The Right Understanding of Manas
Chapter 3: The Nimbleness of the Manas
1. Another characteristic of the manas is its nimbleness. In Chinese, "nimble" means light, flexible, and quick, and the manas is roughly like that. Why is the manas so nimble? Since beginningless kalpas, it has constantly been grasping at all the dharmas produced by the tathāgatagarbha, and has always existed by following along with the tathāgatagarbha. Whatever dharma the tathāgatagarbha can transform into being, the manas can attach to that dharma, without any obstruction—extremely deft and quick. As long as the tathāgatagarbha can transform something, the manas can attach to it; it is closely connected with the tathāgatagarbha, and there is not a single dharma it cannot attach to. That is why it is said to be so nimble. Whatever dharma the tathāgatagarbha manifests, the manas instantly knows it—hence it is said to be very nimble.
2. When the six consciousnesses are absent, is the manas nimble or not? When the mind consciousness is absent, the manas absolutely knows that it exists, knows that the five-aggregate body currently cannot move and cannot discern subtle dharmas, knows that it is still alive, and knows roughly the situation it is in. For example, when one is unconscious, the manas forcefully seeks an opportunity to wake up; when death is near, the manas struggles against dying. While asleep, if a big fire breaks out not far away, the manas quickly lets the six consciousnesses emerge to discern it; while the mind consciousness is still groggy and does not know what is happening, the body immediately runs. Would you say the manas is nimble or not?
When an earthquake occurs, the manas immediately lets the six consciousnesses emerge, and before the six consciousnesses even know exactly what is happening, they leap out the window and flee—would you say the manas is nimble or not? The fleeing is decided by the manas; the six consciousnesses were groggy and did not give the manas much information, yet the manas already knew something was wrong. While sleeping, when the six consciousnesses do not exist, the manas knows that something serious is wrong and quickly wakes up—would you say the manas is nimble or not? If the manas were not nimble, we could not have survived until now. When various sudden events occur, the manas knows to immediately dodge them, and knows to protect the critical and vital parts of the body, knowing where the fatal spots are. Only in this way have we been able to live safely until now. Therefore, we should be grateful for the manas's habitual force and its nimble self-protection function.
3. Why Is the Manas Called the Transforming Consciousness?
Precisely because the manas is extremely nimble, it is called the transforming consciousness. The meaning of "transforming consciousness" is that dharmas which originally did not exist—dharmas within the tathāgatagarbha—are, due to the manas's grasping nature, transformed out by the manas; this is the function of the manas as the transforming consciousness. If the manas possessed great wisdom and knew the true reality of the dharmadhātu, relying on the tathāgatagarbha and relying on ultimate reality, the manas would know that all dharmas are illusory; when the mind is still and unmoving, some dharmas of the three realms would not manifest and would not be transformed out. If the manas does not transform them, the dharmas of the three realms cannot appear. The manas can transform out the dharmas of the three realms and can transform out the six consciousnesses—this is what makes it the transforming consciousness. Transforming the dharmas of the three realms out of the treasure trove of the tathāgatagarbha—this is the function of the transforming consciousness.
When we are in meditative concentration, the manas is still transforming; when we sleep and the aware mind ceases, the manas still continues transforming without interruption. Since the manas can transform continuously and without interruption, transforming out all dharmas, this shows that the manas is truly extremely nimble. Moreover, whether one has entered the state of no-perception concentration (asaṃjñi-samāpatti), entered the cessation of perception and feeling (nirodha-samāpatti), or is in the moment of death or in unconsciousness, it still continues operating without interruption—hence it is called the transforming consciousness. The manas is the transforming consciousness outside of meditative concentration, and it is also the transforming consciousness within meditative concentration; it transforms at every moment, transforming instant by instant, never having stopped for a single instant. If the manas did not transform, there would be nirvāṇa without remainder.
That is to say, owing to the movement of the manas's mind, the mind consciousness, the aware mind, arises in coordination to manifest the realms of the six sense objects and to discern the realms of the six sense objects; there are then the six consciousnesses that can see the realms of the six sense objects, and the perceived six sense objects are called the marks of the realm—thus mind and realm both appear in full.
4. The Pervasively Grasping Nature and Nimbleness of the Manas
Some people say that when one is asleep and a "bang" occurs—a major sound appears—only then does the tathāgatagarbha give rise to the six consciousnesses and the person wakes up. Then, when there is no major sound and no major mental sense-object, do the six consciousnesses arise or not? Can one wake up from sleep? Of course one can wake up. For the vast majority of sentient beings and on the vast majority of occasions, waking from sleep is waking up naturally, not always because a major mental sense-object caused the waking. Moreover, not every sleep involves major mental sense-objects; otherwise, such a sleeping environment would be terrible, everyone's sleep quality would be extremely poor, and the result would be drowsiness and lack of alertness all day long. Furthermore, no one can guarantee that every time they are about to wake up there will certainly be a major mental sense-object. In that case, one could not guarantee waking up on time every time one sleeps, nor even guarantee waking up at all—then who would dare to sleep casually?
In fact, the mechanism of the manas is that it can discern all sense-object realms, whether major or not, but it can overlook and ignore certain unimportant sense-object realms, in which case there is no need for the six consciousnesses to arise and operate. But for certain sense-object realms that the manas considers relatively important and useful, if it wants to discern them more subtly and lacks the ability to do so, the tathāgatagarbha will give rise to the six consciousnesses for it to assist in the discernment, and then let the manas make the decision. If there really are no important or meaningful sense-object realms, the manas will habitually and purposelessly grasp pervasively, and the tathāgatagarbha will cooperate by giving rise to the six consciousnesses to discern all sense-object realms according to conditions. For example, when we sit in meditation cultivating concentration, the mind consciousness wholeheartedly wants to become still and does not want to discern sounds, but the manas's habitual force cannot be stopped; sounds still arise at the ear, the mind consciousness still knows them, and the mind cannot empty itself. When one is awake and the mind is calm, no matter how faint the sounds at the ear, they can all be heard—for example, the faintest sound of the heartbeat, the sound of breathing, the chirping of mosquitoes and insects, a distant sound about to fade away—the mind consciousness knows them all. But before the mind consciousness knows them, the manas must first attach to and discern them.
Because the manas pervasively grasps at all dharmas, there is not a single dharma that the manas is not attached to—subtle, coarse, major, or minor, the manas grasps them all. Even if the mind consciousness does not want these dharmas and dislikes them, the manas will still bring them forth, and the mind consciousness has no way to refuse. This is the pervasively grasping nature of the manas, the effect of its habitual tendencies. The manas grasps at dharmas for various reasons: sometimes because of desire, sometimes because of aspirations and vows, sometimes because of habitual tendencies, and sometimes because the realm is simply too powerful—the manas cannot resist the temptation and has no choice but to discern, thus giving rise to its grasping nature. After the manas grasps at dharmas, the mind consciousness becomes manifest and can then discriminate the six sense objects and perceive the marks of the realm.
So is the manas's own capacity to perceive the marks of the realm inferior? Actually, it is not inferior. For example, when a natural or human calamity is about to occur somewhere, the mind consciousness knows nothing about it, but the manas knows, and so it decides to move house to avoid the disaster, or displays panicked behavior—these phenomena all show that the manas knew something was about to happen. Sometimes, when the manas knows something is going to happen and wants the mind consciousness to know too, it creates a dream so the mind consciousness can discern it in the dream, or lets the mind consciousness discern it in meditative concentration. So is the manas nimble or not? Before this, the mind consciousness had no way to know these things; without the manas's alertness, the mind consciousness simply could not have known.
When the manas knows these things that are about to happen, it knows them entirely on its own by relying on the tathāgatagarbha—the six consciousnesses have nothing to do with it—and only when the manas informs it through dreams can the mind consciousness know what is about to happen. While sitting in meditation, the manas can also return to past lives and manifest the events of past lives for the mind consciousness to discern, as well as events from childhood, a whole heap of important and unimportant matters, all of which the mind consciousness can come to discern. Is the mind consciousness involved here? No—all of it is known by the manas alone relying on the tathāgatagarbha. When the manas operates alone, it is very nimble and has no need to rely on the six consciousnesses.
The dharma of the manas is extremely subtle; our mind must be extremely subtle, our meditative concentration extremely good, our wisdom extremely deep and fine, and our capacity for direct-perception contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) extremely strong, before we can excavate those subtle dharmas bit by bit. Lacking meditative concentration and wisdom, one can only carry out coarse, shallow contemplative practice on the coarse, superficial level. Some people's minds are extremely coarse; even on the coarse level they cannot practice contemplation, let alone with subtle dharmas.
5. Why Can the Manas Take Measures in Emergencies, Thereby Averting Danger and Turning Peril into Safety? How Does the Manas Know That an Encountered Situation Is Dangerous and Could Endanger Its Own Life? How Does the Manas Discern and Judge That an Accident Is About to Occur?
First, it must be explained that here the mind consciousness absolutely has no time to carefully analyze the danger of the situation, or how to evade it and what measures to take. Moreover, in most cases, only after the event has occurred and the risk has passed does the mind consciousness know what actually just happened and realize how perilous it was; then, instead of thanking God or thanking some deity, it does not know that what it should thank most is the manas. So what should we thank the manas for?
Since beginningless kalpas, the manas has experienced countless events; it knows what is beneficial to itself and what is harmful, what can endanger life. It has also, following the manas life after life, been attached to the physical body and understands its general condition—which parts are important and involve the life faculty; the manas knows all this. Therefore, at critical junctures, the manas often, without waiting for the mind consciousness's analysis and judgment, handles various urgent and major sudden events entirely on its own, preventing accidents and safeguarding the safety of life.
When various sudden events occur, if the manas had to wait for the mind consciousness's analysis, thinking, reasoning, and judgment before deliberating (manasikāra) on how to resolve and handle them, it would already be too late—perhaps life could hardly be preserved. Therefore, we should be grateful for the manas's nimbleness, grateful for the manas's precious experience accumulated since beginningless kalpas, grateful for the manas's decisive quick-wittedness that brooks no delay, and grateful for the manas's automatic wisdom of evading danger. So we should no longer say that the manas is always so foolish and so stupid; when it is quick-witted, we are far behind it.
6. When iron filings fly toward the eyes, quickly closing the eyes blocks the incoming filings, and the eyes are not injured. This emergency, rapid closing of the eyes is behavior swiftly decided and directed by the manas. The manas is truly inconceivable; it is always at the forefront of protecting the physical body. Without this protective mechanism of His, how long the five-aggregate body of each life could survive would be hard to say.
Although we should thank the manas for this, what deserves the most gratitude is still the tathāgatagarbha. The rapid repair of bodily injuries is entirely the result of the tathāgatagarbha allocating the seeds of the four great elements. Without the tathāgatagarbha, any idea of the manas would be powerless, let alone protecting the physical body or wanting the body to recover to health—that would be impossible. Therefore, the tathāgatagarbha is the most worthy of respect and love, selfless and without self. The manas loves the various functions of the tathāgatagarbha, relies on the tathāgatagarbha's protection while giving imperious commands, yet believes it is all its own achievement.
7. The innate ability to avoid danger belongs to the manas; the mind consciousness, at the moment of birth, simply does not understand it. If in a lifetime one never encounters the corresponding environment for learning, the mind consciousness will never understand such things. But the manas has an inborn survival ability, without needing the mind consciousness's guidance or conditioning.
The manas of animals also has a nimble side, and their innate abilities are numerous. When animals encounter danger for the first time, no one teaches them, yet they understand; when they first encounter an earthquake, they have a premonition and know to find a way to escape—no one teaches them; they are born knowing it. This is the nimbleness of the manas, and nothing else. But no matter how nimble the manas is, it cannot escape karmic conditions or karmic retribution. Even if one is born in the heaven of neither perception nor non-perception to receive wholesome retribution, if the manas craves and loves that realm, when life ends and unwholesome retribution arrives, it must go to the three evil destinies to suffer; the manas can exercise no mastery whatsoever and has no way to escape.
No matter how nimble some people's manas is, when adverse conditions appear, if death is due, death will still come, and there is no escaping it. Although in others' eyes it could be completely avoided and any accident could be prevented, for one upon whom karmic retribution has arrived, there is no room for any choice, no opportunity to choose at all, no opportunity to think—life simply vanishes.
No matter how nimble some people's manas is, due to a deficiency of karmic seeds and merit, they still cannot understand even very simple and obvious dharma principles, cannot correctly comprehend them, let alone think about them in accordance with truth—very regrettable. No matter how nimble and clever some people's manas is, if they single-mindedly pursue high office and generous salaries, yet did not cultivate merit in past lives, all wholesome retribution passes them by, and they suffer painfully and complain for a lifetime. No matter how nimble and clever some people's manas is, because they studied Buddhism for only a short time in past lives, even though they diligently and earnestly cultivate and study the Buddha-dharma their whole lives with unrelenting diligence, they cannot truly understand and contemplate even such a Hinayana dharma as the eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), let alone attain realization of the fruits.
