The Doubt Fetter of Manas

When severing the view of self, one must eradicate the fetter of doubt among the three fetters, and it is insufficient to eliminate doubt only at the level of consciousness without eradicating doubt in the manas. If the manas carries doubt regarding the view of self into the intermediate state (antarābhava), one is bound to fall into the three evil destinies, bound by the fetter of doubt and unable to liberate oneself from the three evil destinies. Only when doubt in the manas is resolved is ignorance destroyed; when all doubt in the manas is eliminated and ignorance is utterly extinguished, one attains Buddhahood. No Buddha has ever attained Buddhahood with the manas bound by the fetter of doubt; nor has any Bodhisattva, with the manas bound by doubt, become a Mahayana Bodhisattva who shatters beginningless ignorance; nor has any sage of the liberation path, with the manas bound by doubt, liberated themselves from the suffering of birth and death in the three realms.