The Benefits of Deliberating with the Manas

Question: I seem to understand how to use the manas to deliberate (manasikāra). It is a mental activity that cannot involve thinking—once I think, the mind consciousness gets involved, and once the mind consciousness is involved, that state becomes less deep and subtle. Is that right? This state lasts only a very short time. When the deliberation reaches a point where the problem gets stuck, I use the mind consciousness to think, and immediately the state is no longer so deep and subtle. Also, when meditating, once I apply initial application and sustained examination (vitarka-vicāra) to the state of the body, a feeling arises that this material body does not exist—there is only a body constituted of slight sensations and the mind consciousness, very unreal. Suddenly a thought arose: the things one normally sees are merely images, manifested appearances. I had this kind of feeling, but after emerging from meditation, looking around, everything still seemed so real.

Answer: You can now probably distinguish whether, during meditation, it is the mind consciousness that is thinking or the manas that is deliberating, and the method you are using is also correct. It is just that your skill is not yet proficient and effortless; you need to take it slowly and gradually deepen your foundation. When contemplating the Dharma in stillness, it is indeed true that when the manas is employed, the mind is very deep and subtle, whereas when the mind consciousness is used, it is somewhat superficial, as if separated by a layer—not deep or penetrating enough.

When observing the material body during meditation with fairly strong focus, your meditative concentration (samādhi) will improve. As the concentration deepens, the initial application and sustained examination (vitarka-vicāra) actually become slighter, the awareness of the material body disappears, and the mind becomes empty. Meditative concentration can make the mind fine, dense, and precise; it often allows one to observe things that cannot be observed ordinarily, to discover the truth of things, and thereby to penetrate and awaken to the truth. So when, within concentration, you feel that some things you see seem like images and are no longer so real, this is a correct view. On the basis of this correct view, if you further refine your practice to proficiency, there is hope for realization and enlightenment.

After realization and enlightenment, upon emerging from meditation you will no longer take illusory dharmas to be real. Before realization, correct views are merely views and cannot change anything. Nevertheless, correct views do, after all, involve some departure from false cognition and a turning toward discovering the truth of things. If you maintain and deepen this state of practice, you will be better able to see through the extreme illusoriness and unreality of all kinds of phenomena and principles, and when the causes, conditions, and season are complete, it becomes possible to realize emptiness (śūnyatā). Therefore, the realization of all dharmas is achieved within profound meditative concentration (dhyāna). Even during activity, there is meditative concentration, and such concentration derives from the meditative discipline of sitting meditation; it is the extension and continuation of concentration in stillness.