Proving That Consciousness Is a Tool of the Manas from the Arising of Language

Before language is produced, a stream of qi must first be gathered in the dantian. During the process of gathering, although the qi is in the dantian, the qi field will manifest and radiate outside the body. A person with a meditative mind and fine perception can capture this qi field as well as the direction of the breath and energy, and sense in advance what is about to happen. What is about to happen? It is that this person is about to speak. Based on this person's qi field, facial expression, and the atmosphere of the scene, one can roughly know what he is going to say — this is the ability of prediction and foreknowledge.

It is like an excellent sniper targeting a running person: whether that person runs in a straight line or in an S-shaped pattern, the sniper can accurately predict in advance the position he is about to reach, then fire at that position ahead of time, and thus successfully shoot the running person. A person with strong meditative concentration also has this ability of prediction and foreknowledge. Based on the breath and qi field emanating from the person before him, he senses a surge of energy and also knows the direction of the surge, and thus knows what this person is going to do, what words he is about to utter, and what meaning he is going to express.

When the qi has gathered sufficiently in the dantian, it will move upward along the body's channel toward the navel, chest, throat, and mouth. Once it converges with the teeth and tongue, language is produced. A person with meditative concentration will feel a stream of qi flowing out of the speaker's mouth, and will feel a vibrating energy radiating out. The more abundant a person's qi, the more confident, the more controlled, the more infectious his speech, and the more able to captivate people's hearts. A person with an upright mind has abundant central qi, with great influence and infectious power, giving people a feeling of sincerity that easily wins their trust — this is also the result of a person's virtue exerting its attraction.

Language is the behavioral fabrication of the mind consciousness; it cannot be separated from the body consciousness, and together with the body consciousness it expresses emotions and intentions. But the fabrication of the mind consciousness arises at the very end of the qi's movement. The movement of the qi is controlled by the manas. Before the movement, the manas has the intention to express, which drives the qi to gather in the dantian, and then it moves into the mouth, where the mind consciousness and body consciousness give birth to language. From this it can be known that the mind consciousness is merely a tool used by the manas to achieve its aims; the mind consciousness exists to serve the manas.

Thus the mind consciousness's language, words, and sounds represent the aims of the manas, produced with the manas as the master; the bodily and mental activities of the mind consciousness also represent the aims of the manas, produced with the manas as the master. Then the defiled nature and pure nature contained within the bodily, verbal, and mental actions represent the defiled nature and pure nature of the manas — it is the manas's defilement and purity that fabricate bodily, verbal, and mental actions carrying defiled and pure natures. From this it can be known that the mental factors (caittas) of the manas must include all defiled mental factors, all wholesome mental factors, and also mental factors that are neither wholesome nor unwholesome. This shows that the manas is the consciousness that acts as master, exerting the fundamental decisive role over all dharmas.