How to Subdue the Defiled Manas and Alleviate Afflictions

Jing He's contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā): Recently I have also gained a small insight regarding the manas: I feel that the manas's "actions" are layered. Before the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna) arises, its main characteristic is doubtfulness; only after the consciousness accompanied by the five senses arises does it display obvious characteristics such as greed and anger. In daily life, one generally only comes to reflect after afflictive habits such as greed and anger have already arisen; in sitting meditation, one should try to reflect and introspect right at the moment when the consciousness accompanied by the five senses first arises. However, this process of reflecting and letting go generally requires the mind consciousness to do some guiding, and one cannot let go immediately upon reflecting (this is because the manas has not yet fully accepted the emptiness (śūnyatā) of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha)). What troubles me now is precisely this.

Assessment: The manas's initial doubt is uncertainty about the dharma, so it cannot yet make a decision. Once the mind becomes certain and free of doubt, a decision will be made, and after the decision, the six consciousnesses arise and act according to the manas's wishes. During the process of acting, the mind consciousness observes the dharma, and in the observation discovers that it has greed, anger, and delusion — this "self" refers to the manas. The manas's greed, anger, and delusion are manifested through the actions of the six consciousnesses. At this point, the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) has the power of observation or the power of introspection (pratyavekṣā-bala). Generally speaking, when the solitary consciousness's awareness is not very strong, one only observes one's own habits of greed, anger, and delusion after the bodily, verbal, and mental actions have been completed — this is one step too late. If the solitary consciousness has strong awareness, then at the moment when one is about to decide to act, one discovers that one has greed, anger, and delusion, that what one is about to do is an unwholesome karmic action of greed, anger, and delusion, and one decides not to act. This decision is fed back to the manas, and the manas then makes its own decision; what the final outcome will be depends on the manas's awareness.

If the manas's awareness is not strong and its habitual tendencies are heavy, it will still insist on its own decision, unwilling to change its bodily, verbal, and mental actions, letting the afflictions continue to manifest. But even so, the solitary consciousness's introspection still has an effect: it plants a seed in the manas, perfuming the manas, letting the manas know that this kind of behavior is greed, anger, and delusion, that it is bad and should not be done. The next time the manas wants to manifest afflictions, there will be hesitation and obstruction in the mind, and the force of the afflictions will be lessened. Through the mind consciousness's repeated prevention and persuasion, the manas's mind will change and will no longer continue the afflictive actions. Therefore, cultivation is not something accomplished overnight. Every instance of the mind consciousness's introspection is a perfuming of the manas, planting seeds for the elimination of afflictions, and these seeds will sooner or later take root, sprout, blossom, and bear fruit. The manas's afflictions accumulated over countless lifetimes are piled up like a mountain and cannot be changed in a short time; patient, sustained cultivation is necessary, and one should constantly maintain awareness.