The Most Formidable Aspect of the Manas

Question: According to the findings of modern psychology, the manas also participates in the process of constructing the human body. Therefore, under correct guidance, the manas can restore or correct abnormal conditions of the body. It is like a watchmaker—the watch is something he made, so when something goes wrong, he knows how to fix it. Is this statement correct?

Answer: The construction of the physical body is something the tathāgatagarbha does entirely on its own, in accordance with karmic seeds. The manas does not understand these things and cannot offer much help. Therefore, restoring the body's condition is entirely the business of the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha knows the karmic seeds and discerns karmic conditions, and thus naturally knows how to alter the physical body; nevertheless, it must also, as much as possible, alter all dharmas—including the physical body—in accordance with the manas's intentions.

On the one hand, the alteration of the physical body is also the result of the tathāgatagarbha, moment by moment, according with the manas's mental deliberation (caitta of deliberation). Whatever the manas wants to do, the tathāgatagarbha does its utmost to cooperate and realize its wishes—this is the most important point. This is the manas's greatest power: holding the Son of Heaven hostage to command the feudal lords.

The mind consciousness, however, cannot do this. The tathāgatagarbha does not cooperate with the mind consciousness; it only cooperates with the manas. The mind consciousness must pass through the manas's vetting and approval before its own wishes can be realized. Therefore it is said that realizing the tathāgatagarbha at the level of the manas is extremely easy. Whoever realizes the manas's wishes, whoever discerns the manas's wishes, whoever delivers seeds of consciousness to the manas—it is all the tathāgatagarbha. The entire operation and activity of the manas is the tathāgatagarbha; the entire activity of the five-aggregate body is the tathāgatagarbha. There is nothing else—pure and unmixed, it is all the tathāgatagarbha. A cloth doll is cloth through and through.

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