Steps for Deliberating on the Idiom "Worrying About Gain and Loss" (Manas Training Section)

Step one: take a deep breath, calm the mind down, and calm it down further, until distracting thoughts gradually diminish to none.

Step two: have the eye consciousness fixate on this idiom, while the mind consciousness grasps it roughly, without deliberating or analyzing; let thoughts stay unmoved, remaining in a state of being dazed, blank, and spaced out. This process is equivalent to transmitting the information of the idiom into the manas, just like when the things in a bag are already full but there are still more things to put in, so you press the contents of the bag inward, pause for a moment, and make room to load the remaining things. The pressing and pausing is pushing the things from the mouth of the bag down to the bottom of the bag; the more you push in, the more space is freed up. The mouth of the bag corresponds to the mind consciousness, and the bottom of the bag corresponds to the manas.

Step three: after all the information has been transmitted to the manas, the manas begins to process the information. At this time, you should maintain and prolong the state of being dazed, blank, and spaced out; the mind consciousness should not stir up thoughts, and one may even close the eyes to nourish the spirit.

Closing the eyes means the eye consciousness and mind consciousness close their eyes and do not see forms; what is being nourished is of course the manas, this spirit consciousness. When the manas feels it should rest, it decides to close the eyes and not see forms; the two consciousnesses comply with the decision and close the eyes. If the manas wants to see forms, the two consciousnesses cannot close their eyes no matter what. If the mind consciousness says, "These forms are really nice, let's look a while longer," and the manas says, "Then look a while longer," the two consciousnesses see forms without closing their eyes. In all matters, it is the manas that takes charge and makes decisions; although some matters are suggested by the mind consciousness, the manas must still agree with the mind consciousness's suggestion before taking charge and deciding. Once the two consciousnesses close their eyes and cease activity, the manas no longer needs to expend attention on the matter of seeing forms, thus saving mental energy, or it can go deliberate on other important matters.

After the mind consciousness has settled down and all the information has been transmitted to the manas, the manas begins to deliberate, silently and soundlessly, without motion or stillness—so quiet that the mind consciousness can hardly detect or feel His existence and operation. That is why ordinary people generally say the manas is a fool and a mere ornament with no substantive function or role, when in fact the most important functions and roles of the five aggregates all belong to the manas; the manas plays the role of bearing the main burden.

Step four: the manas first deliberates on the character "患" (huàn, "worry/fear"). The mind consciousness should not analyze; it must avoid interfering or making trouble, must not distract the manas, and must not let the manas depart from deliberating on the idiom. Keeping the manas from leaving the object it should deliberate on is the work task of the mind consciousness; if it is not done well, it may affect the results of the manas's deliberation. If the manas has already become adept at deliberation, then the mind consciousness need not urge it on. The mind consciousness must not, eager for results, participate in the process; it absolutely must not engage in deliberative thinking, otherwise the manas will have no wisdom to produce. Results produced by the mind consciousness's thinking do not represent true wisdom and cannot be used.

At the very beginning, the mind consciousness may not know how to urge and prompt, and the manas may not know how to deliberate; both need to study hard. Once past this stage, one can proceed smoothly on the path of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā). After the manas has deliberated for some time, it knows that "患" has the meanings of fault, worry, fear, and fretting over; as to which meaning applies, it must look at the following characters before deciding. So it then deliberates on the character "得" (dé, "gain"). Since "得" has too many meanings, it links the two characters "得失" (gain and loss) together and deliberates on them jointly, thereby delimiting the meanings of gain and loss. Then it deliberates on what is gained and what is lost, and knows that it is the fretting over and clinging to worldly dharmas of the five aggregates—wealth, sex, fame, food, sleep, family and relatives, power and status, and so on—these perishable, empty, false dharmas of the human world. Finally, deliberating on the four characters as a whole, it knows that "患得" means worrying about not obtaining, and "患失" means worrying about losing what has been obtained—fretting and clinging intensely, seeing through nothing and letting go of nothing; it is entirely the view of self and self-grasping (satkāya-dṛṣṭi and ātma-grāha) at work. This is the psychological state of ordinary beings in birth and death—how pitiable.

What should be deliberated on in the end? That depends on each person's manas wisdom and views. The manas should review the gains and losses of one's entire life, and with wisdom deliberate that both gain and loss are unobtainable—there is nothing to gain and nothing to lose; it is just pointless fussing, truly foolish. Of course, most people's manas cannot deliberate to this step; just practice deliberation slowly.

Due to insufficient wisdom, unfamiliarity with the method, and insufficient meditative concentration (samādhi), the initial practice of deliberation may be very slow, and the deliberation may not even be correct. But it doesn't matter; the day of proficiency will surely come. Once the manas learns to deliberate and practice contemplation in accordance with the Dharma, that wisdom will gush forth like a spring, and nothing can stop it.

Those who formerly emphasized the mind consciousness's hearing and contemplation, studied broadly and heard much, and spent all their time in various massive Yogācāra treatises—looking at it now, haven't they come out at a loss? Decades of using the mind consciousness to gnaw through Yogācāra treatises—what results have been gnawed out? Shouldn't one now turn back to shore up the foundations and begin actual practice step by step? However, some people, because they are accustomed to the mind consciousness's hearing and contemplation, find that during actual practice the mind consciousness refuses to be honest and quiet, which is a great obstacle to actual practice; meditative concentration is very hard to develop, and contemplative practice is out of the question. The gap in cultivation and realization between those with strong theory and those who emphasize actual practice, combining theory with reality, is very large: with a few years of effort, the latter have developed meditative absorption (samādhi) and already attained the first or second fruit, able to realize the emptiness (śūnyatā) of the tathāgatagarbha anytime and anywhere, while one's own theory is not yet mastered and meditative concentration has not even shown a trace.

From this comparison, one should know that if theory is not combined with reality, empty talk often ruins the nation; if theory cannot be grounded in the real, realization is harder than ascending to heaven. What is the real place? The real place is the place of the manas, the place of what is seen with the eyes, the place where the true facts can be touched; whereas the mind consciousness is the unreal place, the place of what is heard with the ears, the place where the true facts cannot be touched.