Mental Factors of the Mind base\: A Practical Compass (Second Edition) (with over 30,000 additional words, reorganized)
Section 6: The Mental Factor of Wisdom (prajñā-caitta)
I. The Two Kinds of Wisdom of the Manas
The wisdom of the manas is divided into two kinds. One is the wisdom unique to the manas, distinct from that of the mind consciousness, which has arisen from having been habituated to immeasurable dharmas since beginningless kalpas. It is innate, requiring no later habituation or learning, and it far surpasses the wisdom of the mind consciousness, playing a decisive role with respect to all dharmas. Therefore, at times the manas, without relying on the mind consciousness'ss, able to avert many disasters.
However, the manas's discriminating capacity in the general, overall, holistic, and global aspects is beyond the reach of the mind consciousness, because the manas holds the overall picture and full scope of all dharmas; it can make rapid judgments and decisions on major matters and can autonomously handle many sudden events.
IV. The Difference Between the Mental Factors of Wisdom of the Manas and the Mind Consciousness
The difference between the wisdom of the manas and that of the mind consciousness can be illustrated with a concrete example. For instance, while sleeping, the blanket is kicked off, and the body, uncovered, feels somewhat cool. The manas discerns this situation but cannot handle it itself, keeping this matter in mind. The tathāgatagarbha discerns the manas's volition mental factor and thus manifests a dream for the manas to resolve this matter. The mind consciousness dreams that it is in a cold environment, feels very cold, and so decides to cover itself with the blanket; the manas agrees and makes its own decision. At this time, the manas cannot distinguish inside the dream from outside the dream, taking the dream state as being outside the dream, and makes the decision. The mind consciousness also does not know whether it is inside or outside the dream, takes the dream state as real, and obeys the manas's decision to cover itself with the blanket. But the mind consciousness that can cover itself with the blanket is no longer a solitary consciousness but a consciousness accompanied by the five senses, so the body consciousness also arises and together covers with the blanket. The manas's inability to distinguish inside from outside the dream is lack of wisdom; being able to devise a way to handle it is wisdom. Being able to discern that the body has developed an unusual condition is also the manas's discriminating wisdom; the analysis and handling of specific situations belongs to the wisdom of the mind consciousness.
V. The Seasoned Wisdom of the Manas
The difference between the wisdom of the manas and the mind consciousness is simply that the manas cannot, like the mind consciousness, make detailed and specific discriminations of the six sense objects—that is all. In other respects, the manas's wisdom is quite remarkable. Much of the time when we deal with worldly affairs, especially very urgent matters and very chaotic matters, we rely entirely on the manas's experience and wisdom, while the mind consciousness cannot cope, cannot analyze fast enough, cannot resolve fast enough, and can only follow the manas's direction and arrangement. This situation can sometimes be called going along with conditions, sometimes called leaving things to fate, yet in the end things are resolved, sometimes quite satisfactorily and to one's liking.
The manas has its unique great wisdom: for example, fearlessness in the face of danger, composure and self-possession, orderliness and method, meticulous organization, heroic ambition and passion, a bosom as open as a valley, extraordinary boldness of spirit, and so on—all these are the wisdom of the manas, very remarkable. Especially for those who have been human for many lives, who have been leaders and generals, officials and ministers, people rich in experience and阅历—such people's manas wisdom is very strong. These people mostly rely on the manas's wisdom in doing things, deciding and handling all matters, while the mind consciousness often plays an auxiliary role.
When a great general commands on the battlefield, the urgent battlefield decisions and major strategies often rely on the manas's wordless wisdom and experience; the mind consciousness often cannot exert force. People with merit, with their own views, with strategy, when encountering matters, are often very calm, not rushing to respond, not rushing to decide; at the proper time, ideas and methods automatically emerge—that is relying on the methods the manas devises; the manas has its own methods. Having a backbone—what worldly people call having an "old pig's spine"—means the manas has its own convictions and the mind consciousness need not intervene. People of great wisdom, of sagacity, of reason, of cultivation still take the manas's wisdom as primary, without need of the mind consciousness's cunning and scheming; the manas has its own arrangements. This great wisdom is the result of the manas's deliberation (manasikāra/manana), and also the result of the manas's seasoned experience.
A talent cannot be cultivated on the spot; that is, having this person's mind consciousness learn now and then habituate the manas is already too late. The person must have possessed the required qualities beforehand, innately complete—that is, possessed by the manas, long since successfully habituated, innate wisdom. What is called the faculty of wisdom, what is called the faculty of goodness, what is called merit—all refer to the manas's innate wisdom.
The mind consciousnesses of all sentient beings stand on the same starting line at birth, with no difference among them; yet by the end of life, why are the differences so great? One is the habituation of the living environment; the other is the manas's driving force. The living environments of the Sahā world are roughly similar; in the same city, the same family, the same workplace, the later habituation of the mind consciousness is about the same. The key lies in the manas's driving force and the impulsion of karma. And the manas's force is the karmic force; the karmic force is the manas's force. Therefore, all differences lie in differences in the manas.
VI. Only Wisdom That Settles on the Manas Is Ultimate
Wisdom refers not only to the wisdom of the mind consciousness but also to the wisdom of the manas. From the wisdom of the mind consciousness, the wisdom of the manas can be evoked; finally, when wisdom settles on the manas, great wisdom can again be born in future lives. Without meditative concentration, only the mind consciousness alone has wisdom, and the manas cannot produce wisdom accordingly, because without meditative concentration the manas clings to many things and cannot concentrate its energy on deliberation and investigation; therefore it cannot realize the Dharma, cannot know the selflessness of the Great and Small Vehicles, and cannot give birth to great wisdom.
The manas of ordinary beings also has wisdom. If the manas had no wisdom, it could not follow the mind consciousness in habituating and cultivating the Buddhadharma, could not give rise to the enlightenment factor of discrimination of dharmas, could not diligently investigate and engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), and thus could not see the Path and eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), the view of doubt, and the view of moral precepts prohibitions; the subsequent bonds of birth-and-death could not be severed, and it could not correctly and reasonably guide the six consciousnesses in cultivation. No matter how wise the mind consciousness were, it would be of little use.
If the manas had no wisdom, then even though the mind consciousness held that the tathāgatagarbha is real, that all dharmas are illusory transformations, and that the five aggregates are without self, the manas would not understand and could not break ignorance; beginningless ignorance would still exist, and it would still draw the six consciousnesses to create karma of ignorance, unable to weaken the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion, much less sever them, unable to attain liberation of mind and liberation of wisdom, unable to sever all of the ignorance of one thought and the ignorance like dust and sand; it could neither escape the three realms nor ultimately become a Buddha. Since all of this can be realized and can become reality, it shows that the manas has the mental factor of wisdom and has wisdom, capable of leading ordinary sentient beings to accomplish all worldly and world-transcending dharmas, up to becoming a Buddha.
Liberation is mainly the liberation of the manas from the birth-and-death bondage to the dharmas of the three realms, and from grasping (upādāna) and bondage to all dharmas. When the wisdom of the mind consciousness and the manas is fulfilled in the Small Vehicle, that is the arhat of the fourth fruit liberated by wisdom; when the wisdom of the mind consciousness and the manas is gradually complete and perfect in the Great Vehicle, one can transform consciousness into wisdom and ultimately become a Buddha. Therefore, this wisdom must in the end settle on the manas.
VII. The Wisdom of Equality (samatā-jñāna) of the Manas
First-bhūmi bodhisattvas transform consciousness into wisdom for the first time: the mind consciousness transforms into the wisdom of wondrous observation, and the manas transforms into the wisdom of equality. The sixth and seventh consciousnesses eradicate the tainted afflictive nature, transforming from the nature of consciousness into the nature of wisdom; the nature possessed after transforming consciousness into wisdom is the manas's wisdom of equality. The manas's wisdom of equality relies on the nature of the tathāgatagarbha; from the perspective of the tathāgatagarbha, all sentient beings are seen as equal in their tathatā nature, without distinguishing "I am high, you are low," treating all sentient beings with equal uniformity. Of course, the manas must first realize the tathāgatagarbha before it can, relying on the equality nature of the tathāgatagarbha, give rise to its own mind's wisdom of equality. Therefore, when practicing generosity (dāna), one will not choose recipients or distinguish close from distant; one will not give only to one's own relatives, but give to those most in need, treating others as oneself, treating even those with more distant relations better than one's own relatives—only that is true generosity of selfless equality nature.
VIII. The Manas's Discriminating Wisdom Regarding the Physical Body
Bodily activity is produced by the manas through regulating the brain's central nervous system, with the cooperation of the six consciousnesses. For example, when one opens one's eyes in the morning, the eyes do not open automatically; it is the manas that decides and regulates the six consciousnesses to open the eyes. For example, when eating, the manas discerns the signal of being full and decides to stop; the six consciousnesses then cease eating. This also proves that the manas, through the brain, can control the activity of the whole body, and all the body's activities are the activities of the six consciousnesses. Another example: blushing and thick-necked rage, leaping with fury, exasperation, striking out violently, beaming with joy, heart bursting with delight, and so on—all manifest because the manas has afflictive emotions; they are the result of the manas's manipulation.
On what basis does the manas manipulate the physical body? Why does the manas grasp the body's condition so accurately and so timely? All dharmas within the physical body are manifested and upheld by the tathāgatagarbha. To what degree one has eaten—the tathāgatagarbha reflects it truthfully in an instant; relying on the tathāgatagarbha, the manas knows all, and after knowing, the manas gives rise to a decision-making mind, makes a decision, and then the six consciousnesses carry it out. Of course, the manas's subtle knowing of the six sense objects and detailed knowing of the body's condition is through the discrimination of the six consciousnesses. The body's condition during coma and sleep is also truthfully reflected by the tathāgatagarbha in an instant, and the manas discerns it in a timely way; at these times there is no mind consciousness at all—it is all the manas's independent knowing relying on the tathāgatagarbha.
Another example: upon suddenly seeing an acquaintance, the mind consciousness cannot for the life of it recall the person's name, yet still feels it knows the name very well, as if it were on the tip of the tongue and about to be spoken. In this situation, it is only that the mind consciousness cannot recall; it does not mean the manas does not recognize the person and the name. After the person leaves, the mind consciousness will suddenly remember. Why can the mind consciousness remember? It is still because the manas gave the mind consciousness certain information, and the mind consciousness suddenly remembered. In the operation of all dharmas, the manas's function is necessarily present, but the mind consciousness's function is not necessarily present. If there are some functions where we cannot tell whether the manas's function is present or how large the manas's role is, then let us consider how the manas operates in the several states without the six consciousnesses.
IX. How the Manas's Experience, Habits, and Wisdom Are Produced
People accustomed to sitting in meditation, wherever they go, always like to sit cross-legged, even on a train's hard seat, habitually sitting cross-legged. Why this habit? Because through repeated experiences of sitting cross-legged, the manas has learned that cross-legged sitting has many benefits: it benefits the physical body, the feelings are comfortable, body and mind are at ease and tranquil, the circulation of qi and blood flows unobstructed, it relieves fatigue, makes energy abundant and vigorous, and the mind clear. Therefore, whenever sitting down, the manas habitually decides to sit cross-legged, the six consciousnesses automatically cross the legs, and the mind consciousness perhaps does not even know why it must sit this way, able only to obediently comply with the manas; the tathāgatagarbha has even less to say.
From this we can see that the manas understands the body's operating state, knows what the body needs and does not need, and what benefits it—one could say He knows the physical body like the palm of His hand, and therefore can create certain bodily actions even when the six consciousnesses do not understand why. For example, yawning when sleepy, swallowing saliva when thirsty, covering the stomach when hungry, holding the head when it aches, squatting down when dizzy, liking to eat certain foods when the body lacks certain nutrients, scratching when the body itches, and so on—these phenomena unknown to the mind consciousness are all quietly regulated by the manas; He is very adept at self-maintenance and self-protection.
From this it appears that the manas's wisdom and experience are also remarkable: it knows and understands innately, while the mind consciousness needs later learning to know—and some people still cannot learn it. If the manas also needed later learning to know how to protect itself, then infants, when thirsty or hungry, would not cry; diapers would not need changing, and they could sleep soundly even when wet; encountering adverse conditions, the body would not struggle. If the manas had to learn through later experience to know how to protect itself, then the first time driving and encountering an emergency, it would not brake suddenly to avoid a crash; the first time seeing a stone fall, it would not cover its head and flee. Yet in these matters the manas knows innately; because it has the nature of knowing, and knows accurately without error, the result fulfills the wish and one remains safe and sound. Clearly, the manas's wisdom is remarkable.
However, many of the manas's wisdom traits are also formed through accumulated experience; with much experience, it becomes experience and habit, becoming innate wisdom. When the mind consciousness lacks the recollection of past lives (pūrvanivāsānusmṛti), it has no way to accumulate the experiences of each life; it can only follow the manas's command, revolving around the manas's baton.
X. The Manas's Discriminating Wisdom Can Discriminate All Dharmas
Question: When the manas discerns major changes in the five sense-object realms, does it discern on the external object-aspect (nimitta) or the internal object-aspect?
Answer: The manas can discern all changes in the five sense objects and mental sense objects, not limited to major changes in the five sense-object and dharma-object realms; it does not only discern major five-sense-object and dharma-object realms—subtle six-sense-object realms, minute six-sense-object realms are all discerned, and even static, unmoving sense-object realms can be discerned; then it judges whether important or unimportant, whether fine discrimination is needed. Due to the limitations of the mental factor of wisdom, when fine discrimination is needed, the six consciousnesses are used to assist. These discriminations are generally on the internal object-aspect; before the six sense objects become the internal object-aspect, the manas can also discern them, so for some sudden events, the manas can handle them extremely quickly, before the mind consciousness has time to think.
The tathāgatagarbha, through the gross sense faculties, transforms the external object-aspect of the six sense objects into the internal object-aspect of the six sense objects. When the manas contacts the inner mental sense-object (inner dharma-viṣaya), the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to the mind consciousness, which directly discerns the inner mental sense-object; the manas then discerns the content that the mind consciousness has discerned and judged. Without the mind consciousness, the manas can only discern the rough and overall aspect of the inner mental sense-object, unclear on details; only then does it summon the mind consciousness and five consciousnesses to come out together to discern, and then the manas decides and takes corresponding action.
XI. The Manas's Powerful Life Experience and Wisdom
At the moment of impending unconsciousness, the manas discerns the condition of body and mind and strives to remain awake, trying not to let the six consciousnesses cease, constantly summoning courage to maintain awareness. On what basis does the manas do this? How much does He actually discern? How much life experience does the manas have, how many sense-object realms can it discern, before deciding that it should wake up and then striving to summon the six consciousnesses to be aware of the six sense objects?
After the manas has passed out, as long as bodily conditions permit, the manas will struggle to summon awareness, letting the conscious mind recover and become clear. Unconsciousness occurs when the brain's supreme faculty (indriya) is obstructed, or lacks blood, or lacks oxygen; the brain's central nervous system's transmission function is suppressed; the external six sense objects cannot smoothly and normally manifest in the supreme faculty; less and less of the six sense objects is transmitted to the supreme faculty, transmission becoming slower and slower, unable to guarantee normal contact of faculty and object, so that the tathāgatagarbha cannot smoothly and normally transmit the seeds of the six consciousnesses; the operation of the six consciousnesses slows or becomes intermittent, unable to normally discern the six sense objects, and their functions cannot be exercised normally. This is what the manas is unwilling to accept; He regards the functions of the six consciousnesses as His own functions, unwilling to let His own functions of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness vanish and be extinguished, and so strives with all His might to maintain the faculties of seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing of the six sense objects.
Through the tathāgatagarbha's knowing of the physical body, the manas can know the body's general condition, and together with the information transmitted by the six consciousnesses, can roughly judge the state of the five-aggregate body. When the physical body is harmed and the supreme faculty's transmission and reception functions are obstructed, the manas's regulation of the body is affected, but He still strives to regulate the body, striving to let the six consciousnesses discern the information on the body faculty and the six sense objects. When the tathāgatagarbha discerns the manas's attention and volition mental factors, it cooperates with the manas as much as possible, transmitting the seeds of the six consciousnesses and the subtle particles of the four great elements, striving to maintain the central nervous system's information transmission and keep the six consciousnesses' discrimination unbroken.
Each time the manas attends and decides, the tathāgatagarbha must strengthen the output of the six consciousnesses' seeds; that is why we can see a person about to pass out, now with strong discernment, now weak, now clear, now drowsy. If someone nearby pats the person's body or calls out loudly, transmitting these powerful six-sense-object realms into the supreme faculty, assisting the manas's attention and decision, the six consciousnesses can maintain weak discernment and not cease. When a person is on the verge of death, someone calling their name nearby can sometimes wake them and bring them back to life; this strengthens the manas's willpower and the functioning of the volition mental factor, and the tathāgatagarbha will cooperate with the manas to make the six consciousnesses manifest, so the person can wake and revive.
The manas as a consciousness is lively and quick-witted, with very strong recognition and discrimination; apart from being weak in discriminating the specific contents of the six sense objects, the operation of its volition mental factor is also very powerful—its strength is inconceivable, and its vitality even more inconceivable. Thus He tenaciously surfaces and sinks in the six realms of rebirth, strong and unyielding.
The manas's mind of renunciation needs the mind consciousness, through cultivation and contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), to continuously transmit to the manas for its knowing, continuously habituating the manas, letting the manas know the suffering of saṃsāra in the six realms, until the manas is moved and truly recognizes the suffering of the six realms; only then does it give rise to the mind of renunciation, whose power far exceeds the mind consciousness's mind of renunciation. Only then does it take charge and lead the six consciousnesses to cultivate vigorously, working diligently day and night, reducing clinging to the six sense objects, with every thought on cultivation, persevering without cease, and finally realizing the Dharma and gradually attaining liberation.
XII. Only When the Mind Consciousness Possesses the Wisdom of Wondrous Observation Can It Know the Manas's Wisdom
Wisdom has the function of recognition and discrimination. Whatever dharmas the eighth consciousness manifests, the manas can take as object and can discern. Whether the manas can introspect on its own discernment—when the mind consciousness lacks wisdom, it cannot observe this. If it is not a dharma of the six sense objects, the mind consciousness also does not know what exactly the manas has discerned or how it discerned it. Even if the manas has discerned dharmas of the six sense objects, when the mind consciousness lacks wisdom it still does not know—does not know what mental activity the manas had when discerning, what mental factors operated therein, and how they operated. Without the wisdom of wondrous observation, the mind consciousness cannot observe all these dharmas. How the manas's wisdom actually is when operating on various dharmas—when the mind consciousness lacks the wisdom of wondrous observation, it likewise cannot observe, and thus does not know what the manas's mental activity is like.
As for dharmas outside the supreme faculty, even if the manas discerns and operates on them, it cannot express them, and the mind consciousness does not know. The manas has no designations (nāma), does not correspond with language, and needs the aid of the mind consciousness to express itself; the mind consciousness is the manas's spokesperson. All the manas's mental activities are expressed through the mind consciousness; without the mind consciousness, the manas cannot accomplish anything with respect to the six sense objects. When the mind consciousness lacks the wisdom of wondrous observation, whatever wisdom the manas has or lacks, the mind consciousness does not know; the manas's mental factor of wisdom is very difficult for it to observe. After discerning the mental sense objects, the manas's mental factor of wisdom activates, knows what dharma it is, and will have grasping (upādāna); after deliberation, it exerts its decision-making function, seeking benefit and avoiding harm, and then will engage in some activity; the eighth consciousness complies, and the corresponding dharmas can manifest.
XIII. The Manas's Discriminating Wisdom That Surpasses the Mind Consciousness
When a resonance occurs, the mind consciousness does not know why; this is the manas corresponding with karmic seeds from past lives, karmic conditions manifesting, having discerned people, things, and matters familiar from past lives—like the feeling of a long-awaited reunion—naturally causing changes in body and mind. For example, when one has just begun studying Buddhism, upon encountering a Buddha statue, while reciting and bowing to the Buddha, resonance naturally appears, with tears streaming down; in Buddhadharma this is called the arising of the faculty of goodness. In fact, it is the manas corresponding with past lives' experiences of studying Buddhism and karmic actions; when karmic conditions manifest, deep feelings arise and such reactions appear, and the mind consciousness does not know why.
The manas knows far more things than the mind consciousness; many of its discriminations do not need the mind consciousness's cooperation, and the mind consciousness cannot cooperate, except when there is supernatural power. Supernatural power is nothing more than letting the mind consciousness reach past and future lives, whereas the manas has always reached past and future lives; it simply cannot express it. Because the manas is almost as endless in lifespan as the tathāgatagarbha, having experienced all the storms and rains in the world, knowing all things—only He does not correspond with language and writing and cannot express it to others. Many people regard the manas as a block of wood, believing the manas has almost no function of discrimination and deliberation; this is because many people do not understand the manas's nature and even less can observe the manas's operation, and so they are ignorant of the manas and give rise to many wrong views (mithyā-dṛṣṭi).
Upon encountering the Śūraṅgama Mantra, one feels familiarity and fondness, and thus concludes one must have habituated it in a past life. This conclusion is made by the mind consciousness discerning its own feeling toward the Śūraṅgama Mantra, and at the same time there is also the component of the manas agreeing with the mind consciousness's conclusion; otherwise one could not be firmly certain, and there would be some doubt in the mind. The feeling upon encountering the Śūraṅgama Mantra is also a feeling of the mind consciousness, but the manas corresponds with karmic seeds from past lives; when the conditions for those karmic seeds' manifestation ripen, the manas discerns the karmic actions of past lives and is familiar with the Śūraṅgama Mantra; the mind consciousness, receiving this suggestion, feels intensely, even weeping bitterly, leading the mind consciousness to judge that it must have recited the Śūraṅgama Mantra in a past life. If the manas did not correspond with past lives' karmic seeds and did not discern them, there would be no phenomena of weeping bitterly and intense feeling. The mind consciousness's feelings, judgments, and all manifestations are the results of the manas's guidance and manipulation.
This weeping bitterly is somewhat mysterious: why is it that when crying, as soon as tears flow, there is also nasal mucus? The eyes are the eye faculty, the nose the nose faculty—why do tears and mucus flow simultaneously? When crying, tears flowing would suffice; why does the nose faculty also engage? The reason is that the connection between the eyes and nose is very close, with intercommunication. Also, when cooking, when the nose smells pungent and acrid odors of various kinds, tears come out again—what is going on here?
The principle is this: the nose faculty and eye faculty are both material form (rūpa), both flesh bodies, part of the body faculty, controlled and constrained by the brain's central nervous system, and the brain's central nervous system is regulated by the manas. When the manas is moved, it prompts the brain's nervous system to transmit signals to the relevant nervous systems to regulate a certain part of the body faculty. The eye faculty and nose faculty are interconnected, their nervous systems linked; stimulating one faculty can connect to the other. When signals are transmitted to the eye faculty area, the signals also influence and transmit to the nearest nose faculty area; the two faculties engage simultaneously—hence a face full of tears and mucus.
Whenever emotion is stirred, tears and mucus flow out simultaneously, all regulated by the manas. When the emotion is shallow, the manas is moved slightly, and only one part reacts—either only tears flow, or only mucus flows, not both simultaneously; when the emotion is deep, the manas is moved severely, and when the signal transmits to one area, it can carry over to the other area—hence tears and mucus streaming. For example, when emotions are agitated, the nose tingles or twitches, and tears come out; after the tears come out, they draw the mucus out with them. Because emotions are controlled by the manas, the manas can control the eye faculty and nose faculty to express emotion simultaneously, since the two are close and interconnected. In the mind consciousness's fake crying, when the manas is not moved, it will not direct the brain's nervous system to transmit signals and direct the body's cooperation and changes, so mucus and tears do not easily appear; when the mind consciousness forces the manas to squeeze hard, perhaps some mucus and tears can come out—at that point the acting is rather convincing.
XIV. Innate Wisdom Is the Wisdom of the Manas
Treating illness (mental and psychological illness) must treat the root, and this root is the manas; the faculty of wisdom and the faculty of goodness both refer to the manas. Some children can be seen from a young age to have the faculty of goodness and merit—is this possessed by the mind consciousness or by the manas? Being so from birth, it is not the mind consciousness's; it is the faculty of goodness, merit, and wisdom possessed by the manas, brought over through the manas's habituation in past lives, not the mind consciousness's. Some children can sit cross-legged in meditation at only a few years old—all habits the manas brought from past lives; small children who can play the piano and compose music—this too is the function of the manas's power of wisdom (prajñā-bala); some people are born magnanimous, with a vast capacity to tolerate others—this too was brought over through the manas's past habituation. What the mind consciousness enjoys is all the wisdom the manas brought from past lives.
XV. The Inferior Part of the Manas's Wisdom and Its Causes
Question: To what degree is the manas's wisdom inferior? Can it be quantified? Since it is wisdom, it should have all the contents and appearances of wisdom, at least some of wisdom's contents and appearances—so how should its measure and scale be grasped?
Answer: The so-called inferiority of the manas's wisdom refers to its inability to discern the specific contents and very subtle details of the six sense-object realms; it can only roughly and generally discern some realms. Without relying on the mind consciousness's discrimination, analysis, and judgment, the manas itself cannot deliberate and judge the realms clearly and often makes erroneous judgments and decisions. This is because the manas possesses the imputed nature (parikalpita-svabhāva), clinging to too many dharmas and unable to focus on discerning some realm-dharmas and mental sense objects; also, because the manas's grasping nature is too strong, this severely obstructs the manas's discriminating wisdom, making it unable to discern the six sense-object realms clearly, able only to make a rough and general discernment. Therefore, it must rely on the discrimination of the six consciousnesses, especially the mind consciousness's discrimination, to make its own discernment, judgment, and decisions. This refers to the situation at the stage of ordinary beings and without meditative concentration; sages with profound meditative concentration are not like this.
When the manas, without meditative concentration, discriminates the six sense objects, although its wisdom is somewhat inferior compared with the mind consciousness, the manas's wisdom can be strengthened, and each person's manas wisdom also differs, with varying degrees of wisdom. This depends on whether the manas has afflictions, on the degree of severity of afflictions and habits, and on the degree of severity of ignorance. The heavier the afflictions, the heavier the obstruction, and the weaker the manas's wisdom. When the manas eradicates afflictions and subdues self-grasping, its pervasive clinging and grasping nature becomes slight; with the initial transformation of consciousness into wisdom, the mental factors change, the afflictive mental factors are eliminated, and the five particular mental factors are strengthened; the wisdom becomes vast and deep-subtle. Then the discernment of the six sense objects becomes clearer than before; dharmas previously undiscernible and unjudgeable can, after the transformation of consciousness into wisdom, be partly discerned and judged; its perceptive power is strengthened, and the mind consciousness, relying on it, can discern more of others' habits, character, temperament, and disposition from past and future lives, see worldly affairs more clearly, and discern more of sentient beings' karmic causes and retributions.
XVI. The Manas's Wisdom of Foreknowledge
Question: When the manas makes a response decision, does it rely on afflictive habits or on the mental factor of wisdom? Regarding major events about to occur, does the tathāgatagarbha actively send out some signals to alert the manas, or does the manas cling to them on its own?
Answer: When the manas makes a response decision, it relies both on its own experiential judgment—that is, the mental factor of wisdom—and on its own afflictive habits. When the manas responds to all realms, the mental factor of wisdom will manifest, and the five universal mental factors will also manifest and operate, with the volition mental factor playing a large role therein; it is just that most sentient beings cannot observe this. The manas's response decisions are not all correct; when ignorance is deep and heavy, it relies on afflictive habits more often; only when the response and decision are correct does the manas's wisdom show itself.
Regarding major events, the manas takes as condition the perceiving-aspect (darśana-bhāga) of the tathāgatagarbha and raises its own perceiving; whatever dharmas the tathāgatagarbha sees and manifests, the manas can see, and thus can perceive in advance that a major event is about to occur. It is not a special reminder from the tathāgatagarbha to the manas, because the tathāgatagarbha is without mind and also does not discern the importance, benefits, or harms of major events. Relying on its own function of the great element of perception, the tathāgatagarbha can discern karmic seeds; when karmic seeds ripen, the tathāgatagarbha gradually outputs them, manifesting some karmic conditions, and various sense-object realms gradually appear. The mind consciousness is unaware and unknowing of this, but the manas, relying on the sense-object realms manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, discerns some karmic seeds and knows a major event is about to occur, and thus alerts the mind consciousness; the mind consciousness may understand or may not, depending on its wisdom and its own karmic force. If the karmic force is great, even with wisdom, the mind consciousness can hardly discern the manas's alerting function; or although the mind consciousness may know a major event is coming, due to karmic force, it is powerless.
The manifestation of karmic seeds requires external conditions, but when karmic seeds manifest, they themselves must also manifest some karmic conditions for cause and effect to be realized. For example, two people had adverse karmic connections in a past life; in this life together, their relationship is ordinary, perhaps even good. When the past-life karmic seeds ripen, A's expressions and behavior toward B appear somewhat strange. The manas discerns this and alerts the mind consciousness; the mind consciousness feels slightly odd, sensing it is not quite reasonable, yet does not know what is going to happen. Only when the event occurs does the mind consciousness understand what A's behavior meant. Then A's certain behaviors, the matters between A and B, are newly manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, and only then do the subsequent events of karmic retribution occur.
Even if the tathāgatagarbha has an alerting function, it cannot directly alert the mind consciousness, because the mind consciousness manifests relying on the manas; the tathāgatagarbha cannot bypass the manas and directly alert the mind consciousness. Moreover, the tathāgatagarbha does not discriminate between the manas and the mind consciousness; it is only responsible for manifesting karmic conditions. After the karmic conditions manifest, the manas, taking them as condition, directly discerns them and can judge the severity of the matter. Then the manas alerts the mind consciousness; the mind consciousness has the power of action, can analyze, think, and devise methods to seek good fortune and avoid harm; the manas deliberates and decides accordingly, then makes its decision.
XVII. The Manas's Alerting Function
When a family member is about to have an accident, long in advance one feels depressed in the heart, crying, tense, and anxious without knowing why—what is the reason? This is a premonition, resonated forth by the manas. Is a premonition the tathāgatagarbha's alerting function or the manas's alerting function? If the tathāgatagarbha alerted the mind consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha would have initiative, which does not accord with the tathāgatagarbha's suchness-is-immovable (tathatā-acalita) nature toward all dharmas. But first, one's own tathāgatagarbha corresponds to the portion of karmic conditions already manifested from the family member's karmic seeds; the manas, relying on the karmic conditions manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, judges that an accident is imminent, and thus prompts the six consciousnesses to vent emotions—inexplicable weeping, crying, depression, terror, unease, and agitation. Then the mind consciousness guesses and deliberates: what is going on? What is about to happen? Then the mind consciousness thinks that perhaps so-and-so has something going on, and finally knows what has happened.
This accords with the principle of the manas's regulation of body and mind, with the tathāgatagarbha's cooperation therein. However much the tathāgatagarbha discerns, it remains immovably such; the manas, relying on the tathāgatagarbha's discernment, also discerns the karmic conditions manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, knows something is going to happen, and thus produces a series of reactions—inexplicable to the mind consciousness, yet known to the manas, which cannot express them. One can speak, having language and writing, yet does not know; one knows, yet has no language or writing and cannot express it. For the two to interact, they must cooperate with tacit understanding, which requires wisdom.
The more the manas cares about a person, the more it prompts the tathāgatagarbha to discern karmic seeds and karmic conditions; toward people it does not care about, even if the tathāgatagarbha incidentally discerns karmic conditions, the manas has no reaction, and the mind consciousness is even more unaware. When the manas does not care about itself, if the body develops illness and pain, the mind consciousness does not know; even when the illness is very severe, the mind consciousness does not know, for the manas will not alert the mind consciousness.
