Which Is Wiser: Mind Consciousness or Manas?

There are some key dharma principles, or some important matters in worldly affairs, that should not be analyzed and understood with the mind consciousness; instead, hand them over to the manas to process and to deliberate (manasikāra/manana), and the result will be unexpected—a result the mind consciousness could never have thought of. So who is actually smarter and wiser, the mind consciousness or the manas? The mind consciousness can be rather clever, but the manas is wiser. Because the mind consciousness's experience is limited, and the dharmas it cognizes are fewer than those the manas cognizes, many dharmas are beyond the reach of the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna), which limits the imagination of the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta), and thus the wisdom of the mind consciousness is lower. Therefore, leave more space for the manas, leave more room for deliberation, and wisdom will improve quickly, with relatively complete results.

Do not constantly employ the shallow mind consciousness and shallow methods to arrive at shallow conclusions, only to be forced to revise those former shallow views when wisdom eventually improves. Frequently using the manas to handle problems is steady and reliable, and one's views need not be changed back and forth. When the manas is used to think about and handle problems, the results are often unimaginable to the mind consciousness, even beyond its comprehension and conception, astonishing and surprising it. So the manas is not, as some people claim, devoid of deliberative capacity and extremely limited in function, like a fool entirely dependent on the mind consciousness's pushing and manipulation.

Of course, for ordinary people the mind consciousness is wiser than the manas, whereas those who are focused in their work and have good meditative concentration (samādhi) all have greater wisdom in the manas. For either kind of person, the manas's potential for wisdom is greater than that of the mind consciousness, and after the wisdom is developed, its merit is also greater. When the manas's wisdom advances, the mind consciousness's wisdom subsequently grows along with it—this is the principle of the manas as the determining consciousness.

There is much evidence that the manas is wiser than the mind consciousness. For example, at the time of realizing the fruits, the mind consciousness cannot clearly confirm its own state of fruit realization; there is doubt in the mind and it cannot make a decisive judgment. When I realized the fruit, I doubted whether mine was seeing the mind (enlightenment), yet since I could not thoroughly comprehend the Chan (Zen) koans, I could not be completely certain that it was seeing the mind. Because since I began studying Buddhism I had always applied my mind to the Mahāyāna dharma and paid no attention to the Small Vehicle; I had only devotedly read, recited, and contemplated the Small Vehicle Āgama sūtras for less than three months, and had no concept or pursuit of eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) and realizing the fruit. Finally, at the ordination platform of the Three Platforms of Great Precepts, through the arrangement of the Dharma-protecting deities, I finally confirmed that I had realized the fruit rather than seen the mind. This situation belonged to the mind consciousness's insufficient theoretical knowledge, to the point that it could not make a clear judgment.

That the mind consciousness has studied relatively little dharma and lacks theoretical knowledge does not hinder realizing the Path. In the Buddha's time, many disciples had not studied much theory on eradicating the view of self; they heard only a few relevant sentences and realized the fruit. Some people, after realizing the fruit, could not summarize and organize the relevant theories with their mind consciousness and could not teach the dharma of eradicating the view of self. Meanwhile, some modern people have not eradicated the view of self at all, yet they speak eloquently and have written stacks of books. Such people's mind consciousness is adept at learning, summarizing, and organizing theoretical knowledge, but their actual practice does not keep up; their bodily, verbal, and mental actions remain the same as before, and their virtue does not keep up. So which is better: a clever mind consciousness or a wise manas? It should be the one that can determine cause and effect and the direction of future lives that is better—the one with actual merit and benefit. Whether fruit realization is achieved with the mind consciousness or with the manas—this principle could not be more obvious.

ADA: I studied the Yi learning (I Ching studies) for many years, and last year I encountered a difficult problem in it. This problem was unsolvable by the mind consciousness; at the time I could not find any reference material on the market. But because my interest was truly so great that I could not think of tea or food, I did not give up the research in my heart. The more unsolvable it was, the more I wanted to explore it. For nearly a month or two I was in deep contemplation; in my mind there was only the problem itself and nothing else.

At that time I did not yet understand anything about the manas or mind consciousness, but I was already sitting in meditation, and on the cushion I would involuntarily deliberate, thinking only about the problem (analysis was utterly impossible). This state continued through who knows how many sittings; I thought about it before sleep and while bathing. Later, during several sittings, inspiration began to appear. The process of its appearance was: there was a very deep, faintly discernible feeling within, and only after the brain captured it could it gradually form the actual content in the shape of words.

After many such occurrences, a logical chain formed, though it still could not count as a complete answer. After continuing for a while, a relatively complete line of thought appeared in dreams, and this happened several times. Later, after further integration by the mind consciousness, a portion of a theoretical system was finally formed. Until last winter, when I met a teacher who understood this field; after listening to his lectures, his approach coincided exactly with my overall line of thought—the direction and thinking were correct, only his was more complete and detailed.

Ru Chun: The manas's thinking is profound, steady, powerful, and imperious—it does not rest until it reaches its goal. When He begins to work deeply, the functions of the other six consciousnesses can all be weakened: seeing yet not seeing, hearing yet not hearing, food losing its flavor, sleepless nights, an absent mind, a soul not guarding its abode—the whole person seems to be in a dissociated state. It is also as if one were in another space, another dimension, where time and space are altered; some people can experience special states such as fleeting moments or passing through walls.