if He wants to seek and realize the eighth consciousness, He will decide to investigate Chan.
After realizing the eighth consciousness, through the mind consciousness's observation and contemplation of the eighth consciousness, the manas will deliberate on the eighth consciousness's function of giving rise to all dharmas, deliberate on the selflessness of the five aggregates, deliberate on the selflessness of the six consciousnesses, and also deliberate on the selflessness of the manas Himself; He can then give rise to great wisdom, increasingly recognizing that the five aggregates, the six consciousnesses, and the manas Himself are all not real, and can thereby eradicate the grasping at self. He also gradually ceases to regard the eighth consciousness's functions as His own. The manas's wisdom becomes deeper and deeper, the selflessness increases more and more, ignorance becomes fainter and fainter, and the mind's activities become purer and more equanimous. After the manas transforms consciousness into wisdom, He can deliberate upon the eighth consciousness independently, no longer deluded about many dharmas as belonging to Himself; His mental activities are selfless, and the equality nature grows ever stronger.
6. The Perpetuity of the Manas's Deliberation
The manas must deliberate on some dharmas based on the six consciousnesses' discerning nature and the content of their discernment; all dharmas that the six consciousnesses discern by direct perception, or discern non-directly, the manas can know. While the six consciousnesses are discerning, they discern on one hand and transmit the content to the manas on the other; the manas simultaneously knows the content of the six consciousnesses' discernment, and He will activate deliberation. Whatever the six consciousnesses discern, He deliberates upon; whatever He deliberates upon, He may confirm, and thus He will act as master, make decisions, and adopt countermeasures; then the six consciousnesses' bodily, verbal, and mental actions will be carried out.
Even without the six consciousnesses, the manas still deliberates on all dharmas and on the six sense-object realms. When the six consciousnesses have ceased—in a coma or while asleep—the manas is still deliberating; as long as the manas exists, He must constantly deliberate. He deliberates on how to know more people, affairs, principles, and things, how to make the five aggregates active, how to let the six consciousnesses continue discerning the six sense-objects; thereby He can know more dharmas.
When asleep without dreams, the six consciousnesses have all ceased—does the manas deliberate or not? He still deliberates. What does He deliberate on? The dharmas He deliberates on are extremely numerous: deliberating on whether the five-aggregate body has rested well, on when it is time to wake up, on the matters encountered during the day, on matters from childhood, on matters from past lives, on future matters. Any situation arising in the body, He may deliberate upon; all the realms manifested by the eighth consciousness, He may deliberate upon, or deliberate selectively, and then He will decide how to handle them. The six sense-object realms the mind consciousness discerned during the day, He may also deliberate upon; previously unsolved problems, He may deliberate upon. After studying Buddhism, when the mind consciousness is diligent, the manas will also deliberate on the Buddhist teachings the mind consciousness has studied; therefore in dreams, He will let the mind consciousness repeatedly study or apply the Buddhist teachings. Only then does such Buddhist study and practice have some effect, having penetrated deep into the mind.
The mental sense-objects discerned by the six consciousnesses during the day all settle into the manas; the manas deliberates even while asleep, and when He is rather grasping, dreams appear. Although His discerning wisdom is not detailed enough, He can still discern the overall picture and general outline of dharmas. If His wisdom is very high, without excessive and detailed deliberation He can generate choices, acting as master and making decisions. Because His discerning wisdom is not detailed enough, His deliberative nature must correspondingly strengthen, and there is also a continuous process of weighing. When the power of wisdom (prajñā-bala) is insufficient and one cannot discern clearly at the moment, one must deliberate back and forth, and only when one believes one has deliberated clearly will one make a choice and decide as master how to act.
The manas has this perpetual deliberative nature—"scrutiny" means careful consideration and reflection. During sleep, the manas also deliberates on whether it is time for the five-aggregate body to be active and whether to wake up. If the manas did not assess, He would not act as master or make decisions; therefore the manas has the nature of assessment and deliberation. Only after assessing and deliberating can He make choices, adopt countermeasures, act as sovereign, and decide how bodily, verbal, and mental actions are carried out—this is the manas's deliberative nature and his assessing-and-deciding nature.
7. The Manas's Unique Mode of Deliberation (1)
The thought-free luminous awareness, besides referring to the state of the mind consciousness discerning the six sense-objects when free of thoughts, also points to another mind that has no language or surface-level thinking and analysis, yet can know the six sense-object realms and dharmas beyond the six sense-objects—more agile, more hidden, more profound, more deliberative, with greater deliberative power and stronger problem-solving ability. That is the manas.
The manas cannot analyze and think about the six sense-object realms the way the mind consciousness does, but the manas has His own unique mode of deliberation, and His deliberative nature is extremely strong; sentient beings rely mainly on the manas's deliberative nature to make decisions and act as sovereign. If the mind consciousness's wisdom is insufficient, it cannot observe and know the manas's unique and hidden deliberative nature; His mode and pulse of deliberation are unknown to others and unknown even to one's own mind consciousness. Therefore many people misunderstand Him and are baffled by Him.
There are many times when the manas deliberates independently. For example, one falls asleep at night with a problem unsolved; the next morning, just upon opening one's eyes, the mind consciousness knows what the matter is about—the problem has been solved. Many problems the mind consciousness cannot think through remain unsolved, and one sets it aside to do other things; at some unknown moment, suddenly a flash of inspiration comes—one slaps one's forehead: "Right, that's how it is!" One has figured it out and knows the solution. This is the effect of the manas's deliberative nature; He has been silently, quietly deliberating, and the mind consciousness may not necessarily know.
Although the mind consciousness temporarily gives up on the unsolvable problem and no longer thinks and analyzes, the manas has not given up; He keeps holding it in mind, keeping it in thought, deliberating and pondering it. The manas's mental factors keep operating; He does not have the mind consciousness's obvious thinking and analysis function, and there are some differences from the mind consciousness's thinking and analytical function. But exactly what those differences are, even a bodhisattva who has realized the patience of non-arising (anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti) may not know much, because this content is extremely, extremely deep.
Whether the manas's deliberation is obvious or not is relative to the mind consciousness's wisdom. The manas operates just as He does, without deliberately hiding anything; it depends on whether the mind consciousness has the wisdom to observe and discover. The eighth consciousness's mental activities and operations are also very obvious—as obvious as the operations of the five consciousnesses and the mind consciousness; He does not deliberately hide Himself; it only depends on whether the mind consciousness has strong observational wisdom. If the mind consciousness's power of wisdom is not strong, it cannot even observe its own mental activities, let alone the mental activities of the manas and the eighth consciousness.
In fact, the dharmas the manas must deliberate upon are many, many—the range is very, very broad—and what the mind consciousness knows is only a small part. When the mind consciousness lacks wisdom, it understands nothing at all of the manas's deliberative nature; but whether or not the mind consciousness understands, the manas still has His own deliberative functions and His own mode of deliberation. For example, the manas resolves issues concerning the skeletal remains of past lives—matters the mind consciousness could never know about; the manas can independently deliberate on how to resolve them. Another example: the manas entering other people's dreams, or expounding the Dharma to people, or requesting something of people—all these are the manas's independent operations, all involving the manas's deliberative nature, unknown to the mind consciousness.
Whether the dharmas the manas deliberates upon in the six sense-objects are made known to the mind consciousness or not—this is not a matter of allowing or not allowing; it depends on whether the mind consciousness has wisdom. Many times, even a person with wisdom cannot know what the manas is deliberating; the results of the manas's deliberation are sometimes known to the mind consciousness and sometimes not—in fact, most of the time the mind consciousness does not know, due to insufficient wisdom.
When the manas deliberates out a result and reaches a conclusion—"this matter is very important!"—an important problem must be handed to the six consciousnesses to execute and resolve; at this time He must find a way to let the six consciousnesses know. If the matter is not important and the manas can resolve it independently, He will not specifically find a way to alert the mind consciousness. When the mind consciousness is relatively dull and has little awareness, the manas may deliberate out dharmas and reach conclusions that the mind consciousness does not know at all. Even if the mind consciousness does not know, the manas still directs the six consciousnesses to carry out the actions as usual.
When not a single thought arises, the mind consciousness no longer produces thoughts, but the manas is not so—His thoughts generally never cease. At a moment of no-thought, the mind consciousness suddenly thinks of a matter and immediately gets up to go out and handle it—this is the result of the manas's thoughts turning while the mind consciousness produced no thoughts.
8. The Manas's Unique Mode of Deliberation (2)
The parts the mind consciousness has already known need no further thinking; they require the manas to deliberate silently by Himself. The manas's mode of deliberation is very special, different from the mind consciousness's thinking. The so-called specialness means that the mind consciousness finds it extremely difficult to observe the manas's deliberative nature and mode of deliberation; therefore many people simply deny that the manas has thinking and contemplative activities, denying that the manas has any mental activities. These people are too reckless and hasty, overly confident.
When there is no speech and the mind is silent, the mind consciousness is no longer thinking, but the manas is working, never having stopped. The mind consciousness can frequently stop its thinking activities and enter states of rest and sleep, but the manas never rests; He can continuously think and deliberate on various problems, very secretly. When the manas thinks, it is very deep and hidden, difficult to observe; it can consume the brain's energy and cause neural fluctuations of brain waves.
Therefore, when a person is not speaking or analyzing, we must never think that this person has no thoughts, no views, no ideas, that the mind's activity has stopped and all is quiet. It is not so: his manas is rapidly turning and operating, deliberating, weighing, and examining, very deep and very hidden. Afterwards, his mind will have a settled rule, have an idea, have a position, have a choice—but not necessarily spoken out, not necessarily expressed, not necessarily made known to others. Yet the mind truly has gained strength; the attitude becomes resolute, even unshakable.
Whereas when the mind consciousness, through thinking, analysis, and contemplation, has a result and a decision, the mind is not very resolute; it still hesitates and cannot make up its mind, because the manas does not know or understand; with doubt necessarily present in the mind, of course one cannot make up one's mind.
9. The Manas's Deliberation Is Difficult to Observe
The mind consciousness's deliberative nature is manifest and easy to observe; the manas's deliberative nature is hidden and not easy to observe. Because the mind consciousness's power of introspection (pratyavekṣā-bala) is relatively strong, the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) can observe some of the operational characteristics of itself and of the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna), but cannot observe them all, because the mind consciousness has not transformed consciousness into wisdom. The Buddha can observe them all; the wisdom of the varieties of paths of bhūmi-attained bodhisattvas can observe most of them.
The solitary consciousness, obstructed by afflictions, lacking meditative power, and not having transformed consciousness into wisdom, cannot observe the manas's operational characteristics; therefore one has to say that the manas's deliberative nature is hidden. In fact, for the Buddha and bodhisattvas who have transformed consciousness into wisdom, the manas's characteristics are still easy to observe. Hiddenness or manifestness depends entirely on the mind consciousness's observational wisdom, not on the manas itself.
The manas also has self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana) and a weak power of introspection; He can observe His own operational characteristics, but He cannot express them, so the mind consciousness (that is, what we call "we") does not know. Since the mind consciousness does not know the manas's operational characteristics, whether the manas's power of introspection is strong or weak, the mind consciousness still does not know.
Regarding things the mind consciousness does not know, many people's mind consciousness habitually denies them, saying they do not exist. Then, since the mind consciousness cannot observe the Earth's revolution and rotation, can we also say the Earth is motionless? Saying so would cause no harm, but it does not conform to fact. How many facts and truths can an ordinary person's mind consciousness actually observe? Not many—ignorance is too abundant and too thick, obstructions too heavy; and precisely those with more ignorance are the least willing to admit their own ignorance and the most trusting of their own judgments—this is truly helpless.
10. Having the Mental Factor of Volition Does Not Mean Having Grasping at Dharmas
The arhats in the cessation absorption (nirodha-samāpatti) have long since eradicated grasping at the self of the five aggregates; otherwise they could not attain the fourth fruit, let alone cultivate the cessation absorption. When an arhat cultivates to the fourth dhyāna, he is already free from the bondage of the five aggregates—free in birth and death, able to leave when he wishes and stay when he wishes; attaining the cessation absorption makes him even more at ease.
At the first dhyāna, the arhat already has no grasping at the self of persons; he does not grasp at the feeling, perception, and volition mental factors, nor at the physical body—it is not necessary to extinguish the two mental factors of feeling and perception before there is no grasping. Grasping or not grasping is the functional operation of the manas's mental factors as a whole, not necessarily the function of the single mental factors of feeling, perception, or volition. The same applies to grasping at dharmas: it is the functional operation of the manas's mental factors as a whole. For example, in the cessation absorption the manas has the mental factors of attention, contact, and volition—all functions directed toward dharmas. Whether or not there is grasping at dharmas is not the function of the single volition mental factor; it is the result of the mental factors as a whole operating together.
However, all Buddhas' manas has completely eradicated grasping at dharmas; their manas not only has the five universal mental factors, but also the five object-specific mental factors and the eleven wholesome mental factors. With so many mental factors, their grasping nature is nevertheless extinguished. The Buddha's manas has no grasping at dharmas, yet the volition mental factor still operates ceaselessly; the undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna) discerns the manas's volition mental factor and cooperates with the manas to manifest immeasurable Buddha-lands in the ten directions. In fact, the tathāgatagarbha can discern the manas's mental factors in their entirety; the volition mental factor has the function of choice-making; after the tathāgatagarbha discerns it, He cooperates with the manas according to the manas's choices, handling affairs for the manas and presenting all the dharmas the manas needs.
11. The Basis of the Manas's Deliberation and Choice
Upon what does the manas base His deliberation and choice? First, the inherent experience formed since beginningless kalpas; second, the results of discernment transmitted from the six consciousnesses, which can serve as reference. Then, drawing on His own experience and wisdom, He can deeply deliberate on various mental sense-object realms and make correct judgments and choices. The prerequisite is still that the mental sense-objects the manas clings to are relatively few—that is, under conditions of a certain degree of meditative power—so that His judgments and choices are more wise. The deeper the concentration, the more prominent the manas's function; His deliberation is clearer, faster, more efficient, and more wise. Meditative concentration can aid the manas's discernment and deliberation: when the manas's consciousness seeds are less diverted and become concentrated, the force of discernment is powerful, the discerning wisdom is enhanced, and wisdom can fully manifest. Realizing the fruits and enlightenment, realizing all Buddhist teachings and worldly dharmas—all are like this.
The manas is selective when facing many realms—this is His deliberative and choice-making nature. Upon what does He base His selection? The manas has discerning wisdom and can know whether a dharma is important or not; therefore He chooses based on whether a dharma is beneficial and important to Himself. The manas's grasping nature differs toward different dharmas—why does it differ? Because He knows which dharmas are beneficial to Himself and which dharmas are important.
Karmic seeds cannot force the manas to grasp. For example, after the arhat's manas has eradicated grasping, he is not interested in worldly dharmas; even though the seeds all flow forth, he still chooses not to see, not to hear, not to think—no thoughts in the mind, no yearning. Why does the manas let the mind consciousness discern some dharmas clearly? It is still because the manas has intention and interest that the tathāgatagarbha cooperates by giving rise to the mind consciousness, to discern those dharmas with emphasis and in detail.
12. How the Mind Consciousness Hands a Problem Over to the Manas to Deliberate
After the mind consciousness has thought through a problem and roughly understands where the problem lies, with only the solution remaining, at this point it can hand the problem over to the manas to deliberate. At the beginning, when one is not yet skilled in this method of transferring problems and lacks technique, the process is like this; after the method becomes skilled, the manas can directly enter a deep deliberation mode. After the mind consciousness clarifies the ins and outs of the problem, it tells the manas that this is very important and must be figured out, then deeply suspends the key point of the problem in the mind and hands it over to the manas. The manas will then deliberate continuously until there is a result. Many times, while the mind consciousness is thinking, the manas is simultaneously deliberating; the better the meditative power and the more attentive one is, the more and more deeply the manas participates. And when the mind consciousness fails to think out a result, the manas will not give up; He will deliberate independently, and at some unpredictable moment a result will emerge.
13. Does the Manas Have Thoughts When Deliberating?
When the manas constantly deliberates and scrutinizes, are there any thoughts in the mind? Only when the manas has dharmas He is mindful of does He deliberate and scrutinize; first there is mindfulness, then deliberation and scrutiny; without mindfulness there is no deliberation. If the manas's mind is empty and He is mindful of nothing, there is no mental activity, no need to scrutinize or deliberate anything; at this time the manas is pure. But when the manas has not been subdued, His clinging is relatively heavy and the thoughts in His mind are extremely numerous; therefore the mind will constantly, endlessly deliberate, ponder, scrutinize, judge, and weigh—unable to figure things out during the day, continuing to scrutinize and deliberate at night; in severe cases one wakes at midnight unable to sleep. This is why it is said that sentient beings' manas has the nature of constant deliberation and scrutiny. For arhats whose manas has already been subdued, there are almost no thoughts in the mind; they do not think much about anything; the manas only occasionally deliberates, but not constantly, so it cannot be called "constant." Therefore, as long as the manas deliberates on dharmas, there are thoughts; the dharmas deliberated upon are the thoughts—what the manas is mindful of.
14. The Manas's Volition Mental Factor Determines the Discernment of the Eye Consciousness and Mind Consciousness
When the eye consciousness sees form, it sees manifest color—blue, yellow, red, white, light and darkness, clouds and mist, haze, and space. Light is a kind of matter, composed of the four great elements, arising and ceasing and changing moment by moment; it is false and unreal.
The eye consciousness itself has the volition mental factor; after receiving the form sense-object and knowing it, the volition mental factor arises, deciding on action—whether to avoid or to look a while longer. The eye consciousness works in close cooperation with the manas and the mind consciousness simultaneously; without the manas's attention and volition mental factors, there would be no arising and discernment of the eye consciousness and mind consciousness, and no operation of the eye consciousness's and mind consciousness's five universal mental factors. The eye consciousness sees form, but the seventh consciousness cannot see form; the mind consciousness analyzes, infers, and judges, but the seventh consciousness cannot infer and analyze. A consciousness is called a consciousness because it has the nature of discrimination, discernment, and recognition; otherwise it would not be called a consciousness. All seven consciousnesses have the nature of discernment, discrimination, and recognition.
15. Does the Manas Have Judgment Ability?
With wisdom there is judgment ability; with deliberation there are results of deliberation. The manas definitely has judgment ability—deliberation is judgment. Because the manas is the master consciousness that governs the operation of the entire five-aggregate body, without judgment ability He could not govern the body's bodily, verbal, and mental actions, and could not be the master consciousness; then who would act as master? The manas's judgment ability is indispensable; it is only a matter of the judgment ability being large or small, and whether it is accurate or not.
The manas's judgments have such differences: on which dharmas His judgment ability is great, on which dharmas it is small; when His judgment ability is great and accurate, when it is small and less accurate; in what situations He relies on the six consciousnesses' discernment to make judgments, and in what situations He can judge without relying on the six consciousnesses' discernment. On dharmas the manas discerns clearly, His judgment ability is great, because clear discernment makes judgment easy, enabling quick and accurate judgment; if the manas does not discern clearly, He cannot judge, or cannot judge quickly and accurately. Toward dharmas He cannot understand, the manas either hesitates or judges inaccurately; thus the manas's decisions are blind and erroneous. When the manas's choices are wrong, the six consciousnesses' execution will be wrong.
But we can observe: in worldly affairs, are sentient beings' choices all erroneous and blind? Obviously not—there are quite a few times when they are correct without error; it should be that most of the time they are reasonable and appropriate. This shows that the manas has judgment ability, and not a small one. Situations where judgment is impossible also exist; situations of indecision also exist; situations of misjudgment exist even more. This relates to the manas's own wisdom and to the manas's power of determination (adhimokṣa).
The manas's judgments, on one hand, are made directly based on the dharmas themselves: the more familiar the dharma and the more experienced, the easier for the manas to judge independently; the more significant and urgent the dharma, the easier for the manas to judge independently and quickly, after which He makes a choice and the six consciousnesses arise to act. If the manas cannot determine (adhimokṣa) the contacted realm-dharmas, He will be unable to make quick and accurate judgments. On the other hand, the manas's discernment is coarse; to discern finely, He must rely on the six consciousnesses' discernment, relying on the mind consciousness's thinking, analysis, study, inference, and judgment, and then, based on the information transmitted from the six consciousnesses, make His own independent deliberation and judgment, with the six consciousnesses arising to execute. If the manas cannot determine the content discerned by the six consciousnesses, or the content that the mind consciousness has thought through, analyzed, understood, and judged, He also cannot make judgments and choices, or the judgments and choices are wrong, and the six consciousnesses then execute erroneously.
16. The Manas's Powerful Choice-Making Nature
The manas's volition mental factor function is extremely powerful; He acts as master and makes choices regarding all dharmas, has a deliberative nature on all dharmas, and weighs everything; His master-nature and choice-making functions are very powerful, and no other consciousness can substitute for Him. When the manas, through the mind consciousness, comes into contact with the Buddhist teachings and is firmly steeped in them, He can have the Buddhist teachings in every thought, developing the habit of practice and forming a habit inclination of practice. So much so that even while asleep He keeps deliberating; because He cannot deliberate on content too fine and specific, He produces dream states, letting the mind consciousness participate in the dream. After the manas has been steeped in the Buddhist teachings, He may abandon some other worldly dharmas, considering them unimportant, or considering them contrary to the Dharma and should be discarded; thus He no longer deliberates on and discerns unimportant dharmas, and in dreams, apart from the Buddhist teachings He values, no other matters will appear.
The mind consciousness's forgetting and remembering arise because of the manas's selectivity. Matters the manas considers important, He constantly clings to and keeps in mind; matters the manas considers unimportant and bad, He no longer clings to or keeps in mind—faculty and object do not contact, the mind consciousness does not arise, and does not discern matters the manas is not interested in; while matters the manas is interested in and considers important can be recalled and remembered—this is the principle of remembering and forgetting. Therefore, of the dharmas the mind consciousness discerns, there is not one that has not passed through the manas's clinging and discernment, not one that the manas has not been mindful of; if the manas is not mindful and does not push, the mind consciousness does not arise and does not discern. After the manas first discerns a mental sense-object, if He is not interested, the mind consciousness cannot arise, and that mental sense-object is not known; dreams about the matter cannot appear even more so.
17. The More Wisdom the Manas Has, the More Correct His Deliberation and Choices
When the manas discerns the specific realms of the six sense-objects, His wisdom is relatively inferior; He cannot discriminate what the specific six sense-object realms are, nor know good or bad, beautiful or ugly, coarse or fine, high or low, large or small, because His clinging is too broad and His energy insufficient; therefore His discrimination is unclear and not detailed. But the manas Himself also has a deliberative nature and the perception mental factor; His deliberative and discerning functions are also very powerful. Relying on His deliberative nature, He can make choices regarding all dharmas—and deliberates and chooses moment by moment, not letting a single dharma pass in vain. Since beginningless kalpas, the manas's deliberation has been correct, correctly choosing many people, affairs, principles, and things, avoiding countless errors and disasters—His merit is indispensable.
Many people, especially those with wisdom, have times when the manas's choices are correct without error; some people also display very high wisdom, and these displays of wisdom are all the results of the manas's correct deliberation and choice. If the manas could not deliberate and choose correctly, and every choice were erroneous and inferior, then every sentient being would be foolish and without wisdom, could not gain wisdom in the future, and could not even transform consciousness into wisdom. In fact, whether in worldly affairs or in Buddhist practice, there are indeed many people with wisdom, showing that their manas's deliberation and choices are correct without error and wise. Especially after eradicating afflictions and transforming consciousness into wisdom, the manas's wise deliberation and choice are even more inconceivable.
18. Do the First Five Consciousnesses Have a Thinking Function?
The first five consciousnesses also have the five universal mental factors: attention, contact, feeling, perception, and volition—only simpler and coarser than those of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. The sixth and seventh consciousnesses deliberate on mental sense-objects, and their deliberation can be very fine and profound; the first five consciousnesses deliberate on the five sense-objects, and their deliberation is very coarse and simple. As long as one can separate the five sense-objects from the mental sense-objects without confusing them, one can distinguish the difference between the five consciousnesses' volition and the sixth and seventh consciousnesses' volition. The five consciousnesses' volition is not the mind consciousness's kind of thinking function; the two differ, and the difference is considerable. Separating the five sense-objects from the mental sense-objects is extremely difficult, so distinguishing between the five consciousnesses' recognition and the mind consciousness's recognition is also extremely difficult. Distinguishing the functions of the manas and the mind consciousness—ordinary people likewise cannot do it.
What people ordinarily call "thinking" generally refers to the sixth and seventh consciousnesses' thinking on mental sense-objects, especially the solitary consciousness's thinking on the subjectively imagined realm; the five consciousnesses cannot but participate in it. The volition among the five consciousnesses' five universal mental factors mainly serves the function of judgment and choice. After the five consciousnesses discern their corresponding five sense-objects, they take the marks of the five sense-objects, make simple, coarse judgments, and then choose whether to continue discerning or to stop and avoid, with the mind consciousness simultaneously participating in the discernment. The reason the five consciousnesses' discernment is said to be coarse is that the five sense-objects are coarse and do not require fine discrimination; therefore discernment is fast and does not require much mental effort from the five consciousnesses, as if it does not go through the brain. The mental sense-objects accompanying the five sense-objects are relatively subtle and require the mind consciousness's fine discernment; therefore the mind consciousness's discernment and thinking analysis are relatively slow and require more mental effort.
If the five sense-objects are significant and their impact great, the manas takes the five consciousnesses' judgment and choice as primary for His own choice-making, with no time to process the mind consciousness's analysis and judgment; therefore He ignores the mind consciousness's discernment and thinking. Usually the five consciousnesses' discernment is relatively direct and fast, while the mind consciousness's discernment is subtle and slightly slower than the five consciousnesses'; for significant matters, the manas takes the five consciousnesses' reactions as primary and cannot attend to the mind consciousness's reactions. Therefore, with some sudden events, the mind consciousness's analysis and thinking cannot be used in time; the manas directs the matter to completion, resulting in the mind consciousness's delayed awareness. To summarize: "thinking" refers to the sixth and seventh consciousnesses' thinking; the first five consciousnesses' volition is simpler, coarser, and more direct than thinking, not deep, and needing no depth, because the five sense-objects' dharmas are shallow, coarse, and direct.
