Proving That Consciousness Is the Tool of the Manas Through 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 remains in the dantian, the qi field will manifest and radiate outside the body. A person with a refined mind of meditative concentration can perceive this qi field, as well as the direction of the breath and energy. This includes the intensity of the breath and energy—whether it is gentle and calm or intense, agitated with anger. Emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness will manifest, and part of one's attitude will show itself in advance. Combined with facial expression, the gaze, and bodily posture and body language, all of this together allows a perceptive person with subtle sensitivity to anticipate what this person is about to say and what its wholesome or unwholesome nature is—that is, the thought content to be expressed. This wordless transmission of breath and energy, this revelation of emotion, is entirely controlled by the manas, reflecting the manas's emotions. Of course, facial expressions can be faked and feigned, but this is the manas directing the mind consciousness and body consciousness in the pretense.

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 in meditative concentration will feel a stream of qi flowing out of the speaker's mouth and will sense a vibrating energy radiating forth. The more abundant one's qi, the more confident one's speech, the greater one's control, the more compelling one's influence, and the more one can capture people's hearts. A person of upright character has abundant central qi, with great influence and persuasive power, giving people a feeling of sincerity that readily convinces them—this is also the result of a person's virtue and its power of attraction.

Language is an action and fabrication of the mind consciousness, and it cannot do without the body consciousness; together with the body consciousness it expresses emotion and intention. Because the production of language requires the use of the body and the qi and blood within it, the body consciousness must necessarily participate. If the body enters samādhi and the body consciousness cannot arise, the mind consciousness alone cannot produce language. However, the fabrication of the mind consciousness arises at the final stage 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, and this impels the qi to gather in the dantian; subsequently it moves into the mouth, and the mind consciousness together with the body consciousness brings forth the language. This phenomenon shows that the manas first stirs a thought, first has an intention, first makes a decision, and only afterward can the mind consciousness arise to fulfill the manas's intention and decision. Thus the bodily, verbal, and mental actions fabricated by the mind consciousness together with the five sense consciousnesses represent the manas's intention. This does not, however, exclude decisions made by the manas under the influence of the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta); the bodily, verbal, and mental actions also contain the intention of the solitary consciousness.