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

Question: Some people can see certain things from their past lives in dreams or in meditation. How does the mind consciousness come to know the details of past lives? Is it that the manas has also contacted some details, which can be displayed to the present-life mind consciousness to perceive and analyze when concentration is deep and subtle or under specific circumstances?

Answer: The past-life events seen in dreams and in meditation are displayed by the manas during the dream or meditative state for the mind consciousness to know. Even where specific details are involved, they are all displayed by the manas. This proves that the wisdom of the manas as a consciousness-mind is complete; it is not coarser than the mind consciousness, but on the contrary subtler than the mind consciousness—it is just that ordinary people cannot see this clearly. We should regard the manas as a consciousness-mind with more powerful functions, and not treat Him as a fool. If He were foolish, sentient beings would be foolish; whatever He is like, that is what sentient beings are like.

From the perspective that the mind consciousness assists the manas in discerning the six sense objects, the manas seems unable to make fine discriminations and needs the assistance of the mind consciousness. This is said because the wisdom at the level of the mind consciousness is insufficient—the manas cannot clearly understand or see clearly all the content that the mind consciousness expresses. From the viewpoint of the mind consciousness, the manas cannot grasp at, recollect, or dwell on specific details, but in fact this is not so. For ordinary beings whose mind consciousness has not yet undergone the transformation of consciousness into wisdom, and for pre-bhūmi bodhisattvas, they lack the capacity for direct perception of the manas's operation, and there are many misunderstandings.

This includes the ancient Yogācāra treatise masters of the past; because most of them had not yet attained the bhūmis and did not possess the seed-wisdom of consciousness-only (Yogācāra), they could not directly observe the operation of the manas and had some misunderstandings about it. As a result, the treatises passed down describe the nature of the manas inaccurately, misleading the understanding of sentient beings at that time and today. If a Yogācāra master lacks the seed-wisdom of consciousness-only, his teaching of the Dharma will remain at the theoretical level, of little help to the actual practice of the Buddha-dharma, and will not provide the due analysis and guidance regarding sentient beings' psychology and various social phenomena.

Because the manas does not express specific details through language, words, or sounds—differing from the mode of expression of the mind consciousness—it is rather difficult for the mind consciousness to understand, so the dharmas that the mind consciousness discerns from the manas are vague and unspecific. There is also the issue of the wisdom of communication between the two; if communication is poor, the mind consciousness's understanding becomes distorted, vague, unspecific, and incorrect, and it misunderstands the functions and roles of the manas.

The manas knows the specific and complete details of the events He has experienced; the plots presented in dreams and in meditation can prove this point. What the mind consciousness knows is only the surface phenomena that we see; the inner, substantive information is unknown to the mind consciousness and cannot be interpreted from the manas either. So it is the mind consciousness that cannot explain things clearly, and it is the mind consciousness that feels things are vague and unclear—this is due to the insufficiency of the mind consciousness's wisdom. Once the mind consciousness's wisdom improves, this will no longer be the case. Therefore one cannot say that the manas's wisdom is insufficient and cannot discern specific details; saying so is inverted. It has been inverted like this from ancient times to the present, and now it needs to be corrected. Only by correctly understanding the manas can there be wisdom.

The manas actually knows everything, but because His mode of expression is greatly different from that of the mind consciousness, and the mind consciousness's wisdom is insufficient to fully understand, people say the manas has no wisdom. The manas possesses all the functions of a consciousness-mind, and in certain respects is even stronger than the mind consciousness. Due to obstacles in communication, there are misunderstandings about the manas's functions. The details the manas grasps are much finer and much deeper than those of the mind consciousness, and closer to the truth of facts. For example, the mind consciousness may feel that a certain person is doing a good deed, but in the manas's view, his mind is not wholesome and he has ulterior motives, because the manas can grasp some information about that person unknown to others and maintains vigilance toward him. That is why many people's intuition is more reliable. This is exactly opposite to the views of ancient Yogācāra and the understanding of ordinary people, but that is how the facts are.

Many people say that the mind consciousness discerns dharmas deeply and subtly, but compared with the manas this is insufficient; the range and depth of what the mind consciousness understands are rather limited, while the manas's discernment is broader, more comprehensive, deep, and thorough. But because the mind consciousness does not understand the manas's discerned content and specific details, it says the manas's wisdom is insufficient and cannot discern details—this is said from the standpoint of the mind consciousness. If we set the mind consciousness aside and observe the manas, it is not like this. After the mind consciousness transforms consciousness into wisdom, its understanding of the manas becomes opposite to what the general public believes, 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 cannot perceive the ghost, and the five sense consciousnesses also do not know or see it; when the six consciousnesses lack supernatural powers, they are ignorant and unaware of ghosts. Yet the manas knows the ghost is nearby, what it intends to do, and what harm it may bring. Although the manas knows, He cannot do anything about it, so He alerts the mind consciousness, making it think of ways to evade. If the mind consciousness cannot achieve determination (adhimokṣa) regarding the information given by the manas, it is completely bewildered, not knowing what is happening; even when the manas makes the body's hair stand on end, the mind consciousness remains dazed. Even when 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 and can know things unknown to the mind consciousness, and can even know specific detailed particulars, while the mind consciousness sometimes does not even know the general situation, let alone the details.

In the understanding of ancient Yogācāra, it was felt that the mind consciousness has wisdom and can discern details, while the manas has no wisdom and cannot discern details. If the mind consciousness transforms consciousness into wisdom and gains wisdom, and after removing an enormous amount of obstructions can directly observe the nature of the manas, it would no longer be expressed this way. The functions of the manas as a consciousness-mind far exceed those of the mind consciousness; regarding specific details, He even knows more and more deeply than the mind consciousness. The manas can directly perceive dharmas, and perceives them rather deeply and thoroughly. The mind consciousness of ordinary people has no way to understand the manas's thoughts, and does not know how sharp the manas is, able to directly discern the essence of dharmas; it is only that His mode of expression is peculiar and the mind consciousness's capacity to receive is limited, so in the end everything is settled by the mind consciousness's discernment and knowing.