The Best Time to Perfume and Persuade the Manas

Western psychologists have said that the best way to make the subconscious remember something is to enter a drowsy, hazy state, or a state resembling sleep. In such a state, all effort at the conscious level is reduced to a minimum. Then, all ideas can be transmitted to the subconscious through imagery, in a quiet, passive, and receptive manner.

This is a good method for permeating and hypnotizing the manas. For eliminating self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) and subduing afflictions, self-hypnosis is also the fastest and most effective method. Self-hypnosis can directly enable the manas to discern and accept the selfless nature of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha).

Relaxation, quietness, drowsiness, or just having woken up—all of these times involve meditative concentration (samādhi), with the mind not scattered or distracted, and with the mind consciousness still present. The mind consciousness's power of deliberation is relatively weak, yet it still has the function of discernment; although its force is small, it can still observe the manas and transmit information to it, while the manas's function is more prominent than usual, greater than usual. Therefore, this is the optimal moment to influence, persuade, and permeate the manas, and to transform it.

Contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) for eliminating self-view is also best carried out in this state: there is meditative concentration, there is the mind consciousness, the manas's force of function is great, and its susceptibility to influence is also great. In this way, the concept that the five aggregates are not the self can be transmitted and instilled into the manas, allowing the manas to acknowledge and accept it.