The Key to Buddhist Practice and Realization

Some people have had this kind of experience: regarding certain questions, when the mind consciousness cannot understand them, they set the doubt aside for the time being. After a period of time, a thought suddenly pops up in the mind, and they understand the question, and thus the doubt is resolved. The thought that pops up in the mind is the answer given by the manas; it may not yet be entirely definitive, and the mind consciousness still needs to deliberate on it carefully. So although the mind consciousness, with respect to certain questions, appears on the surface not to be thinking about them or dwelling on them, the manas has not let go and has been deliberating all along. Because the data provided by the mind consciousness is insufficient, the manas cannot deliberate out a final conclusion, but at the very least there is now a direction and a clue. There is only laziness of the mind consciousness, never laziness of the manas. Therefore, in cultivation one must still constantly spur on the mind consciousness, engage in much deliberation and contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), gather and accumulate much data and information, and let the manas grasp more evidence—then realization and enlightenment will come quickly.

When the mind consciousness is not thinking, or is doing something else, and an answer suddenly appears—the mind consciousness did not deliberate on it—that is a provisional conclusion the manas arrived at after its own deliberation. Why does the answer suddenly appear? Because the deliberative function of the manas is completely unobservable to the mind consciousness; when the manas understands, it alerts the mind consciousness, and the mind consciousness feels that the understanding came suddenly, and so one feels surprised in the mind. If it is a question the mind consciousness has been thinking about all along, the understanding comes bit by bit in a continuous stream; it does not feel sudden, and one is not surprised or astonished, because one is mentally prepared.

Once these methods and processes of deliberation are mastered and put into use, the key to the cultivation and realization of the Buddha-dharma is also grasped, and one's capacity for logical thinking will improve; thereafter, the cultivation and realization of the Buddha-dharma will proceed rapidly.