The Process of Enlightenment

The process of awakening in Buddhist practice is extremely difficult if you say it is difficult, and easy if you say it is easy. It is difficult because overturning and changing the manas's ingrained cognition—making Him accept a truth or reality—is extremely hard. It is easy because the steps involved are not complicated; they only concern the cognitive issues of the mind consciousness and the manas. First, through study, the mind consciousness comes to know that there is a tathāgatagarbha permanently abiding in the five-aggregate body, giving rise to all dharmas. Through repeated cultivation and infusion, the manas also comes to know that there is a tathāgatagarbha that is the true self, the true master. But the manas will certainly doubt this matter, believing that He Himself is the true master, that everything is decided by Him and under His control.

To remove the manas's doubt, one must first let the manas realize that the five aggregates and eighteen realms are not the self, including the manas Himself, who is also subject to arising, ceasing, and change, and is not real. In this way, the manas will establish a reliance and acknowledge that there is a tathāgatagarbha He can depend upon. The next step is for the mind consciousness and the manas to investigate Chan together, investigating the tathāgatagarbha. If the mind consciousness investigates on its own, that is called inference and speculation, called emotional thinking and intellectual interpretation; the conclusion reached is called understanding or intellectual awakening, obtaining a kind of dry wisdom not moistened by the water of meditative concentration (samādhi), in which realization and practice cannot correspond, and liberation is impossible. To enable the manas and the mind consciousness to investigate together, there must be meditative concentration, using questioning doubt and the huatou to tether the manas, cutting off the manas's random grasping and deliberation, so that He constantly contemplates the questioning doubt and the huatou from morning to evening. One day, one will surely be able to see one's true mind and realize one's nature.

The method of awakening to the Way is to start from the mind consciousness and penetrate deep into the manas, delivering what the mind consciousness has deliberated upon to the manas so that the manas understands it. When the mind consciousness, acting as this "messenger," needs to transmit information, it must have skillful means—being careful, wise, thorough, and rigorous in its deliberation—fully attracting the manas's attention and mobilizing the manas's initiative, leaving the manas no way to retreat, with no choice but to earnestly deliberate (manana), examine, and approve. After the mind consciousness has organized the information it has gathered and handed it over to the manas, it is best to then wait quietly, standing by at all times to await the manas's instructions, not causing trouble or making a mess for the manas. This requires quite excellent meditative concentration, allowing the manas to deliberate and investigate in samādhi without interference. The efficiency of such investigation is the highest.