How to Make the Manas Change All Dharmas

Question: If I continuously engage in visualization, or continuously recite the Buddha's name and chant sutras, when my skill is sufficient, the seventh consciousness will have been perfumed, and will it then automatically transform and emit the perfumed and cultivated seeds, changing the external environment? Because the external environment is also transformed out by the seventh consciousness, right?

Answer: Both seeds and realms are transformed out by the tathāgatagarbha impelled by the manas; the manas itself does not manifest seeds. In the process of study and practice, as long as the manas has sufficient strength and acquires sufficient energy, and the tathāgatagarbha complies with the manas's intentions, nothing is a problem. Realms turn according to the manas's mind. When the manas has been trained so that its mental power is very strong and it single-mindedly and very firmly wants to change realms, or wants to achieve some goal, it will certainly be able to fulfill that wish. If the wish has not yet been fulfilled, it is because the strength is still insufficient and further perfuming and cultivation are needed to accumulate strength. It is like pointing at a stone and turning it into gold—precisely because the manas's mental power is so strong that it forcibly transforms the stone into gold.  

When one has studied Buddhism well and the mind has become wholesome and gentle, before long one's appearance will change—all of this is the result of the mind's transformation. This mind mainly refers to the manas, but also includes the mind consciousness. What is called perfuming and dyeing the manas is changing one's own mind. Whether one's own mind has changed, what it has changed into, and to what degree—one should be able to know by observing carefully. Whether one's treatment of people and affairs, and one's cultivation of all dharmas, is sincere or perfunctory and pretentious—one should be able to observe this oneself; whatever is genuinely sincere involves the manas. Recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti) is divided into true recollection of the Buddha and false recollection of the Buddha; whether one is truly cultivating or merely pretending to cultivate for show—one should be able to observe this oneself. It is not easy to reach the degree of genuineness in the manas in doing anything; it requires conditions such as precepts, meditative concentration (samādhi), wisdom, and merit.

All mental activities are divided into two levels: the mind consciousness and the manas. For example, whether an act of generosity (dāna) is true generosity or merely going through the motions to show off can be distinguished by careful observation; whether one's treatment of one's parents is sincere filial devotion or false pretense can be distinguished by careful savoring. The cultivation that changes the mind mostly proceeds from quantitative change to qualitative change: the accumulation of quantity occurs in the mind consciousness, while qualitative change occurs in the manas—hence it is said that the mind consciousness is shallow and the manas is deep. If the manas has deep roots of goodness, great strength, and exceptional sincerity, it can directly achieve qualitative change, transforming everything, without needing to accumulate strength.

Perfuming and cultivating the manas requires long-term persistence: continuously upholding the precepts, making the great bodhicitta vow, constantly practicing meditative concentration, doing things with focused single-mindedness, excluding scattered and random thoughts, deliberating (manasikāra) single-pointedly, and accumulating much merit and other provisions. To subdue one's mind, in most cases the mind consciousness needs to deeply deliberate on the principles of the Dharma and on worldly suffering, in order to perfume, dye, and guide the manas; in individual cases one needs to hit the wall, to force oneself to turn back and change direction. Therefore hardship is necessary for growth; without experiencing hardship, there is no mind of renunciation and no courageous mind, and cultivation easily becomes lax.