Only when the manas agrees is it true willingness.

After a patient receives an organ transplant, rejection reactions occur. Apart from genes and various other factors, one reason is that the donor's manas repels it. Most organ donations are not voluntary on the part of the donor himself; the person did not state during his lifetime that he was willing to donate his organs after death, but rather the family members made the decision to donate the deceased's organs. If the deceased was unwilling, then after the organ is placed into the patient's body, the deceased's manas interferes and repels it, and a rejection reaction occurs. Or, although the deceased agreed during his lifetime to donate organs, if the knife is wielded to remove the organs before he has fully died at the moment of death, the deceased suffers extreme pain and will give rise to a mind of anger and regret. Then, when the organ enters the patient's body, the deceased's manas may harbor resistance, and the patient will exhibit a rejection reaction. Such is the power of the manas—it far surpasses the mind consciousness, and this holds whether or not the mind consciousness is present. Therefore, to see a person's true thoughts, attitudes, and purposes, do not look at how well he speaks with his conscious mouth; look at the true thoughts and motives within his manas. Some people speak with dazzling eloquence, yet their actual thoughts are exactly the opposite—such a person is extremely hypocritical. In our daily dealings with people, we should be skilled at observing them and understanding what their true thoughts are. Do not only believe what is displayed on the surface of their consciousness; observe their inner manas. The manas is the consciousness that makes decisions; it represents a person's quality of thought and character, and also represents a person's true cultivation.

If someone wants to give you something, observe whether he truly wants to give it to you, or whether it is a false giving with other thoughts and other purposes. By the same token, if we want something from someone else, we should observe whether he is truly willing to give it—whether his manas agrees, or whether it is the helplessness of the mind consciousness being willing while the manas is not. If the manas is unwilling to give, yet in behavior the consciousness has no choice but to give generously, the consequence may be very bad: he will find a way to take it back.

If a person knows that the other party is inwardly unwilling to give, and also knows that the other party, out of concern for face and the like, will more or less be able to give, and so opens his mouth to ask for it, and as a result the other party indeed reluctantly gives it, yet is very unhappy inside—this situation is almost outright robbery. What is the relationship between open robbery and stealing? Both are seizing without the consent of the other party's manas. Open robbery is seizing openly; stealing is seizing covertly. Is a robber equivalent to a petty thief or a big thief? With this, one can basically distinguish clearly whether a person is a gentleman or a petty person. A gentleman does not take what others cherish, does not impose on others what he himself does not desire, is open and upright, and does not secretly scheme and play tricks. A petty person, on the other hand, is constantly anxious and gloomy, plays tricks and schemes, has nothing but ghosts in his heart—scheming ideas and crooked ways, with many dark sides.

When making a transaction with someone, driving the price down hard, even reaching or exceeding the bottom line of what the other party can bear—this is also equivalent to robbery and stealing. Therefore, when buying things, do not bargain excessively; let the other party come out of it acceptably, and be considerate of the other party's feelings and capacity to bear it. This too is part of the cultivation and refinement of being a person. That is why the Buddha taught the five precepts and ten wholesome deeds—to teach us how to be a person. Observing the current Dharma-ending age, there really are many people who do not know how to be a person. Since they do not even know how to be a person, it is impossible for them to eliminate self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) and become a noble one.