眾生無邊誓願度
煩惱無盡誓願斷
法門無量誓願學
佛道無上誓願成

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Dharma Teachings

14 Jun 2019    Friday     3rd Teach Total 1609

The Relationship between the Mind Consciousness's Reasoning and the Manas's Deliberation

The mind that reasons and infers is the mind consciousness. When reasoning and inferring, the surface-level reasoning and deliberation floating on top is the mind consciousness, yet at the same time the manas is also deliberating deeply behind the scenes in the background; both consciousnesses are operating simultaneously. Apart from the manas, the mind consciousness would be unable to reason. When meditative concentration is somewhat better, the manas has more strength and has its own mental activity of deliberation (manana); only then can correct conclusions be deduced, and the manas will firmly and resolutely accept this conclusion.

When dreaming, it is the solitary mental consciousness that knows the dream within the dream. Upon waking, it is the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses (pañcavijñāna-sahagata-manovijñāna) that wakes up first, and then the five sense consciousnesses arise. When recalling a dream, it is the solitary mental consciousness that does the recalling; this differs somewhat from the solitary mental consciousness within the dream, and compounded by problems of memory, the solitary mental consciousness cannot recall the dream entirely and clearly.

——Master Sheng-Ru's Teachings
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Selected Lectures on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (94)

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