The More Thoroughly and Clearly the Mind Consciousness Is Understood, the More the Manas Can Accept and Submit.

The mind consciousness has strong capacity for thinking and analysis, and its discernment of the realms of mental sense-objects is relatively deep and subtle, so wisdom easily arises. The wisdom of the mind consciousness emerges through contact with the environment, in-depth learning, and careful deliberation. With this wisdom, one can lead the manas out of the mire and toward the bright great path, arriving at the homeland of ultimate bliss (sukhāvatī). Without the guidance of the mind consciousness, the manas would remain stuck in the mire for a long time, unable to extricate itself, and the five-aggregate body would remain forever in the cycle of birth and death (saṃsāra). Therefore, the mind consciousness is extremely important.

To think clearly and thoroughly, one must have a certain degree of meditative concentration (samādhi); lacking meditative concentration, this cannot be achieved. When deliberating within meditative concentration, the contemplation is deep and subtle; slowly and finely, one can penetrate deep into the manas. The deeper, subtler, and slower the contemplation, the more easily the manas can understand it. Moreover, He must participate in deep and subtle deliberation (manasikāra) before He can be touched by it; only with genuine, heartfelt cognition can He change His views, and then there will be a significant transformation in the mental activities (citta-caitta). The manas also possesses relatively weak discerning wisdom. When the mind consciousness deliberates deeply and subtly, He can, based on it, truly understand that the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) are without self, and thereby know the true meaning of selflessness. The manas originally did not hold this view, because He did not know these principles; this requires the mind consciousness to perform deep and detailed analysis on His behalf. For example, when educating a child, if one does not reason with the child but only forces and uses brute strength, although the child may have no choice but to comply outwardly, deep inside he does not understand, and thus he cannot genuinely accept it from the depths of his heart and correct his behavior—he will make the same mistake again next time. Therefore, persuasion and education through reasoning are absolutely necessary. The more thoroughly and clearly the principles are explained, the more readily he can accept and comply. The same applies to dealing with the manas.