Questions and Answers on the Contemplative Practice of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness 22

Answer: When breathing naturally, there is no manas directing it, let alone the mind consciousness. Unnatural breathing is controlled by the mind consciousness and the manas, while autonomous breathing is controlled and led by the mind consciousness. Many of the body's own life activities are operated single-handedly by the tathāgatagarbha; sometimes the manas will go to control them, and sometimes the mind consciousness will go to control them—though of course the mind consciousness's control actually works by influencing the manas, causing the manas to do the controlling. As for natural operations that we cannot perceive, the manas does not necessarily participate in them.

Answer: If you have the thought of making life more brilliant, isn't this a very heavy self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi)? Isn't the thought of "self" precisely the suffering of birth and death? Taking the life of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) as self, delighting in the body of the five aggregates, craving and clinging to the body of the five aggregates, wanting to perpetuate the body of the five aggregates, and giving rise to a grasping mind (upādāna)—then one cannot eliminate the origin of suffering and understand suffering, and the anguish of birth and death will become even heavier, running contrary to cultivation. One should study the Four Noble Truths of suffering, its origin, cessation, and the path thoroughly, beginning with contemplating suffering. Only by knowing suffering can one give rise to the aspiration to cultivate the path and enter the Way. In fact, once contemplation of the breath gets on track, one can arrive at the conclusion that the five aggregates are suffering—whatever involves fabrication is suffering. Nearly every thought of an ordinary being contains a self and manifests a self; not knowing that having a self is suffering.

Answer: In autonomous breathing, the mind consciousness and the manas regulate the breathing; under ordinary circumstances the mind consciousness does not regulate the breathing. In the fourth dhyāna there is no phenomenon of breathing, which shows that the meditative concentration is very deep: the manas no longer regulates the breathing, and the breathing stops. If breathing did not involve the manas, then the state of breathing should remain the same forever and never change.

When contemplating the breath, it is the mind consciousness that contemplates; there is the awareness of the body consciousness, so there is the awareness of the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses (pañcavijñāna-sahagata-manovijñāna). If one's attention is focused, the manas contemplates simultaneously along with the mind consciousness; if attention is not focused, the manas only lightly attends to it, and because it is not concentrated, no particular feelings or thoughts will arise. When contemplating the breath, if the mind follows the breath down to the dantian, the dantian will grow warm, the heat will radiate, and perhaps one will sweat automatically. Being able to move the qi to the dantian and having the phenomenon of sweating shows that the manas's attention has reached the dantian, and only then does the qi follow and arrive there; the mind consciousness alone does not have this power.