The Manas Silently Containing All Dharmas Shows That the Manas Has a Wholesome and Unwholesome Nature

Original text of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume Four: 如意默容。十方三世。一切世间出世间法。唯圣与凡。无不包容。尽其涯际。当知意根圆满一千二百功德。

Explanation: For example, the manas can silently contain all worldly and supramundane dharmas of the three times—past, present, and future—throughout the ten directions; whether they are ultimate truth or conventional truth, whether they are the dharmas of noble ones or the dharmas of ordinary beings, all are embraced within it, exhausting the limits of all dharmas. Therefore, you should know that the manas is perfect and complete with one thousand two hundred merits.

"Silently" means quietly, covertly, without making a show; "contain" means to accommodate, accept, possess, direct attention toward (manaskāra), contact, perceive, deliberate, be associated with, take as object, know, and see. Why does the manas silently and covertly take all dharmas as its object, contact everything, see all dharmas, know all dharmas, and reject none of them? It is silent because the manas cannot speak, cannot write, and cannot use words, language, or sound to convey and reveal its own mental activities. It is covert because, most of the time, the mind consciousness does not understand Him, does not know Him, and does not know or see His mental activities and operations, nor His merits—hence it is called "covert." If the mind consciousness could fully comprehend the manas's merits and its operations upon all dharmas, then it would no longer be covert.

That the manas can contain all dharmas means it can take all dharmas as its object, accommodate and accept all dharmas, discern all dharmas, know and see all dharmas, and can exercise its five universal mental factors upon all dharmas, being associated with all dharmas—of course also associated with wholesome and unwholesome dharmas, able to contain both the wholesome and the unwholesome, itself possessing both wholesome and unwholesome natures. The range of dharmas that the manas can take as object and does take as object is extremely vast and boundless; the dharmas that the mind consciousness takes as object cannot compare with those of the manas, and neither is as vast as the dharmas that the tathāgatagarbha takes as object.

What is included among all these dharmas that the manas takes as object? First are the dharmas of the three times throughout the worlds of the ten directions—the largest spatial scope in the conventional world, and the largest temporal scope: past, present, and future. Within this maximal space and time, the dharmas the manas takes as object include all worldly dharmas—that is, the dharmas of future existence generated by the tathāgatagarbha using the seven intrinsically existing great seeds, such as material form, mind, and mental factors—as well as supramundane dharmas that must operate and manifest within the world, such as the tathāgatagarbha, buddha-nature, and suchness (tathatā), and the path practiced by noble ones—the ultimate truth, the truth of the highest meaning. Both noble and ordinary are embraced within it, all the way to the very edge of all dharmas, beyond which the manas can no longer take as object\: only the dharmas that the tathāgatagarbha alone can take as object, and the dharmas that lack worldly characteristics and do not operate within the world.

Because the manas can embrace dharmas of such a vast scope, having exhausted the limits of dharmas that operate within the world, He possesses the full one thousand two hundred merits, the most perfect and complete, second only to the merits of the tathāgatagarbha. Thus, without question, the manas also contains the dharmas of noble ones and the dharmas of ordinary beings, contains wholesome and unwholesome dharmas, and possesses the wholesome and unwholesome natures, the wholesome and unwholesome mental factors, and mental activities. If it were not so, the manas's merits would not have exhausted the limits of all dharmas; there would be dharmas it could not contain, and its merits would not be perfect and complete.

This passage was spoken by the World-Honored One when expounding the merits of the manas—that the manas can be perfect and complete with one thousand two hundred merits. He did not say that the mind consciousness's merits are perfect and complete, because the mind consciousness arises and ceases moment by moment, cannot act autonomously, cannot span the three times, and even with the dharmas of the present life it cannot be all-encompassing; there are many dharmas it cannot take as object and cannot discern—let alone the dharmas of the ten directions and three times, which it certainly cannot reach. Therefore, the mind consciousness is not an ultimate dharma, not a fundamental dharma, and is not worth relying upon. In cultivation, one must cultivate the fundamental dharma, the reliable dharma, the dharma that can act autonomously; only by eliminating the manas's ignorance and perfecting the manas's wisdom can one attain buddhahood.