The Mind Faculty and Consciousness
Chapter 7: The Mutual Perfuming Relationship Between the Manas and the Mind Consciousness (2)
21. The Function of Hypnosis
Sentient beings have the obstruction of the five hindrances (greed and desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and remorse, and doubt), which obstruct the arising of the first dhyāna. This is the obstruction to meditative concentration caused by the manas' mental knots of the five hindrances. When the manas' mental knots are untied, the obstructions are removed and meditative concentration arises. Among them there is the hindrance of sloth and torpor; although it does not belong to the manas' hindrance—the manas has no phenomenon of sleep—sleep is initiated by the manas' choice. Because the manas craves enjoyment and is lazy, it prompts the mind consciousness to crave sleep, thereby obscuring the mind consciousness's clarity and obstructing the arising of meditative concentration. Therefore, by subduing the manas and making the manas understand the principles and practice diligently, the hindrance of sloth and torpor can be removed.
Mental knots can be untied through hypnosis. During hypnosis there is no obstruction from the mind consciousness, so the manas can face itself and state its own mental knots, and then, under the guidance of the hypnotist, untie the knots through confession and other means; the mind immediately relaxes, as if a thousand-pound burden had been lifted.
In daily life, the mind consciousness cares about face and refuses to face itself, obstructing the manas from revealing its inner knots, so the knots cannot be untied. But the manas is straightforward and does not care about face—it says whatever there is. If it trusts the hypnotist, it can be subdued, thereby changing itself, eliminating karmic seeds and karmic conditions, and resolving problems. Some people have many mental knots yet love face; they cannot get past the mind consciousness, which blocks others from peering into what is in the manas. Only through hypnosis can the obstruction of the mind consciousness be weakened and their inner psychological problems be resolved. Therefore, superficial confession is the confession of the mind consciousness; if the manas has not confessed, the karmic seeds do not disappear. Only when the manas becomes aware of it and confesses do the karmic seeds disappear.
If the manas' ignorance is resolved one item at a time, the path to buddhahood will proceed quickly, and there would be no need to read so many Buddhist sutras or laboriously memorize the Tripiṭaka and the twelve divisions of the canon. Sitting right here, one can untie the knots in the mind, gradually break through ignorance, and even supernatural powers will appear and the power of the Path will strengthen; buddhahood will come quickly.
22. The one who always decides is the seventh consciousness, the manas. If the manas can comply with reason and with the wise mind consciousness before making decisions, the result will be wholesome, and the manas will have been perfumed and changed by the wholesome and wise mind consciousness. If in dreams the manas can still decide not to commit unwholesome karma and to perform wholesome karma, it shows even more that the manas has been perfumed by the wholesome, because in dreams the mind consciousness is not as clear as in waking hours; its discrimination of states and grasp of self are uncertain, and its rationality is weaker. If at such times the manas can still decide on its own not to commit unwholesome karma and to perform wholesome karma, it shows that one's cultivation is quite advanced. In the antarā-bhava, the mind consciousness's rationality is even weaker, and the manas relies entirely on its own inherent habitual tendencies to decide on rebirth. If at that time the bodily, verbal, and mental actions all accord with the wholesome, with no afflictions or bad habitual tendencies manifesting, the cultivation is even better.
The stronger the mind consciousness's power, the clearer its discrimination and differentiation, the more rational it is, and the more easily the manas complies, possibly not deciding and acting according to its own habitual inertia. Conversely, when the mind consciousness's power is weak, its discrimination unclear, and its rationality not strong, it cannot correctly and reasonably guide the manas, and the manas acts according to its own habits. If it still does well at such times, it shows the manas has good habits. If hypnosis is used to weaken the mind consciousness so it does not control the manas, the manas will reveal many inner secrets through the mind consciousness. Smoking, drinking, and drug use also anesthetize the mind consciousness, making it unable to regulate the manas; the manas will then display its original face. Most people's manas has more bad habits than good, and at such times it is easy to do bad things.
For those whose manas has already been transformed and who have achieved transformation of consciousness into wisdom, such as bhūmi bodhisattvas, or after the eighth-ground bodhisattva, even if they drink or take drugs again they will not create karma, because their manas has already been purified. For bhūmi bodhisattvas, both the sixth and seventh consciousnesses have been transformed into wisdom and are pure; a pure mind consciousness is not subjected to bad perfuming by the environment, nor can it badly perfume the manas. The degree of the manas' transformation differs, and the degree to which habitual tendencies manifest differs accordingly.
23. If one wants dreams to come true, only the manas can drive them forward. Let the manas make vows, let the manas continuously grasp the dream, and the mind consciousness will strive diligently to find ways, and the eighth consciousness can realize the dream. The mind consciousness's imaginings constantly perfume the manas; after being perfumed, the manas develops intention. When the eighth consciousness knows the manas' mental volition (manaskāra-caitasika), and when causal conditions are complete, it will comply with the manas and realize the manas' intention. If the manas is not perfumed, no matter how the mind consciousness imagines, it is useless. All dharmas are driven by the manas and realized by the eighth consciousness, because the eighth consciousness has seeds and can grow all dharmas.
24. Having taken drugs and suffered bad retribution, the mind consciousness thinks, "This is bad; I must not take drugs again." After the manas knows this thought in the mind, it decides not to take drugs again. Sometimes, due to the force of karma, the mind consciousness's decision is useless, and the manas still chooses drugs according to its own habits, until it truly cannot bear it any longer; only then does the manas decide not to take drugs. Many people must suffer enormous bad retribution and blows before they can change themselves, because the manas has genuinely felt the harm and been shaken. This is a state of direct perception; only after reaching the Yellow River's edge does one give up hope.
Alcohol anesthetizes the nerves, so mental sense-objects cannot be transmitted normally to the supreme faculty (indriya); the mind consciousness's discrimination of mental sense-objects becomes abnormal, its thinking and analytical functions weaken, its power of wisdom is low, it has no rationality, and it cannot normally regulate the manas. When events occur, the manas decides directly, and its decisions are often wrong, and when the six consciousnesses execute them, the actions are wrong. On the other hand, because the nerves are anesthetized, the manas' instructions cannot be fully transmitted to the whole body, bodily coordination is poor, the six consciousnesses' reactions are poor, and bodily, verbal, and mental behavior appears abnormal.
25. The manas has been selfish since beginningless kalpas; it is a complete individualist, grasping at self at all times and in all places. We can often analyze for the manas: in the end, what can selfishness obtain? Apart from the suffering of birth-and-death saṃsāra, what else can there be? What has come of climbing and grasping year after year, day and night? Apart from birth and death, it is still birth and death; in the end nothing is gained. What have we obtained over countless kalpas? Nothing but karmic obstructions and afflictions.
When the manas has not realized no-self, it certainly fears birth and death; it also has not realized that thing which is unborn and deathless, so it still has self-grasping. Only when the manas personally realizes that the myriad dharmas of the three realms are indeed false and without self, under the effect of profound meditative concentration, can it give up hope and thereby eradicate self-grasping. Without realizing no-self, without realizing the true self, everything is the mind consciousness's understanding; understanding only serves to suppress afflictions and lacks the power to sever them. The mind consciousness's suppression is like pressing down grass with a stone—one day when the stone is removed, the grass will grow wildly. Only by presenting facts and reasoning can the manas be convinced; it needs to hear detailed principles—too coarse an exposition of dharma it cannot understand or accept. To eradicate afflictions, one must, after eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), cultivate amid various states. When states manifest, afflictions can poke their heads out and appear; at that time the sharp blade of wisdom is needed to resolutely cut them off, and the afflictions are extinguished. If afflictions do not surface but always hide in the mind, they cannot be pulled out by the roots and will grow again later.
When cultivation can grasp the manas, progress can be extremely fast—this is the great shortcut. Those who still work on the mind consciousness and make maneuvers are still far from the Path. Often turn the light around and reflect on yourself: if your power of meditative concentration is insufficient, you should cultivate concentration more; if your foundation is not solid, you must build more foundation. Do not seek quick success; if the foundation is not solid, the building or tower will collapse in the future. Cultivation is not a matter of leaping, and leaping is simply impossible; one must walk step by step, solidly and steadily. Never seek quick success—that is a castle in the air. We would rather realize enlightenment a few years later than pick unripe melons; melons ripened by force cannot be eaten. Cultivating solidly and steadily can subdue afflictions and subdue the mind of arrogance. Once enlightened, the road ahead will be traveled quickly, and one will not easily stumble and fall.
The fundamental goal of cultivation is to subdue the self. If cultivation is to make oneself superior to others, stronger than others, that runs counter to the Path. Having a self that is stronger than others, better than others—such a heavy mind of arrogance will certainly create unwholesome karma and form unwholesome conditions, and in the future one will receive the retribution and suffer distress. Always wishing to be stronger than others, always wanting to be above others, always wanting to surpass others—that is the self. Without subduing this self, future cultivation will face great obstacles; the mind of arrogance will seriously obstruct the Path, so that one stagnates for a long time, which is very distressing.
The manas' arrogance often manifests as: "Look how capable I am, look how outstanding I am, look how formidable I am, look how remarkable I am; my fame and gain are so abundant, my power is so great, my followers are so many..." The mind of arrogance is all displayed, which seriously obstructs the Path, and one cannot attain the liberated fruit and virtue of no-self. Only by seeing the manas clearly, disciplining and guiding the manas more, does cultivation get on the right path.
26. When Is the Manas Most Easily Perfumed
In dreams there cannot be only the manas without the mind consciousness; otherwise one would not even know one was dreaming. The knowing that one is dreaming is the mind consciousness; that which can think and can be known is the mind consciousness. The manas' deliberation (manasikāra/manana) generally cannot be observed by ordinary people's mind consciousness. Realizing the manas is relatively easy; observing the manas' operation is very difficult—even harder than observing the tathāgatagarbha. The mind consciousness and the manas are twisted together and too hard to separate. Countless people can only observe the mind consciousness, not the manas; when the dharma of the manas is taught, these people say it is the mind consciousness's—their wisdom is too lacking.
Why, when falling asleep and waking up, is it easy to discover the manas, easy to perfume the manas, easy to resonate with the manas, easy to observe the manas? Because at those times the mind consciousness's discriminating nature is weak and rarely active, posing no obstruction to the manas.
In the middle of the night while asleep, playing recordings also works, because the manas does not sleep. The tathāgatagarbha, through the ear faculty, continuously transmits sound-objects into the supreme faculty (indriya), and the manas can know them all, only not distinguishing them very clearly. If the sound is too loud, the mind consciousness will wake up to discriminate the sound.
27. Having learned about something or studied some dharma, why does it need a period of time to digest? What the mind consciousness knows needs to slowly seep into the manas, letting the manas also understand, deliberate, comprehend, and become clear. If the manas has not yet understood, it is not true understanding; the matter has not been digested and absorbed.
For each matter and each dharma to be truly understood, digested, and absorbed, some time is needed for the manas to consider and comprehend—this is called buffering. The better the meditative concentration and the more focused one is, the more easily the manas understands and the faster it digests and absorbs. Therefore, when things in the world happen too suddenly and too urgently, the manas has no psychological preparation and cannot quickly digest these matters, and the mind feels shocked. With more exposure and over time, the manas has psychological preparation and will accept things calmly, no longer feeling shocked.
Due to sudden accidents, one may be scared out of one's wits, deeply frightening the manas, not just the mind consciousness. Because of the manas' fright, it has no countermeasures at all and is at a loss. In milder cases one is dazed and stunned; in more severe cases, mentally deranged; the most severe reaction is being scared out of one's wits to the point of being scared to death, and after death it is also difficult to be reborn normally.
