How to Bring the Function of the Manas into Play to Attain Greater Wisdom (I)

Some people conducting scientific research say that our brain scans the external environment five times per second. What they are referring to is precisely the manas, but the frequency is not actually that slow—the instruments' measurements are inaccurate. The manas is constantly, moment by moment, instant by instant, grasping at the objects of the six sense objects. What is called grasping is the conditioned reflex mentioned in that research report—it is this very scanning. Conditioned reflexes belong to karmic force, seeds, habitual reactions, nerves, and so on—various aspects of things; they belong to reactions made by the manas. All dharmas that the manas contacts are manifested by the tathāgatagarbha. Whatever the tathāgatagarbha manifests, that is what the manas can condition upon. The manas is too nimble, and its grasping nature is too extensive. The things it can condition upon are not necessarily all known to the mind consciousness; there is much content that the mind consciousness does not know.

The scope of what the mind consciousness knows is not as broad as what the manas knows. The range that the manas conditions upon is quite extensive. Consider karmic force—the tathāgatagarbha produces it for you; the nervous system, every aspect, matters of the body and physiology—the tathāgatagarbha manifests all of these for you. After they are manifested, the manas conditions upon them first, and after the manas has conditioned upon them, sometimes He will directly make a response. Why is there a direct response? One reason is that the matter is too weighty; another is that His habitual tendencies drive it. Especially when it involves the body or matters concerning oneself, His habitual force can manifest very rapidly, leaving no room at all for the mind consciousness to initiate deliberation.

That research enables us to have a deeper appreciation of the natures of the mind consciousness and the manas, and a deeper understanding of all the object-aspects manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; we will then know that these object-aspects are all objects conditioned upon by the manas. The scope of what the mind consciousness can discern is still somewhat smaller than that of the manas. When can it discern more? When the mind consciousness possesses the wisdom of wondrous observation—after cultivating to the stage of a bodhisattva of the several bhūmis—its scope of discernment can come close to that of the manas. After becoming a Buddha, the scope and content of the two kinds of discernment may be nearly the same. Then the dharmas that the manas can condition upon, the sixth consciousness can also condition upon. All the dharmas manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, the mind consciousness with its wisdom of wondrous observation can also come to know.

That research shows that when a person's mind settles down and becomes quiet, inspiration will manifest. What does this mean? When the mind quiets down and settles, the mind consciousness becomes deeper and more subtle. That is to say, the mind consciousness no longer gives rise to coarse functions of thinking and analysis. But does the mind consciousness still exist? Here there is still the mind consciousness, only it is more profound and not easy to detect, and its power of introspection is somewhat weaker. Because the mind consciousness has already been clarified, there is no coarse discrimination, and the information transmitted to the manas is correspondingly reduced; the content transmitted is also deeper and more subtle, and at this time the manas will likewise settle into tranquility (praśama).