The Mind Faculty and Consciousness

Chapter 2: The Differences Between the Manas and the Mind Consciousness in Specific Bodily, Verbal, and Mental Actions

1. The difference between the manas and the mind consciousness: take suicide as an example. If the mind consciousness wants to commit suicide by jumping off a building, but the manas does not want to die, the manas will not make the decision to commit suicide and will not take the action of jumping off a building; otherwise, one would certainly jump. If the mind consciousness constantly wants to commit suicide but the manas is unwilling to die, the manas will avoid suicide, and thus the manas will fear and avoid weapons related to suicide, commanding the mind consciousness to stay away from all kinds of lethal instruments that could lead to death by suicide.

When the mind consciousness deliberates that living is meaningless, and when the living environment is unsatisfactory, it no longer wants to live; but the manas clings to its lifespan and does not want to die. When the two are locked in a stalemate, schizophrenia may develop, and the manas decides to take medication for treatment. If the manas wants to commit suicide but the mind consciousness does not, the mind consciousness will try every possible means to find reasons to stay alive. If the manas is persuaded by the mind consciousness, it will decide not to take the action of suicide; if it is not persuaded, it will still, as before, decide to commit suicide, and the result will inevitably be suicide.

2. Well-intentioned lies, malicious lies, and habitual lying that comes out as soon as one opens one's mouth—these three situations involve certain differences in the mental activities of the manas and the mind consciousness. In a well-intentioned lie, the manas is not defiled, and the mind consciousness is also not defiled; both are in accord with wholesomeness, and it is an act undertaken out of consideration for the benefit of others. In a malicious lie, the manas is defiled; the mind consciousness may not be evil, but it must obey the manas's command and assist the manas in fabricating the lie; or perhaps the mind consciousness is also malicious at the same time, the two acting as accomplices to each other and simultaneously creating unwholesome karma.

Habitual lying, coming out casually at every turn, is frequent lying; it is a habit of the manas. The mind consciousness has completely perfumed the manas, so the manas becomes fond of deceiving people with lies; deceitfulness is ingrained in its very bones, to the point that habit becomes second nature. The mind consciousness is also unaware of this, never awakening to its own bad habit; this requires others to frequently remind it, letting it know the retribution of lying and deceiving, so that this bad habit can slowly be turned around. Many small well-intentioned lies can also develop into a habit of lying, without one being aware of it, and then there is trouble. Unless it concerns major matters such as life and death, even small well-intentioned lies are best avoided.

3. What is the difference between "nameless anger" (wúmíng huǒ, anger without a name) and "ignorant anger" (wúmíng huǒ, anger from ignorance)? Nameless anger is anger vented without being able to articulate a cause—anger without a cause or reason. The mind consciousness does not know why the mind (the manas) is simply unhappy; it wants to control (the manas) so it does not vent anger but cannot control it; the manas insists on venting anger. This is anger arising from the manas. When the manas's anger is extremely intense, the mind consciousness temporarily cannot control it.

If it is the mind consciousness that wants to vent anger, the mind consciousness will become angrier the more it thinks. At first it does not feel there is anything wrong and does not care, paying little attention; but upon reflection it begins to feel something is off, and the more it thinks, the more wrong it seems, and so it vents anger. But the manas is not necessarily angry. When the manas is not angry, the mind consciousness's venting of anger is fake anger—anger on the surface (the mind consciousness) while the mind (the manas) is not angry. This is the mind consciousness perfuming the manas, making the manas decide to vent anger, whereas the manas originally did not care. Sometimes anger is vented without reason, and the mind consciousness does not even know why it is venting anger, while constantly advising itself not to get angry—this is a matter of the manas.

Nameless anger is the manas perfuming the mind consciousness, whereas ignorant anger includes three kinds: one arising from the manas's ignorance, one arising from the mind consciousness's ignorance, and one arising from the shared ignorance of both. The mind consciousness's ignorance is relatively easy to deal with: as long as one recognizes correct principles, it can be perfumed and thereby come to understand the truth. The manas's ignorance is not so easy to deal with—it is hard to persuade and hard to counsel. If both simultaneously have ignorant anger, this person has no rationality whatsoever. When someone tries to counsel them at such a time, not only will they be scolded, but it will also add fuel to the fire; the flames will rise higher and higher, becoming utterly uncontrollable.

The manas's decision to vent anger comes in two forms: active and passive. The active form is the ignorant anger the manas itself generates; the passive form is the ignorant anger the manas decides to vent after being perfumed and constrained by the mind consciousness. Some people vent anger on the surface but are not angry inside—this is the mind consciousness's superficial anger, perhaps feigned, or perhaps due to meditative concentration (samādhi). Some people forcibly feign composure on the surface while in fact being extremely angry inside—this is the manas's intense anger, while the mind consciousness still retains some rationality, constantly controlling the manas to keep it from venting anger.

Sometimes, while on the one hand thinking one should not get angry and vent anger—this is the mind consciousness's rational deliberation—on the other hand one keeps getting angry and venting anger—this is the manas's intense anger, not subject to the mind consciousness's rational control and not heeding the mind consciousness's counsel. What wants to control is the mind consciousness; what cannot be controlled is the manas. If the anger vented by the manas is too severe, the mind consciousness must exercise some control. After controlling it a little, the mind consciousness then reasons with the manas, explaining principles to it, analyzing the pros and cons, gains and losses, perfuming the manas. Over time this can take effect and subdue the manas.

4. Insincerity and pretense are tricks displayed by the mind consciousness—both shallow and insincere. Their purpose is to fraudulently win others' favor and gain their trust. This may also be the result of being directed and driven by the manas. When influenced and commanded by the manas's afflictive habits of self-grasping (ātma-grāha) and grasping at self, the mind consciousness has no choice but to present a false self to others. Candidness and straightforwardness are the manas's inherent nature. Because the manas lacks the mind consciousness as its assistant and accomplice, it cannot engage in deception or scheming and calculation; it can only manifest as natural habitual tendencies. Worldly people, generally speaking, all know how to put on an act and engage in insincerity and pretense, even being two-faced: smiling on one side (the mind consciousness) while tripping someone up behind their feet (the manas); uttering sweet words on one side (the mind consciousness) while harboring murderous intent on the other (the manas). This is the deceitfulness performed jointly by the mind consciousness and the manas.

The manas, being straightforward, manifests as it is; it will not flatter, nor can it flatter and scheme; it cannot and will not feint in one direction while attacking in another; it will not speak sweet words, will not give false smiles, and will not put on an act. But following its afflictive nature, the mind consciousness will do these things. When the sages cultivate to the level of the manas and subdue the manas's self-grasping, no longer grasping at self, the mind consciousness also follows and becomes straightforward; its mental disposition becomes direct and not crooked—it will not flatter worldly people against its own will, nor will it beat around the bush three times before revealing its true intent. Worldly people's worldly wisdom, eloquence, and skill in scheming are welcomed in worldly society, whereas a practitioner of the Path is honest and candid in mind, utterly without artifice or obsequious flattery, and therefore does not blend with the worldly. Though the body dwells in the mundane world, the mind always remains far from it; though mixing in worldly society, the mind does not accord with the mundane.

Sometimes the mind consciousness lies and deceives people. The manas itself may not want to do so, but the mind consciousness believes that doing so is beneficial and can yield some advantage. The mind consciousness transmits this view to the manas, giving the manas false teaching; the manas knows it can gain benefit, and because of greed, it decides, "Then let's lie and deceive," and so the mind consciousness lies and deceives. Many people are like this: not straightforward in mind, feinting in one direction while attacking in another, uttering lie after lie, often saying what they do not think while concealing what they do think—their character is very vile.

On the other hand, if a person's lying and deceiving has become a habit, it has penetrated deep into the marrow, deeply rooted in the manas—the perfuming of the manas has already succeeded. From then on, this defiled habit of the manas will manifest whenever conditions arise; without the mind consciousness's deliberation, it will automatically and habitually lie and deceive people everywhere, taking it as routine without awakening to itself. For an untrained person, the mind consciousness simply cannot deliberate on how despicable lying and deceiving is; it always obeys the manas's command and lies and deceives everywhere—so long as it can secure its immediate benefit, nothing else matters. A person with cultivation can frequently turn the light inward (pratyavekṣā) to examine their own mental activities; knowing something is wrong, they repent and turn around their mental activities, and try to persuade the manas, engaging in a negotiation of ideas with the manas. The outcome—who wins and who loses—depends on which side has greater power.

5. Insincerity, false affection, and putting on airs—which consciousness do these refer to? Emotional attachment, deep affection, and profound devotion—which consciousness do these refer to? Insincerity and false affection are forcibly feigned when one does not actually have such a mind; there is no genuine affection. Deep down, the manas has no affection—that is, there is no sincerity; it is a manifestation of insincerity of mind and intent. It is merely the mind consciousness putting on an act on the surface; perhaps even the mind consciousness has no affection, hence it is fake, an act, not genuine. Genuine affection is the deep-seated affection of the manas—sincere, heartfelt affection. Because the self is divided into the superficial self of the mind consciousness and the fundamental and ultimate self of the manas, the eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) is likewise divided into superficial eradication of the view of self (by the mind consciousness) and true eradication of the view of self (by the manas). Only when the view of self is truly eradicated, penetrating to the manas, can the manas accord with selflessness.

Whatever is deep and genuine belongs to the manas and accords with the manas; whatever is shallow and fake stops at the level of the mind consciousness and accords only with the mind consciousness. The mind consciousness can feign and fake, but the manas must reveal genuine feeling. When genuine feeling flows forth, the manas automatically, or unconsciously, activates body and mind to express affection. Emotional attachment is the manas's grasping at all dharmas; this is the hardest to eradicate, because the deluded attachment is too deep and too old—it has been so since beginningless kalpas. The manas's habitual tendencies carry too great an inertial force to be changed and eliminated in a short time.

Profound devotion is the manas's deep and heavy emotional attachment; affection is in its very bones, hard to extract and hard to detect through introspection, and it always manifests unconsciously. People with heavy emotional attachment lack rationality; those with rationality have lighter emotional attachment and are easier to persuade and counsel.

When dharmas that accord with the manas appear, the manas directly and swiftly takes charge and responds, without any need to pretend. Because the mind consciousness cannot take charge and cannot produce anything genuine, when something is absent from both the manas and the mind consciousness, the mind consciousness must pretend to have it and must put on an act—this is not a genuine outflow of the true mind. When the true mind flows forth, what the manas naturally reveals, the manas will directly command body and mind to express—such as reddened eyes, stirred emotions, and reluctance to part.

6. If the emotion of hatred reaches the point of gritting one's teeth, it is the manas's deep hatred—the manas's reaction. The mind consciousness also has emotions, but the mind consciousness's emotions remain at the surface level and do not reach the point of gritting one's teeth, because the mind consciousness cannot autonomously control the body faculty. Once a matter penetrates deep into the mind, it becomes engraved on the bones and heart. Why? When any dharma is engraved into the marrow, it has penetrated to the manas, to the point of lingering and forgetting to return, being unable to forget it moment after moment, thinking of it day and night. All of this is manifested by the manas autonomously regulating the six consciousnesses—the result of the mind consciousness being commanded and directed by the manas.

The manas's working intensity far exceeds that of the mind consciousness, and it is also very effective and profound, because the manas is the consciousness that takes charge and can determine the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses. When a person is in deep sorrow or deep rage, their meditative power is also quite formidable—there is an intense surge, a fierce momentum that cannot be blocked—all of this is manifested by the six consciousnesses under the direction of the manas's intense grasping. So when we study Buddhism, we should also learn to mobilize the manas's power, letting it lead the six consciousnesses in cultivating wholesome dharmas—then why worry that the Path will not be accomplished?

7. Whether a person treats people and matters with a sincere mind or a false mind—with sincerity or with insincerity—depends on whether the mind employed arises from the mind consciousness or from the manas. Insincerity is a mind employed arising from the mind consciousness; false intent is not the intent of the manas but the intent of the mind consciousness. Genuine sincerity is intent arising from the manas, because the manas can take charge, and the tathāgatagarbha accords with the manas—whatever it wants, it is given—this is genuineness. The mind consciousness is different: it cannot take charge, and the tathāgatagarbha does not accord with it; what it says cannot be realized—this is insincerity.

By observing a person's facial expression, one can know whether they are sincere. Why? Facial expressions are activities of the body faculty, directly controlled by the manas and according with the manas. If the body and expressions react, it shows the manas's mind has been moved and it deeply cares. If the facial expression is indifferent, it shows the mind consciousness's superficial going-through-the-motions, or that the mind consciousness is controlling the manas, not letting the manas express its own affection. Therefore, all manifestations of the mind consciousness are superficial and shallow; deep-level manifestations belong to the manas.

When the manas's ingrained habits are hard to change, only when it is threatened and intimidated—when danger appears and it feels its own safety is at risk—can it be compelled, reluctantly, to change itself. Therefore, only after experiencing very great setbacks and very real experiences is the manas likely to change itself. The more real the direct perception and reality that the manas accepts and acknowledges, the more easily the manas accepts them. Hence, in interactions between people, sincerity often easily moves and transforms others.

8. How the Mind Consciousness and the Manas Mostly Manifest in Behaviors Such as Forcing a Smile, Feigning Composure, Suppressing Rage, Being Elated, Beaming with Joy, Gritting One's Teeth, and So On

"Forcing" (强) means reluctantly. The manas is rather unwilling, while the mind consciousness is very proactive, coercing and restraining the manas, making the manas comply with itself. The mind consciousness has hypocritical manifestations; the manas is candid, direct, and honest—the manas is never hypocritical and does not put on airs. When forcing a smile, the manas originally does not want to smile, but the mind consciousness is hypocritical; in order to conceal its own mind (the manas), cater to the other party, and cope with the occasion, it forcibly makes the manas put on a smiling appearance—this reveals the mind consciousness's falsity and unreality. When the mind consciousness wants to fake a smile, it coerces the manas, pressures the manas, forces the manas, compelling the manas to smile against its will, making the manas yield and do what it originally did not want to do—doing things contrary to its own intentions.

Because the mind consciousness has strong rationality and can analyze pros and cons, gains and losses, it temporarily persuades the manas to comply with its wishes. But it has not fully persuaded; the manas has not fully understood the principles and has not changed its thoughts and ideas; it is temporarily aggrieved and has no choice but to follow the mind consciousness's suggestion, so it smiles reluctantly—this is called forcing a smile. Afterwards, it may even regret it and change its mind.

Feigning composure: when the manas encounters a matter, it is somewhat panicked and not composed. The mind consciousness, in order to conceal its own (the manas's) panic, forces and counsels the manas to deliberately put on a composed appearance for the other party to see, in order to cover up its inner panic and disquiet. This fully displays the mind consciousness's rationality and hypocrisy—its skill at pretending.

Being elated (heart bursting into bloom) is joy welling up from within the heart. "Heart" refers to the manas. When the manas is joyful or extremely happy, the mind consciousness cannot conceal it, nor can it control it. Beaming with joy, laughing heartily, and knowing smiles are all smiles from the heart—all genuine, true, and real joyful emotions manifested by the manas. The mind consciousness complies with the manas, not suppressing or concealing the manas's emotions, so there is not the slightest falsity or pretense; what is revealed is the manas's own true character.

Being unable to restrain oneself: the manas's inner emotions are completely and fully revealed without concealment. The mind consciousness has no intention to control or cover up, expressing itself according to the manas's disposition; the manas's inherent, innocent disposition thus manifests.

Smiling on the surface but not in the heart: "skin" is the superficial mind consciousness; "flesh" is the deep-level manas hidden beneath the skin. The manas originally does not want to smile, but the mind consciousness insists on faking a smile, engaging in deception—so the manas and the mind consciousness, one smiling and one not smiling, is called smiling on the surface but not in the heart. From this we can see that in many cases the manas also complies with the mind consciousness, being controlled by it, unable to act autonomously and unable to reveal its own original countenance.

Suppressing rage: the manas is already extremely angry and about to erupt, but the mind consciousness is very calm and comes to the rescue, not letting the manas catch fire, forcibly suppressing the manas, strongly counseling the manas not to vent anger, urging the manas to calm down. If the mind consciousness could truly persuade the manas, there would be no need for forcible suppression; the manas would obediently, from the heart, do what it wants to do. Because the manas's habitual tendencies are heavy, the mind consciousness momentarily cannot persuade the manas and can only suppress it; the manas reluctantly agrees, not acting according to its own intentions. But if suppression lasts too long, the mind will develop illness and the internal organs will be damaged. When the manas does not understand the principles and is suppressed by the mind consciousness for a long time, the spirit becomes very depressed, and psychological disorders often arise. Therefore, one should still persuade the manas with reason, open the manas's knots of the mind, and unblock its emotions.

"Hatred arises from the heart; evil arises at the side of the gallbladder." Both the heart and the gallbladder are regulated by the manas. By controlling the brain's neural center system, the manas can control the entire body's five viscera and six bowels, all organs, and even the activities of minute cellular tissues. The manas's hatred is real hatred—hence hatred arises from the heart (the manas); whereas the mind consciousness's hatred is not real hatred but fake hatred, manifesting very mildly. When the manas has an evil mind, that is real evil—evil from the inside out, without the slightest element of pretense. The mind consciousness's evil is fake evil, not serious, not enough to cause any harm. The gallbladder is associated with emotions such as fear and evil; fear and evil can affect the gallbladder. Only the manas's fear and evil can engage the gallbladder, affecting the secretion of bile, thereby causing changes in facial color and complexion, presenting a dark purple hue. This shows that once the manas moves, it can set off changes throughout the entire body and mind. Gritting one's teeth in hatred is also the manas's hatred—the manas has engaged the teeth, affecting and influencing them, showing that the hatred is very deep. Shallow hatred is the mind consciousness's superficial hatred, relatively mild.

Arguing until face and ears turn red, gasping until lips turn purple, trembling all over, head dizzy and brain swollen, crying as if on the verge of death, itching teeth with hatred, clenching fists in rage, glaring with round eyes, eyes spitting fire, exasperated and flustered, so angry as to say nothing and throw a punch on the spot, beating the other party black and blue, widening the eyes in astonishment, dancing with joy—all these show the reactions of the body faculty set off after the manas has been stirred to anger or moved with emotion. If it were merely the mind consciousness's mental state, there would be no such reactions, because the mind consciousness cannot command and control the body faculty; without control over the brain's neural center system, it cannot set the body faculty in motion.

9. The difference between the manas and the mind consciousness: take the dharma of self-confidence, for example. There is the manas's self-confidence and the mind consciousness's self-confidence. The kind that cannot be clearly articulated is the manas's self-confidence; the kind with reasons and evidence is the mind consciousness's self-confidence—one is reasonable, the other is not. Intuition is the manas's awareness; it is rather direct, without the mind consciousness's analysis and judgment—as soon as a matter appears, it can be aware of it.

Trusting one's intuition involves both the manas's trust and the mind consciousness's trust. When intuition arises, sometimes it is trusted, sometimes doubted. What can give rise to doubt is the mind consciousness, because the mind consciousness cannot directly know karmic seeds; regarding some matters it does not know exactly why, so doubt is inevitable. But the mind consciousness has rationality and can deliberate, analyze, compare, and judge. If the manas trusts the intuition, it is trusting itself, and perhaps it will not tolerate the mind consciousness's questioning—this is the manas's full self-confidence, and also the manas's self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana).

 Take another example: after waking up in the morning, one wants to get up early, yet finds an excuse to sleep a little longer. Once the six consciousnesses have arisen, one counts as awake. The one who wants to get up and the one who does not want to get up are both the manas; the one who finds excuses is the mind consciousness. The mind consciousness must deliberate, analyze, calculate, and weigh; it craves enjoyment, and relying on the manas's lazy greed, it finds excuses to stay in bed. The manas cannot find excuses, because it has difficulty making subtle differentiations and cannot carefully search for reasons and pretexts. After the mind consciousness finds an excuse, it transmits the excuse to the manas, and the manas then decides whether to get up immediately.

Every step involves the close cooperation of the two consciousnesses; it is just very hard to distinguish them. The manas generally follows its own habitual inertia, merely wanting to have the five aggregates' activities, but it is also somewhat lazy and fond of enjoyment; the mind consciousness is sometimes also lazy and fond of enjoyment. But at this time in the morning, the mind consciousness's own spirit is not very vigorous, its force of action is relatively small, and its influence on the manas is not great. The behavior and mental concepts manifested at this time are all the manas's—the manas manifests as it is. Only when the mind consciousness's influence is relatively weak can one see a person's true level of cultivation.

10. Question: For a person who wants to end their own life, the mind consciousness must have a strong volition. Although the manas temporarily submits to the mind consciousness's volition and cooperates in taking action, the manas's habitual tendencies fundamentally do not permit laying hands on one's own body. Otherwise, since the body is controlled by the manas, it would suffice to directly make the heartbeat stop. Is this so?

Answer: Although the body is regulated by the manas, the manas cannot directly control the body and cannot directly alter the body. The manas's taking charge, commanding, and manipulating are surface phenomena; in essence, it is still the tathāgatagarbha that exercises sovereignty over all dharmas and over the body. Every function and action of the body is governed and managed by the tathāgatagarbha; it is merely that the tathāgatagarbha creates in accordance with karmic seeds and the manas's wishes, and it would never act on its own initiative. The tathāgatagarbha is the master; the body is produced and sustained by the tathāgatagarbha. No matter how the manas wants the body to be, it must have the tathāgatagarbha's cooperation to operate, and the tathāgatagarbha must above all attend to the karmic seeds, not merely obey the manas's arrangements. Therefore, the manas cannot directly make the heartbeat stop—He cannot do it; this is not within His scope of work and capability.

As for the manas deciding or agreeing to end life, it is because the result of the mind consciousness's thinking and analysis about people, matters, and the living environment influenced the manas. The manas, having been wrongly taught, agreed with the mind consciousness's view and decision, agreeing with the mind consciousness's decision to end its own life. There are also cases where the manas actively decides to end life while the mind consciousness is not willing to end its own life, still having some attachment to life. Suicide is also a manifestation of the manas's afflictive habitual tendencies: because the manas's desires are very strong and cannot be satisfied, despair arises; when it cannot obtain what it craves, it cannot bear it, and it adopts drastic means to end life—this too is a manifestation of the manas's intense desires.