眾生無邊誓願度
煩惱無盡誓願斷
法門無量誓願學
佛道無上誓願成

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Dharma Teachings

11 Oct 2020    Sunday     1st Teach Total 2691

What is the meaning of "mind" in the Buddha's saying, "Take heed not to believe your mind"?

The Buddha said: 汝意不可信,慎勿信汝意,得阿罗汉道,乃可信汝意。

Faith is divided into deep faith and shallow faith, genuine faith and false faith. Deep faith and genuine faith refer to the belief deep within the manas, while shallow faith and false faith refer to the superficial belief at the level of the mind consciousness, or the mind consciousness deliberately pretending to believe while the manas does not actually believe.

As for "mind," one refers to the views, opinions, perspectives, and propositions deep within the manas; the other refers to the views, opinions, perspectives, and propositions of the mind consciousness.

Believing one's own mind has distinctions at different levels: First, the mind consciousness believes the views, opinions, perspectives, and propositions of the manas; second, the manas believes the views, opinions, perspectives, and propositions of the mind consciousness; third, the manas believes the views, opinions, perspectives, and propositions of the manas itself; fourth, the mind consciousness believes the views, opinions, perspectives, and propositions of the mind consciousness itself. In addition, there are many other situations, such as when the mind consciousness believes but the manas does not, or when the manas believes but the mind consciousness does not, and so on.

Because the manas has deeply rooted ignorance and defilement, deeply rooted view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and wrong view/false view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi), and the beginningless ignorance is innate and cannot be reversed; yet because of ignorance, the manas of sentient beings deeply believes its own wrong views and refuses to be transformed, so that life after life it leads the mind consciousness to hold wrong views, creating ignorant and defiled karma, with birth and death in saṃsāra continuing without end. In order to deliver such sentient beings, the World-Honored One turned the light inward to reflect on His own ignorance and afflictions, admonishing sentient beings not to believe their own inherent views; only after cultivating and realizing the fruit of the arhat of the fourth fruit, eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and self-grasping completely, when the mind attains purity (viśuddha) and wisdom brings liberation, can one believe one's own views and opinions. Before that, due to the obstruction of afflictions, insufficient wisdom, and incorrect views, if one believes one's own views without doubt, one cannot escape the pit of ignorance and attain liberation from birth and death.

——Master Sheng-Ru's Teachings
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