How to Relinquish Consciousness and Rely on the Faculties

Some say that the "faculty" in "relying on the faculties rather than consciousness" refers to sentient beings' spiritual faculties, but it actually refers to the manas. Spiritual faculties are also a function of consciousness; apart from consciousness, there is no way to speak of spiritual faculties. Good roots and spiritual faculties generally refer to the wisdom of the innate seventh consciousness, the manas.

"Relying on the faculties rather than consciousness" is something ordinary people can make use of when investigating Chan: setting aside the six consciousnesses—especially setting aside the mind consciousness's sentimental thinking, intellectual interpretations, pondering, conjecturing, analysis, inference, comparison, and judgment—and relying solely on the manas's capacity for deliberation (manana); only in this way can one realize the Path. After realizing the Path, subsequent cultivation should likewise rely as much as possible on the manas. Using the manas is more direct and penetrating, appearing straightforward, upright, pure, sincere, and immaculate; it can accomplish all things—one does what one says, and may even accomplish things without necessarily speaking of them.

Without meditative concentration (samādhi), it is very difficult to make use of the manas; one relies instead on the mind consciousness's inference and interpretation, which is easy but superficial. Understanding comes much faster than realization, but it is of no use: without meditative absorption (samādhi), there is no liberation and no ending of birth and death; once the mind consciousness ceases, it all becomes void. The deeper the meditative concentration, the more the manas is employed and the greater its power, the more effectively problems can be solved, and the more meditative absorption one has; the deeper the meditative absorption, the more penetrating the wisdom, and the greater the power of liberation.