The Manifestation of Diligence in the Manas

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 worldly characteristics of suffering, emptiness, and impermanence in contemplative practice. The manas was very energetic; all day long my mind was full of the dharma of contemplative practice, impossible to dispel or shake off. At night I could not sleep, and my head felt swollen and hot, so I had to get up and write out the content of my contemplative practice to unblock and cool down my brain. After writing, I lay down and kept thinking; my mind seemed unable to stop, going round and round until past four in the morning, when I finally fell asleep 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 rhythmic sound of a high-speed train in the distance. In my daze, I had thought I was sitting in a train car. I got up again at seven. Normally my sleep-obstruction 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, one can relax and sleep soundly.

Assessment: The five aggregates include the worldly; the world of the five aggregates is precisely the mundane world. When practicing diligently, the manas exchanges its attachment to the mundane world for attachment to contemplative practice, deliberation (manana), and the cultivation and realization of the Buddha-dharma. When the mental intentions turn, karma turns, and the results change. If the mental intentions cannot be turned around, the mind is not yet fully engaged in the work of the Path, karma does not turn, and retributive results do not change. With diligence like Ru Chun's, it is entirely the manas actively being diligent, without the mind consciousness needing to urge it on; on the contrary, the mind consciousness is led around in circles by the manas and cannot get adequate rest.