How to Successfully Perfume and Cultivate the Manas

Training and refining the manas means making the manas accept a certain correct, true, and Dharma-conforming principle. This process of training 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, training 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 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 infer and investigate; 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 the eighteen realms are all empty and not self—but the manas does not understand and does not accept it, so we must find a way to prove it to Him. Each portion we prove, the manas is subdued by that portion and purified by that portion, and we gain that portion of benefit, moving one step closer to the great Way. Practice works exactly this way: 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 achieve great liberation.

If body and mind do not change during practice, it shows that the mind consciousness has not presented the evidence to the manas, and the manas does not accept it; He clings tightly to body and mind, and thus body and mind cannot be liberated. Therefore, whether one's own process of verification in practice has been effective, and whether the evidence is sufficient, depends on 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, the proof is inadequate, the practice has not succeeded, and what one possesses is merely theory, not actual realization. In testing whether one has eliminated the self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) and has awakened to the true mind and seen one's nature, the transformation of body, mind, and world is one criterion; whether it is intellectual understanding or realization—this too serves as a criterion.