The Memory Function of the Manas

Ru Chun: I feel that when I recite the Śūraṅgama Mantra very fast, I also enter a state of self-forgetting absorption, feeling as if only my two lips are opening and closing; a slight glance with the eyes is enough—without waiting for the mind consciousness to see the characters clearly, my mouth has already run through that line. That feeling is also very interesting. 

Master: Reciting very fast is also a kind of meditative concentration (samādhi)—there is no time for scattered, random thoughts, and one is very single-minded, but it consumes qi and cannot be sustained for long. This happens because the mantra has already become very familiar, to the point of almost being memorized, so it does not require much use of the mind consciousness to read it. Reading the mantra with the mind consciousness is relatively slow; one needs to look at it character by character and word by word, and cannot go too fast. But when the manas has memorized the mantra, it can almost play it back automatically, so fast that the mind consciousness has no time to see the characters clearly and may not be able to keep up with the manas's speed—this is the merit of the manas's memory. 

Ru Chun: It is indeed quite qi-consuming; after a while I feel my strength is insufficient, I cannot gather the mind, and I start to get distracted. Perhaps because I am quite familiar with it, I am no longer very willing to recite slowly, character by character. 

Master: When you are able to recite sūtras and mantras from memory, you should learn to recite mentally—that is, to have the manas recite them, letting the sūtra text and mantra flow through the mind without language, words, or sound, reciting silently and soundlessly; then entering meditative concentration is very fast and very deep. Not wanting to recite character by character is the manas's unwillingness; reciting aloud is the mind consciousness reading and reciting at the same time. In terms of speed, the manas is the fastest—without language, words, or sound, a single flash of mental thought and it is done. That is why the manas is said to be the most nimble of the conscious minds.