The Key to Managing Bodily, Verbal, and Mental Actions

If one manages one's own mind and manas well, one can manage well the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses. An arhat's manas has long since been tamed, afflictions eliminated, with nothing in the world to linger over or crave; from the stage of non-returner (Anāgāmin) onward, the mind is liberated, and bodily, verbal, and mental actions are pure. When going out on alms rounds, he looks at the ground a foot ahead, with lowered brows and gentle eyes, paying no heed to left, right, or other directions; the eye does not contact indiscriminately, the mind does not think indiscriminately—either single-minded or without mind. When the eye inevitably contacts material sense-objects, he stops upon knowing the form, giving rise to neither feeling nor perception, still less grasping; no karmic seeds remain, and he takes no further rebirth. His deportment in the four postures moves the assemblies of humans and devas.

If there is external conditioning from the environment, the mind consciousness is not influenced by it, and the manas even less so; even if the mind consciousness stirs slightly, the manas does not stir, because afflictions have been utterly eliminated. There is no need for the mind consciousness to urge, supervise, or regulate; rather, the manas can regulate the mind consciousness. As for ordinary beings whose practice is relatively on track, they must constantly and everywhere use the mind consciousness to supervise, regulate, and restrain the manas, because the manas has not yet been influenced by wholesome conditioning; without regulation it will transgress against others, and its innate nature will be exposed. Therefore, one who always needs the mind consciousness to remind oneself is still far from genuine cultivation; as for those whose mind consciousness is even muddled and unclear, there is simply no question of any practice at all. Only after the manas has been influenced by wholesome conditioning and ignorance has been broken through can bodily, verbal, and mental actions gradually become pure—automatic and self-aware, requiring no watching over.