The Verification of All Dharmas Lies in the Manas

All sentient beings take the functional operations of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) as the self, and especially take the feelings and perceptions of the six consciousnesses of the aggregate of consciousness as self and what belongs to self, clinging to their own feelings and perceptions, and on account of this they create various wholesome and unwholesome karmic actions, even not hesitating to create unwholesome karmic actions; consequently, these karmic actions cause them to sink into birth-and-death and undergo painful retribution. Where do the feelings and perceptions of the six consciousnesses come from? They arise after the faculties and sense objects make contact; thereafter, the manas takes these feelings and perceptions as self and grasps them, creating ignorant karma of craving and attachment. To liberate oneself from birth-and-death, one must engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the illusory, unreal nature of the feelings and perceptions of the six consciousnesses—their nature of suffering, their emptiness (śūnyatā), and their non-self nature. Knowing that feelings and perceptions are empty, illusory, and unreal, one no longer pays attention to them; as the mind gradually becomes empty, one can eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) and no longer grasp at feelings and perceptions. The afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion will then be weakened and eliminated, and one will no longer create ignorant and unwholesome karma. Being able to contemplate feelings and perceptions as empty is an extremely important matter. The five aggregates are without self, and feelings and perceptions are also not self—this is a very important ideological concept.

 The feelings and perceptions of the six consciousnesses are easy to observe, but the feelings and perceptions of the hidden manas behind them are extremely important and crucial. Because the manas has feelings, it has the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion; because it grasps at feelings and perceptions, it drives the six consciousnesses to create karmic actions. The manas regards all dharmas as "mine," as belonging to self, and takes the mind consciousness as its own function. Therefore, eradicating the view of self means eradicating the manas's view of self, and realizing enlightenment also requires the manas to realize the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha. Thus, the realization of all dharmas lies entirely with the manas, not with the mind consciousness. Through contemplative practice that is truthful and in accord with principle, the more one practices contemplation, the more one feels that the most fundamental cultivation and realization lies in the manas. The manas is the key to becoming a Buddha and also the master of the cycle of birth-and-death. When the manas has been successfully cultivated through permeation, one attains liberation and accomplishes the Buddha Way.

When the manas, through investigation and deliberation (manasikāra/manana), once realizes the Dharma, it will overturn its previous attention that was not in accord with reality; its mental activities change, it no longer grasps at the five aggregates, and it attains initial liberation—this is the key to cultivation. Why is it that some people, after studying a great deal of theory, all feel that the five aggregates are not self, feeling they are empty and illusory, yet they still create defiled karmic actions for the sake of the body of the five aggregates, without the slightest change in their mental activities? Because that kind of "feeling" is the kind of feeling belonging to the mind consciousness's intellectual understanding, which simply does not count. Since the manas has not realized it through direct verification, it will, as always, continue to acknowledge and take up the five aggregates, following along with the afflictions of its own mind to create karma. Therefore, all such feelings are unreliable; any dharma only counts when it is realized by the manas.

The manas also constantly takes the various merits of the tathāgatagarbha as its own, taking all the dharmas produced by the tathāgatagarbha as self and what belongs to self, not knowing that all dharmas are illusorily manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, and not knowing that even itself is manifested by the tathāgatagarbha—this is why it creates ignorant karmic actions. Studying and learning the Buddhadharma means first letting the mind consciousness know theoretically that these dharmas are without self, knowing the reality of the tathāgatagarbha, and then permeating and influencing the manas, letting the manas deliberate upon and realize the tathāgatagarbha within all dharmas, realizing that all dharmas are neither self nor what belongs to self.

All dharmas are illusorily manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; none of them belongs to the manas—they are all functional operations of the tathāgatagarbha. Only after the manas realizes this principle will its mind become empty, and only then can it no longer grasp at the self of the five aggregates. In this way, one can not only eradicate the self-grasping but also eradicate the grasping at dharmas; when the grasping at dharmas is completely eradicated, one perfectly becomes a Buddha. Therefore, the key to cultivation lies entirely in the manas. Ignorance belongs to the manas; eradicating ignorance means eradicating the manas's ignorance, and eradicating afflictions also means eradicating the manas's afflictions. Attaining liberation means letting the manas attain liberation. When the manas no longer grasps at any dharma, there is no bondage—this is liberation. Who is it that becomes a Buddha? Because the six consciousnesses cease and extinguish in every single life and every single existence, the six consciousnesses cannot become a Buddha; it is the manas that becomes a Buddha. The tathāgatagarbha also does not become a Buddha. But in the ultimate level of truth, even the manas does not become a Buddha—on the day one becomes a Buddha, one will know: there is no Buddha to be attained; only then can one perfectly become a Buddha.