The Method of Celestial-Human Intercourse Demonstrates That the Manas Possesses the Mental Factor of Mindfulness

Celestial beings in the Desire Realm communicate with each other not through human-like language, writing, or sound, but entirely through mental projection, as they all possess the paranormal ability to know others' thoughts (paracittajnana), enabling them to swiftly comprehend each other's intentions. When a celestial being's thought arises, it is transmitted with a "zī" sound, conveying the complete message extremely rapidly. Simultaneously, facial expressions accompany the thought; speech is unnecessary, rendering the mouth useless. During expression, a powerful surge of electromagnetic thought-waves emanates. The recipient perceives the sound of these thought-waves and observes the facial expressions, instantly understanding the other's thoughts and ideas. As soon as a thought arises, the electromagnetic thought-waves surge, energy is released, and the signal is received by the other party. The energy of the electromagnetic thought-waves is emitted by the manas (seventh consciousness). When the manas has thoughts or intentions, it is equivalent to a human speaking. Consciousness (the sixth consciousness) does not produce energy waves and cannot direct the flow of energy within the body.

When celestial beings receive electromagnetic thought-waves and comprehend the other's thoughts and ideas, the manas first receives and understands, followed by the consciousness becoming aware. Celestial beings communicate by emitting and receiving these electromagnetic thought-waves. Sentient beings with paracittajnana, including those in the Form Realm and Formless Realm, as well as all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, also communicate and exchange ideas in this manner, without utilizing the linguistic functions of consciousness. When many celestial beings gather to discuss matters, they all use mental projection, observing eyes and facial expressions. Responding to others is done the same way—there are no spoken words, nor is written expression used. Consequently, they have no literary works, no books, and no need to learn language, writing, art, or rules, avoiding the trouble and vanity found in the human realm.

Within a single thought, the manas can rapidly express all of one's ideas, which can contain very rich connotations. Consciousness might struggle to express the same ideas clearly even with lengthy discourse. This shows that communication via the manas is highly efficient, saving considerable time and energy. Highly intelligent individuals who wish to express their thoughts and ideas often find it frustrating. This is because the manas flows swiftly with the crystallization of wisdom—abundant, profound, and rich in meaning. Yet, conveying this to others for understanding and learning is laborious. Sometimes it requires painstaking effort, meticulous planning, careful word choice and phrasing, structuring language, and pondering methods of expression, consuming significant mental energy and time, and the process is slow.

If a chip could be implanted in the human brain to instantly translate thoughts and ideas from the manas into written words, it would constitute a massive revolution in brain function, yielding astonishing results. Creative scientific giants would be the greatest beneficiaries, as their wisdom could be continuously output, benefiting human society. Then, would anyone still foolishly believe that the thoughts, ideas, and wisdom in the brain belong to consciousness? The wisdom of consciousness can be directly expressed through language, writing, and sound; it wouldn't require such arduous effort.

The more wisdom a person possesses, the more they use the manas and the less they use consciousness. The higher the level of sentient beings, the more they rely on the manas and the less on consciousness. Progressing to the Eighth Bhūmi (Ground) of a Bodhisattva, the manas can directly replace the six consciousnesses, and consciousness can be omitted. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas directly employ the manas. The six consciousnesses are simplified wherever possible; the five sense-consciousnesses accompanied by mental factors might still be used occasionally, but the isolated mental consciousness (manovijñāna, the sixth consciousness functioning independently) is almost never used. This is because the wisdom of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas is direct perception (pratyakṣa), rendering the analytical thinking, reasoning, and judgment of the isolated mental consciousness unnecessary.

Since higher life forms all communicate using the manas, what significance do the language, writing, and sound used by human consciousness hold? They are merely auxiliary tools—optional, not fundamentally important. Yet, humans themselves place great emphasis on language, writing, and sound: various linguistic arts, expressive techniques, the use and embellishment of vocabulary, voice training, and so on. They regard these products of consciousness as essential skills for survival, unaware that in other paths, these skills would have no use. Not only do beings in the heavenly realms heavily rely on the manas, but beings in the three lower realms (animals, hungry ghosts, hell beings) also primarily depend on the manas to communicate and express intentions. Only humans use language and writing, expressing themselves through indirect means.

Therefore, the functions of the manas are very powerful. It possesses the mental factor of conviction (adhimokṣa) and the mental factor of desire (chanda). It has its own thoughts, the desire to express and communicate, and also the desire for enjoyment. Thus, the manas possesses the five universal mental factors with specific objects (pañca viṣayaniyataḥ caittāḥ), not merely a weak and pitiable mental factor of discernment (prajñā) as ancient Vijñānavāda (Consciousness-Only) teachings claimed. If the manas had only one weak mental factor of discernment, what could it accomplish? Almost nothing. It certainly couldn't engage in Buddhist study and practice. Without the desire and thought to study Buddhism, without the mental inclination to practice, there would be no motivation to learn the Dharma. It couldn't firmly grasp the Dharma; the Dharma wouldn't penetrate the mind. How then could one attain the wisdom of realizing the path (darśana-mārga)? Wouldn't studying Buddhism then be utterly fruitless?