Cultivation means cultivating the manas and transforming the manas

Question: If the emotion of hatred reaches the point of gritting one's teeth, that is the manas's deep hatred, a reaction of the manas. Does the manas have the minor affliction of hatred?

Answer: The manas is the consciousness that takes charge. The bodily, verbal, and mental actions are directed and commanded by the manas. The bodily activity of gritting one's teeth is created through the manas's direction and command. No matter what thoughts, ideas, or emotions the mind consciousness has, it cannot direct and command the body to produce the phenomenon of gritting one's teeth. If you regard the manas as a normal conscious mind, it becomes easy to understand all of the manas's mental activities, and there will be no misunderstanding.

The manas is the master of the five-aggregate body, constantly dominating all bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the five-aggregate body. Our cultivation is precisely the cultivation of the manas, the transformation of the manas. After the manas has undergone the three transformations of consciousness into wisdom, one becomes a Buddha. If the manas did not have certain ignorance and afflictions, then cultivation would only require cultivating the mind consciousness, and there would be no need to attend to the manas. Cultivating the mind consciousness is extremely simple, extremely relaxed, and easy: once one has learned the principles, the mind consciousness deliberates and understands, becomes clear and wise, and the mental activities can then change and be transformed. But in reality, cultivation is very difficult; it is not that simple and fast. Changing oneself is hard; it requires long-term immersion, long-term introspection, and subduing oneself through encountering circumstances in the course of experience, before one can make even a little progress. The manas's ignorance and afflictions are extremely numerous and extremely deep, and are not easy to subdue and eliminate—that is why cultivation feels difficult.

The twelve links of dependent origination show that the manas's ignorance leads to the subsequent immeasurable suffering of birth-and-death in saṃsāra, which demonstrates that the manas possesses all ignorance and afflictions. If the manas had no ignorance and afflictions, and only the mind consciousness had them, there would not be the suffering of birth-and-death in saṃsāra for beginningless kalpas, for the mind consciousness's ignorance and afflictions are all easy to resolve. So one should further consider: where do the mind consciousness's ignorance and afflictions come from? The "self" we usually speak of refers to the manas, mainly to the manas. As soon as we say "I," it is the manas's views and concepts that emerge—the deeply rooted, deeply habituated views and concepts of self are the manas. Therefore, if you want to observe the manas, just observe your own arising thoughts and mental habits and inertia. The self is the manas; to observe the manas, observe the self. Working from this angle, it is not difficult. The deep, hard-to-detect and hard-to-observe views and concepts within the mind all belong to the manas; the deeply rooted, bone-deep habitual afflictions and wisdom all belong to the manas, extremely hidden, hard to know and hard to change. The mind consciousness's views and concepts all float on the surface; they are easily immersed, easily discovered, easily subdued, and easily changed. If cultivation did not involve the manas, then learning Buddhism would be relaxed and pleasant, and becoming a Buddha would also be very fast.

All the functions and roles of the manas within the five aggregates can be observed. Only by knowing what the facts are and what the truth is can one say what the manas has or does not have, or state it precisely, or state it with certainty. Otherwise, one must follow what the Buddha said: "Beware of trusting your own mind, for your mind is not to be trusted." One's own judgments are severely limited by the wisdom of direct perception. When wisdom is insufficient and one cannot observe something, one must cultivate diligently, striving to be able to observe things as they truly are and to observe them through direct perception as soon as possible, thereby obtaining true wisdom, wisdom that accords with reality, and wisdom of direct perception. Before that, doubt is, after all, still doubt; one cannot draw a conclusion that accords with reality, so one should not draw a conclusion. Learning Buddhism and cultivating must proceed with this attitude; only then will there be no fault of mistaken evaluation and mistaken judgment. Strive to connect and integrate the Dharma, and the meaning of the Dharma will become clear and coherent.