The Relationship Between Thought-Free Awareness and the Manas

"Ling" (spirit) means keenness and agility, while "being free of thoughts" means temporarily departing from thoughts and mental notions. Such knowing can belong to the mind consciousness, or to the manas. For the mind consciousness, being free of thoughts is relatively easy to achieve; for the manas, it is relatively difficult, but not impossible. Why can the mind consciousness be free of thoughts? First, the manas has no desires or ideas, does not cling to sense objects, and has no coarse thoughts or notions; second, the mind consciousness itself has no desire to discern objects, and there is nothing it dwells upon—only then will it not mobilize the mind consciousness to deliberate, to think, to imagine, or to fabricate. As for those extremely subtle thoughts and notions of the manas, they manifest bodily, verbal, and mental actions without the participation of the mind consciousness, and the mind consciousness is also unable to detect or take part in them.

At this time the manas is in a somewhat tranquil (praśama) state, that is, a state of meditative concentration (samādhi), a state without desire or seeking. Therefore, when the mind consciousness is in a state free of thoughts, it must be that the manas is tranquil and in meditative concentration, no matter how deep that concentration is or how long it lasts. In fact, at this time there are still subtle thoughts; without thoughts, how could there be knowing? It is merely that when one is extremely familiar with the object, one can know it without effortful discrimination; at this time mental activity is extremely slight, and this is called "the numinous knowing free of thoughts." The term "numinous knowing free of thoughts" does not come from the Buddhist sūtras; the sūtras contain no specific description of it—it is a concept later people proposed according to their own ideas, and it is not very accurate. Observing and discerning this requires very profound cultivation in Yogācāra and keen powers of observation.