How to Train the Manas to Think and Solve Problems (Manas Training Series)

When we encounter a problem, we should not rush to immediately use the mind consciousness to think, analyze, and draw conclusions. If the matter is not particularly urgent, settle the mind down, try your best to exclude distracting thoughts, and keep the mind fixed solely on the matter at hand—without analysis by the mind consciousness, without reasoning by the mind consciousness, without judgment by the mind consciousness, and even more so without conclusions from the mind consciousness. Empty out other thoughts and fix attention on this problem; there should be no language or words in the mind, no inner voice—quietly fix attention on this problem. Yet the mind is not empty, and it is not that the problem is not being considered; rather, the manas is quietly hanging this problem in the mind, silently deliberating on it.

The mind consciousness is not thinking or analyzing, yet the manas is facing this problem, thinking and deliberating without language, words, or sound. When one lacks experience, or when the mind is not subtle, one cannot perceive the mental activity of the manas, but He indeed has a great deal of mental activity—it is merely concealed by the activity of the mind consciousness. Some people's manas has very weak energy and weak thinking power, because there are too many scattered, fragmentary distracting thoughts that disperse the energy, resulting in insufficient mental power, unable to concentrate on thinking about one problem, and unable to solve a problem perfectly, reasonably, and in depth.

One of the important reasons why sentient beings have weak and inferior wisdom is that they have many distracting thoughts; their minds are chaotic and messy, without a clear main thread, without focus. It is like a combat team whose members each act on their own; the team's strength is dispersed and cannot gather together to form a mighty force to bravely and successfully fight against hostile forces, with the result that they are routed in the face of every hostile force. Another important reason is meager merit (alpa-puṇya)—a severe lack of merit, with no support of merit—but let us not discuss this for now.

Therefore, in order to enhance wisdom, especially to enhance the wisdom of the manas, one must exclude distracting thoughts and develop the ability to concentrate the mind on very few, important, key problems. To achieve this, one must restrain the mind consciousness and use it less, trying not to employ the language, words, and sounds of the mind consciousness; do not always have an inner voice, do not always have a monologue. At times it does not matter if there is a monologue of the mind consciousness, but in addition, there should also be the focused deliberation of the manas: while the mind consciousness is engaged in monologue, the manas is deliberating, and the two should be attending to the same matter. At this time, the energy of the manas becomes great and the power concentrated, and it will break through the inner darkness and ignorance, find the root of the problem, and solve the problem at its root.

When the manas has deliberated clearly, the problem can be solved at its root; whereas a problem that the mind consciousness has figured out, even if solved, is not thorough, not reliable, not reassuring—and moreover, it is not easy to solve the problem. Because the manas is the sovereign consciousness, once He has considered a problem clearly Himself and it is solved, there will be no regret; if one follows the analysis of the mind consciousness, one easily regrets and easily changes one's mind and thoughts. Fickle people are those who habitually use the mind consciousness to think and do not use the manas; they are relatively shallow people. People without their own ideas, people who like to depend on others, are all unaccustomed to using the manas to think about problems but habituated to using the mind consciousness—because their own mind consciousness cannot be relied upon, they have no choice but to depend on others.

Using the manas to think about and solve problems, although steady, reliable, thorough, and ultimate, able to strike directly at the root, is often rather slow, because deep thinking is slow, and only shallow thinking is fast. It is like digging a well: digging deep takes effort and is slow; digging shallow takes little effort and is fast. But digging slowly can reach water, while digging quickly yields no water. Slow is fast, and fast is slow; the results differ, so one should not seek speed—quality comes first. It is the same when we think about and solve problems: deep thinking and deliberation take some time, but slow work yields fine craftsmanship, and the result is perfect. A person habituated to deep thinking, a person habituated to using the manas, generally thinks rather slowly and also acts rather slowly, but relatively speaking has the best wisdom and the best results, is not prone to errors, and is not prone to regret.

If you want good results in doing things and solving problems, do not seek speed; deliberate thoroughly, use the manas more for thinking and decision-making, train the manas's thinking power more, and practice more that kind of concentration and observation without language, words, or sound. After a long time of training, when the manas is used skillfully, you will find that thinking with the manas has great charm and interest, is very attractive—the more you think, the less you want to stop—and so you will come to enjoy solitude and not want to be disturbed; moreover, your wisdom will grow ever deeper, and solving problems will become increasingly effortless. When a person's manas has been well trained and become habitual, that person appears very profound, with great depth and distinctive qualities, deep thoughts, unique insights, and strong abilities—and, crucially, is steady and reliable, trustworthy, and not constantly changing his mind.