The Success or Failure of Organ Transplantation Depends Mostly on the Manas

Question: During organ transplantation, once the internal organ is removed, the six consciousnesses no longer operate on that organ. So what function or role is it that makes the organ keep throbbing and beating? If the organ is transplanted into another person's body, what phenomena will occur?

Answer: Organ transplantation is like parents giving away a treasured item that originally belonged to their child to another little friend. If the two children are on good terms, the father giving his child's treasure to the other child can be accepted; perhaps the child has to endure it a bit inwardly, but is able to bear it, and will not object or demand it back. If the two children are not on good terms, then the child will not allow the parents to give the treasure away to the other, and will throw a tantrum and make a big fuss, or even go snatch it back.

Here the main issue is the manas. Whether an organ transplant succeeds or not mostly depends on the manas. If the manas does not cling to its own organ, the transplant will succeed; if the manas clings to its own organ, rejection will occur, and the transplant will fail. For a healthy, normal person, if the manas no longer grasps at its own material body and completely lets go of the body, death may occur immediately. Thus, life and death lie in the manas.

After an organ transplant, the tathāgatagarbhas of the two people work together for a short period of time. When the manas has almost completely let go of its own organ, that organ becomes the recipient's, and the organ is then solely held and maintained by the recipient's tathāgatagarbha. If the brain is transplanted, it is as if the entire manas has been moved away. Then the recipient's brain has been replaced, and the person no longer has the original person's mode of thinking; emotions and so forth will also have changed.