After Cultivating the Path, Manas First Generates Wisdom, Mind Consciousness Later Generates Wisdom (2024-10-21)

Ru Chun asked: "Disciple, nowadays when I encounter certain problems, they keep hanging in my mind, as if no matter what I am doing with my hands, that problem is always there and cannot be dispelled. Sometimes it lasts a little while, sometimes several days, until an answer emerges. After the answer comes out, I anxiously rush to write it down, fearing I will forget it. After the answer emerges, I ponder it over and over again—checking whether the answer is right or wrong, which parts are correct, which parts are wrong, how to express it better, and so on—continuously ruminating. 

When I encounter a problem, I must think it through and write it down before I can sleep with peace of mind; otherwise, the manas seems unwilling to let me sleep. Sometimes after the answer emerges, the mind consciousness seems not to have fully understood the content of the answer, and I still have to ponder for a long while before gradually understanding it. The current contradiction is: the mind consciousness's capability cannot keep up with the manas, and it cannot judge whether the answer is good or bad, right or wrong. Is this situation good or not?"

Answer: A problem that keeps hanging in the mind and cannot be dispelled shows that your power of meditative concentration has strengthened—you can continuously hold onto one problem until you think it through clearly. Under the condition of such meditative concentration, it is the manas that keeps the problem suspended; the mind consciousness can only hold it for a short time, and it is fickle, disappearing quickly, without stickiness. What has stickiness and can persist is the manas; if meditative concentration is insufficient, the manas cannot do this. 

The act of writing down thoughts is accomplished by the six consciousnesses, and the instruction to write is issued by the manas. When the power of recollection and mindfulness is not strong, one fears not being able to remember, and anxiously writes the thoughts down to solidify the memory or to preserve the thoughts. Although there is meditative concentration and the manas's deliberation (manasikāra) is also employed, when wisdom is still insufficient, errors in thinking are unavoidable, and correct results cannot be deliberated out. Persist in this, and there will be unexpected gains.

After your meditative concentration and contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) wisdom have both advanced, you discovered that the wisdom of the mind consciousness cannot keep up with the wisdom of the manas—what a wonderful discovery this is! When genuine wisdom arises, it is indeed true that the manas's wisdom is great and abundant, while the mind consciousness trails far behind and cannot catch up. This shows that the ultimate, fundamental wisdom is generated by the manas; the contemplative practice wisdom that arises after meditative concentration is generated by the manas. Cultivation first causes the manas to generate wisdom, and the mind consciousness's wisdom is attained after the manas. Because it is the manas that holds the questioning doubt and investigates it, naturally it is the manas that first resolves the questioning doubt and generates wisdom, then transmits it to the mind consciousness to know. After the mind consciousness knows it, it still needs to fully understand what the manas has realized before it can generate wisdom. Therefore, this further proves that for a cultivator of the Path, it is indeed the manas that first eradicates the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and achieves seeing the mind and seeing the nature, and afterwards leads the mind consciousness to eradicate the view of self and achieve seeing the mind and seeing the nature; the mind consciousness generates wisdom after the manas.

From the fact that immediately upon waking up you understood a problem, you can know that the manas generates wisdom first, and the mind consciousness has wisdom afterward. During one night, the manas deliberated the problem clearly; after waking up, the mind consciousness appeared and, without doing anything, obtained the manas's wisdom and understood the problem the manas had deliberated out. This evidence even more clearly demonstrates the question of the sequential order in which the manas and the mind consciousness give rise to wisdom.