Preface to The Mental Factors (Caittas) of the Manas

Modern science, including psychology, is all based on hypotheses combined with experiments, using logical reasoning, deduction, and induction. When the conclusions of deduction and induction ultimately match the experiments, results are produced. This is still hypothesis and experiment unrelated to religion; of course, if the researchers have religious beliefs, that would be another matter. With religious beliefs, perhaps such results could never be produced at all, because people would be bound hand and foot by thousands of years of religious worship. Religion does not allow one to surpass predecessors; once someone is regarded as a master, that person becomes the absolute benchmark, forever correct—right even when wrong. Later generations can only prostrate themselves at that person's feet, and all wisdom is suppressed, with talent and insight locked away. One's views and ideas absolutely must not differ from those of the great masters of the past, let alone surpass or break through them.

The reason that virtuous and aspiring people outside of religion have achieved abundant results is precisely that they are not constrained by authority. Western psychology not only has clear and profound theory, but also values application—applied to sociology, theology, medicine, physical and mental development, and so on—with astonishing results. Our Buddhist community, however, is not like this. The Buddhist world has always emphasized fame and authority. As soon as someone gains a great reputation, they have a secure position and prestige, and sentient beings will worship them as gods, no longer rationally using their own minds to think about anything. Blind worship imprisons and seals off their own minds, making breakthrough realization impossible. In this way, the errors of predecessors will continue to be carried into future lives, making sentient beings—whose inherent wisdom is already insufficient—even more foolish and deluded.

Regarding the section on the manas and mental factors in Yogācāra, because the vast majority of people have no realization whatsoever and cannot directly observe the manas, they lack the ability to discern the profound meaning of the Dharma. Having absorbed some vague theoretical knowledge from various sources, they feel they already understand, and then set up the theories they have learned—right or wrong—as levers and measuring standards, measuring everywhere, cutting the feet to fit the shoes, making the essence of the Buddhadharma—the Yogācāra theory—even more obscure, blinding the eyes of many people so that no one can walk out of the error zone. Direct contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of Yogācāra and the manas is the wisdom realm of bodhisattvas who have attained the bhūmis. Even enlightened bodhisattvas at the three stages of the ten faiths, ten dedications, and ten abhūmis cannot achieve direct contemplative practice; they can only understand it in a similar way. How much less can ordinary beings, who are who knows how far from realization, directly observe the functioning of the manas.

The mental factors of the manas are extremely difficult to verify. However, some content, after a long period of study and practice, once one can distinguish the difference between the mind consciousness and the manas, and combined with meditative concentration (samādhi), being able to directly observe a small portion of the manas' functioning should not be too difficult. Although these belong to the portion of seed-wisdom of the consciousness-only teachings, as long as someone can provide correct guidance—theoretical guidance that is correct—plus meditative concentration and contemplative wisdom, realization is still possible. Secular psychologists all possess a certain observational wisdom and have reached relatively reasonable conclusions; how much more should this be so for us Buddhist disciples studying the Mahāyāna Dharma.

Those with relatively deep meditative concentration and wisdom, who are unwilling to be imprisoned by authority, can also, under the guidance of good spiritual friends with wisdom of direct perception, contemplate and observe a portion of the mental activities of the manas. As long as one has grasped the basic concepts and principles, with strong meditative concentration, by observing one's own and others' psychology, one can clarify the mind consciousness and the manas—this is not such a difficult matter. The key is that Buddhist practitioners nowadays generally lack sufficient meditative concentration, and their wisdom is even more insufficient, which makes things rather difficult. In worldly fields, researchers in various disciplines—people with a spirit of inquiry—actually have quite good meditative concentration when conducting exploration, and that is why they can achieve some results. If only they could have faith in and accept the tathāgatagarbha Dharma and then realize the tathāgatagarbha, their wisdom would be extraordinary. But they lack the roots of goodness and merit; they do not take refuge in Buddhism, do not take refuge in the Three Jewels, cannot have proper faith in the Buddhadharma, and thus cannot grasp the principle of neither arising nor ceasing.

Those who possess the seed-wisdom of Yogācāra can organically integrate the Buddhadharma with all fields of social life, can also extract the Buddhadharma from social life, and can use Yogācāra theory to effectively solve problems existing in real life, using the Buddhadharma to serve humanity and society. The Buddhadharma touches upon every aspect of social life, and this is especially true of Yogācāra studies—it is impossible to separate them from these worldly dharmas. Apart from the worldly realm, there would be no Buddhadharma and no Yogācāra. Today's Yogācāra researchers are divorced from reality, failing to correspond the teachings to their own and sentient beings' bodies and minds. They only know how to memorize texts and follow inherited theoretical knowledge; they cannot even grasp their own and others' psychological states, so it is impossible for them to realize the profound Dharma of Yogācāra.