The Manas Can Discern Subtly — Clarifying Misunderstandings about the Manas (I)

Q: Some people can see some things from past lives in dreams or in meditative concentration. How does the mind consciousness come to know the details of past lives? Is it that the manas also conditions some details and can, under deep and subtle concentration or specific circumstances, present them to the present-life mind consciousness for perception and analysis?

A: The past-life events seen in dreams and in meditative concentration are shown by the manas in dreams and concentration to let the mind consciousness know. Among them, the specific details involved are also displayed by the manas. This proves that the wisdom of the manas as a consciousness is complete; it is not coarser than the mind consciousness, but on the contrary, it is subtler than the mind consciousness. It is just that ordinary people cannot see it clearly. We should regard the manas as a consciousness with more powerful functions, and not treat Him as a fool. If He were foolish, sentient beings would be foolish. Whatever He is like, sentient beings are like that.

From the perspective that the mind consciousness assists the manas in discriminating the six sense objects, the manas seems unable to discriminate finely and needs the assistance of the mind consciousness. This is said because the wisdom at the level of the mind consciousness is insufficient; He cannot clearly understand or see all the content expressed by the manas. From the viewpoint of the mind consciousness, the manas cannot cling to, recollect, or dwell on specific details. Actually, this is not the case. Ordinary people and bodhisattvas before the bhūmis whose mind consciousness has not yet transformed consciousness into wisdom lack the ability of direct perception to observe the functioning of the manas, and thus have many misunderstandings.

This includes the ancient Consciousness-Only masters of the past. Because most of them had not yet entered the bhūmis and did not possess the seed-wisdom of Consciousness-Only, they could not directly observe the operation of the manas and had some misunderstandings about it. As a result, the treatises handed down did not accurately explain the nature of the manas, and led astray the understanding of sentient beings then and now. If a Consciousness-Only master lacks the seed-wisdom of Consciousness-Only, his teachings remain at the theoretical level, of little benefit to actual Buddhist practice, and lack the proper analysis and guidance for the psychology of sentient beings and various social phenomena.

Because the manas does not use words, language, or sound to express specific details, and its mode of expression differs from that of the mind consciousness, the mind consciousness finds it difficult to understand. Therefore, the dharmas that the mind consciousness discriminates from the manas are vague and non-specific. There is also the issue of wisdom in the communication between the two. If communication is poor, the mind consciousness's understanding becomes distorted, vague, non-specific, and incorrect, and it misunderstands the manas's functions and roles.

As for the things the manas has experienced, it itself knows the specific details and complete details. The scenes presented in dreams and in meditative concentration can prove this. What the mind consciousness knows is only the superficial phenomena we see; it does not know the inner essential information, nor can it decipher it from the manas. Thus, it is the mind consciousness that cannot explain things clearly, and it is the mind consciousness's feeling that is vague and unclear, due to insufficient wisdom of the mind consciousness. Once the wisdom of the mind consciousness improves, this will no longer be the case. Therefore, one cannot say that the manas lacks wisdom and cannot discriminate specific details. To say so is inverted. From ancient times to the present, this inversion has persisted. Now it needs to be corrected; only by correctly understanding the manas can one have wisdom.

In fact, the manas knows everything. But because its mode of expression is very different from that of the mind consciousness, and the mind consciousness's wisdom is insufficient to fully understand it, people say the manas has no wisdom. The manas is endowed with all the functions of a consciousness; in some respects it is even stronger than the mind consciousness. Due to communication barriers, there are misunderstandings about the manas's functions. The details known by the manas are much finer and deeper than those known by the mind consciousness, and are closer to the actual truth. For example, the mind consciousness thinks that a certain person is doing a good deed, but in the manas's view, that person's mind is not kind and he has ulterior motives. Because the manas can grasp some information about that person that others do not know, it is wary of him. Therefore, many people's intuition is more reliable. This is exactly opposite to the ancient Consciousness-Only view and ordinary people's understanding, but the facts are like this.

Many people say that the mind consciousness discriminates dharmas deeply and subtly. In fact, compared with the manas, this is insufficient. The scope and depth of what the mind consciousness understands are rather limited, whereas the manas discriminates more broadly, more comprehensively, and more profoundly. However, because the mind consciousness does not understand the content and specific details of the manas's discrimination, it says that the manas's wisdom is insufficient and that it cannot discriminate details. This is said from the standpoint of the mind consciousness. If we set aside the mind consciousness and observe the manas, it is not like this. When the mind consciousness has transformed consciousness into wisdom, the understanding of the manas's wisdom will be opposite to what the masses believe, because ordinary people's mind consciousness lacks wisdom, has not transformed consciousness into wisdom, and cannot directly observe the manas.

For example, when encountering a ghost, the mind consciousness does not perceive it, and the five consciousnesses also do not know or see it. When the six consciousnesses lack superknowledge, they are unaware of the ghost. But the manas knows that the ghost is nearby, what it intends to do, and what harm it may cause to oneself. Although the manas knows, it cannot do anything about it, so it alerts the mind consciousness and makes it find a way to avoid it. If the mind consciousness cannot fully comprehend the information given by the manas, it is completely at a loss and does not know what is happening. Even if the manas causes the body's hairs to stand on end, the mind consciousness is still bewildered. Even if the body trembles with fear, the mind consciousness does not know what is going on. There are many such examples. From this, it can be seen that the manas has wisdom, can know things unknown to the mind consciousness, and can even know specific detailed circumstances. Sometimes the mind consciousness does not even know the general situation, let alone the details.

In the ancient Consciousness-Only understanding, it was thought that the mind consciousness has wisdom and can discriminate details, while the manas has no wisdom and cannot discriminate details. If the mind consciousness, having transformed consciousness into wisdom and become wise, after removing the extremely numerous obstructions, can directly observe the nature of the manas, it would not express things this way. The functions of the manas as a consciousness far exceed those of the mind consciousness; it knows even more specific details and knows them more deeply. The manas can directly perceive dharmas and knows them quite profoundly. The mind consciousness of ordinary people has no way to understand the manas's mind, and does not know that the manas is so sharp that it can directly discriminate the essence of dharmas. It is just that its mode of expression is special, and the mind consciousness's receiving capacity is limited. In the end, the mind consciousness's discrimination and knowing are taken as the standard.