How to Train the Manas to Think and Solve Problems

When we encounter a problem, we should not rush to immediately use the mind consciousness to think, analyze, and draw conclusions. If the matter is not particularly urgent, settle the mind down, try your best to eliminate distracting thoughts, and keep the mind focused solely on the matter at hand—without analysis by the mind consciousness, without reasoning by the mind consciousness, without judgment by the mind consciousness, and even less with conclusions from the mind consciousness. Empty out other thoughts and focus on this problem; there should be no words or language in the mind, no inner voice. Quietly fix your attention on this problem, but the mind is not empty, and it is not that the problem is not being considered—rather, the manas is quietly suspending this problem in the mind, silently deliberating on it.

The mind consciousness is not thinking or analyzing, yet the manas is facing this problem, thinking and deliberating without words, language, or sounds. When one lacks experience, or when the mind is not subtle, one cannot perceive the manas's mental activity, but He indeed has a great deal of mental activity—it is merely covered up by the activity of the mind consciousness. Some people's manas has very weak energy and very weak thinking power, because they have too many scattered, fragmentary distracting thoughts that disperse all the energy, resulting in insufficient mental power, unable to concentrate on thinking about one problem, and unable to solve a problem perfectly, reasonably, and in depth.

One important reason why sentient beings' wisdom is inferior and weak is that they have many distracting thoughts; their minds are messy and chaotic, without a clear main thread, without focus. It is like a combat team whose members each act on their own; the team's strength is dispersed and cannot gather together to form a mighty force to bravely and successfully fight against hostile forces, with the result that they are routed in the face of every hostile force. Another important reason is meager merit (alpa-puṇya)—a severe lack of merit, without the support of merit—but let us not discuss this for now.

Therefore, in order to enhance wisdom—especially to enhance the wisdom of the manas—one must eliminate distracting thoughts and be able to concentrate the mind on very few, important, key problems. To achieve this, one must restrain the mind consciousness and use it less, trying as much as possible not to employ the mind consciousness's words, language, and sounds; do not always have an inner voice, do not always have a monologue. At times it does not matter if there is a conscious monologue in the mind, but in addition to this, there should also be the manas's focused deliberation: while the mind consciousness monologues on one side, the manas deliberates on the other, and what the two focus on should be the same thing. At this time, the manas's energy becomes great and its power concentrated, and it will break through the inner darkness and ignorance, find the root of the problem, and solve the problem at its root.

When the manas has deliberated clearly, it can solve the problem at its root; whereas a problem that the mind consciousness has figured out, even if solved, is not thorough, not secure, and not reassuring—moreover, it is not easy to solve the problem. Because the manas is the consciousness that makes decisions, when He has considered a problem clearly Himself, He will not regret it after solving it; when following the mind consciousness's analysis, one easily regrets and easily changes one's mind and thoughts. Fickle people are those who habitually use the mind consciousness to think and do not use the manas; they are relatively shallow people. People without their own ideas, people who like to depend on others, are all unaccustomed to using the manas to think about problems and instead habitually use the mind consciousness—because their own mind consciousness cannot be relied upon, they have no choice but to depend on others.

Using the manas to think about and solve problems, although secure, reliable, thorough, and ultimate, able to reach directly to the root, is often rather slow, because deep thinking is slow, and only shallow thinking is fast. It is like digging a well: digging deep takes effort and is slow; digging shallow takes little effort and is fast. But digging slowly can reach water, while digging quickly cannot bring forth water. Therefore slow is fast, and fast is also slow; the results differ, so one should not seek speed—quality comes first. It is the same when we think about and solve problems: thinking deeply and making choices takes some time, but slow work yields fine craftsmanship, and the result is perfect. A person accustomed to deep thinking, a person accustomed to using the manas, generally thinks rather slowly and does things rather slowly too, but relatively speaking the results are good, less prone to error, and less prone to regret.

If you want good results in doing things and solving problems, do not aim for speed; think deeply and carefully, use the manas more for thinking and making choices, train the manas's thinking power more, and practice more the concentration and observation that are without words, language, and sounds. After a long time of training, when the manas has become skillful in use, you will discover that thinking with the manas has great charm and interest, great attraction—the more you think, the less you want to stop—and so you come to enjoy solitude and do not want to be disturbed; moreover, your wisdom becomes deeper and deeper, and solving problems becomes more and more effortless. When a person's manas has been well trained and become habitual, that person appears very deep, with great substance and distinctive qualities, profound in thought, unique in insight, strong in ability—and, crucially, steady and reliable, trustworthy, not constantly changing his mind.