Attaining the Fruit and Seeing the Mind through the Mind Consciousness Is Merely a Phantom City.

When a person's consciousness is clear and awake, with conscious control, the mental actions displayed are more civilized and of better conduct than when the consciousness is not clear and there is no conscious control—more rational, more cultivated, upright in character and conduct; the difference between the manifestations in these two situations is enormous. Why is there such a great difference? Because the mental factors and mental actions of the manas and the mind consciousness differ greatly. The mind consciousness discerns subtle details within the realms of the six sense objects, is relatively intelligent, knows what is beneficial to itself, and knows how it should behave in front of others; whereas the manas does not discern the realms of the six sense objects clearly, has heavy habitual tendencies, is rather obstinate, and does not know how to behave in ways that are beneficial to itself. In this way, once hypnosis or alcohol anesthesia renders the consciousness unclear, the consciousness becomes similar to the manas, unable to control the manas and unable to present itself; the manas's intrinsic nature is then exposed, and its behavior differs drastically from when one is awake, with all sorts of ugly conduct appearing.

A person's inner world refers to the mental factors and mental actions of the manas, which can be covered over by the surface mental actions of the mind consciousness; covering over the manas's mental actions is called pretense, and inconsistency between the mind consciousness and the manas is called hypocrisy. Making an effort only at the level of the mind consciousness has little effect. For a bodhisattva who has achieved the transformation of consciousness into wisdom, the manas has been transformed into the wisdom of equality, and afflictions have already been eradicated; if he is hypnotized or given alcohol anesthesia, his manas remains as it is, much the same as when he is awake. The manas is the true foundation of a person, representing a person's genuine conduct and virtue; the manifestation of the mind consciousness alone is not true virtue.

When awake, the mind consciousness can cover over the manas's foolishness and lack of wisdom; in the antarābhava, where the consciousness is weak, it can no longer continue to conceal and control the manas, and the manas's ignorance, foolishness, and afflictions will manifest without any obstruction; ultimately, because of the manas's ignorance and afflictions, it takes rebirth, continuing the ignorance and afflictions of future lives. Even if the mind consciousness has realized the fruits and seen the mind, in the antarābhava it cannot maintain the wisdom of fruit realization and seeing the mind; the manas, which has not realized the fruits or seen the mind, will manifest ignorance, with deeply heavy view of self and self-grasping afflictions; ultimately it takes rebirth with the manas's view of self and self-grasping afflictions, continuing the view of self and self-grasping of future lives, continuing the cycle of birth and death in saṃsāra. Therefore, a person with true wisdom should strive to genuinely eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and see the mind, and not remain at the level of intellectual understanding by the consciousness—that is a conjured city, not a true place of rest and refuge.