What Is the Mechanism Behind "the Sight of Plums Quenching Thirst" and "Hearing About Enzymes Triggering Acid Secretion"?

What is the principle behind quenching thirst by thinking of plums and salivating upon hearing about vinegar? Without drinking water or eating anything, the problem of thirst is resolved. Who resolved it? When thirsty, there is no saliva; when there is saliva, the mouth is no longer thirsty. How does saliva appear? The brain issues a command, transmitted to various parts or a specific part of the body, triggering a certain reaction. Who issues the brain's command? It is issued by the manas (mind faculty). The ālaya-vijñāna (storehouse consciousness) executes the command, supplying what is needed to satisfy the manas and achieve its purpose. Therefore, if the manas has no desire, can any state appear? No state would appear, and no change would occur.

Why does the manas, upon hearing about vinegar, cause salivation? The "hearing" here naturally refers to the ear consciousness and mental consciousness hearing it, after which the information is conveyed to the manas, which then becomes aware of the vinegar. Knowing that vinegar is sour and what its nature is – is this known by the mental consciousness, the manas, or both? Based on past experience, upon knowing the nature and effect of vinegar, one's imagination runs wild as if vinegar were truly in the mouth. The manas, deceived and misled, causes the physical body to produce the appropriate reaction, and sour saliva appears in the mouth, thus temporarily resolving the thirst problem.

From this, it can be seen that the mental consciousness cognizes non-validly, and the manas, unaware of being deceived, gives rise to abnormal phenomena. It is evident that since beginningless time, the mental consciousness has frequently deceived the manas, and then the manas causes the mental consciousness to suffer.

The solitary mental consciousness imagines one's foot standing on the edge of a cliff, causing the sole to feel numb and the whole body to tremble. Due to fear of falling, it tightly controls the body faculty, tensing it up. Who causes this? It is caused by the manas, a result of the ālaya-vijñāna activating and cooperating. Due to the mental consciousness's improper mental attention, the manas also engages in improper mental attention, subsequently issuing erroneous emergency measures and commands, leading to abnormal reactions in the body faculty.

Since beginningless time, the perverse guidance of the mental consciousness toward the manas has caused the manas to continuously tread a wrong path, unable to return to the right path. The perverse guidance of the mental consciousness results from the manas's ignorance and delusion. If the manas were free from ignorance, the mental consciousness would certainly be entirely clear, without perverse knowledge, perverse views, or perverse guidance, and the manas would never have perverse views.

You deceive me, so I deceive you – this is cause and effect. You are perverse, so I become perverse, and then I cause you to be perverse – this is cause and effect. Therefore, the cause of the cycle of rebirth in the three realms and six paths, the cause of birth and death, is the ignorance of the manas. And the ignorance of the manas has existed since beginningless time, residing within the ālaya-vijñāna, enabling the ālaya-vijñāna to give rise to birth and death. This is the suffering of samsara.