The Manifestation of the Manas's Diligence

Ru Chun: Through contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), I discovered that craving for the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) is the root, while craving for worldly things is the phenomenon, so I tried to combine the five aggregates with the suffering, emptiness, and impermanence of worldly things in my contemplative practice. The manas was very motivated; from morning to night my mind was full of the dharma of contemplative practice—unable to dispel it or shake it off. At night I could not sleep; my head felt swollen and hot, so I had no choice but to get up and write out the content of the contemplative practice to unblock and cool down my brain. After writing, I lay down and kept thinking; my mind seemed unable to stop, going over and over until past four in the morning before I finally drifted off to sleep in a daze.

Not long after falling asleep, I suddenly felt my body swaying. I woke up to see what was going on—it turned out to be the very rhythmic sound of a high-speed train in the distance. In my daze, I even thought I was sitting in a car. I got up again at seven. Normally my hindrance of sleep is still rather heavy, but when the manas becomes diligent, it seems it can go without sleep or rest. Once this dharma has been contemplated well and the manas is satisfied, upon relaxing I can sleep soundly again.

Assessment: The five aggregates include the worldly; the world of the five aggregates is the mundane world. When practicing diligently, the manas exchanges its attachment to the mundane world for attachment to contemplative practice, deliberation (manasikāra/manana), and the cultivation and realization of the Buddha-dharma. When the mental thought turns, karma turns, and the retribution changes. If the mental thought cannot be turned around, the mind has not yet fully engaged in the work of the Path, karma does not turn, and the retributive result does not change. Diligence like Ru Chun's is entirely the manas's own initiative; the mind consciousness does not need to urge it on—on the contrary, the mind consciousness is dragged around in circles by the manas and cannot get adequate rest.