How to Successfully Cultivate the Manas through Perfuming

Training and permeating the manas means making the manas accept a certain correct, true, and Dharma-conformable principle. This process of permeation is like working through a mathematical proof: we repeatedly analyze and simplify the principle of a problem, and this process of analysis is the process of finding evidence for the manas, permeating the manas, and making the manas understand. When the evidence is conclusive, the manas is persuaded, and finally the manas realizes this principle and acknowledges the correctness of the problem. This is similar to starting from known conditions, combining them with known theorems, adding rigorous thinking and reasoning, and finally arriving at an unshakable conclusion—that is realization. This process is the process of seeking verification; realization is also called seeking verification. "Seeking" means to investigate and infer; the seeking is done by the mind consciousness, with the support and cooperation of the manas behind it. "Realization" means attaining, understanding, and comprehending.

The problem now is that we know the conclusion—that the five aggregates and eighteen realms are all empty and not self—but the manas does not understand or accept it, so we must find a way to prove it to Him. Each portion proven causes the manas to be tamed and purified by that portion, and there is that much benefit, bringing us one step closer to the great Path. Practice works on exactly this principle: the Buddha has given us the conclusion, that is, the truth, and we must find a way to prove the correctness of that conclusion and truth; then we ourselves attain the truth, gain great wisdom, and can attain great liberation.

If, in the course of practice, body and mind do not change, it shows that the mind consciousness has not presented the evidence to the manas; the manas does not accept it, and He clings to body and mind without letting go, so body and mind cannot attain liberation. Therefore, whether one's own process of verification in practice has been effective, and whether the evidence is sufficient, can be seen from whether body and mind have changed, whether one can pass through afflictive situations, whether the mind has become a bit purer, and whether one has gained wise understanding; if not, then the proof is inadequate, the practice has not succeeded, and what one possesses is merely theory, not personal realization. Whether the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) has been eradicated and whether one has seen the mind and seen one's nature—transformation of body, mind, and world is one criterion; whether it is understanding through intellectual comprehension or realization through awakening—this too serves as a criterion.