Compilation of Daily Discourses
Chapter 11: The Contemplative Practice Experiences of the Disciples (2)
Six. The Knowing of the Mind Consciousness Occurs at Many Levels
Jun Ruolan's contemplative practice: Sharing the process of contemplating the mind consciousness's functioning upon the manas.
Eyes closed, quiet. The mind consciousness clearly understands that seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing are not the self; understanding this is easy. So the mind consciousness threw out a question: Are seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing the self? This statement that the mind consciousness clearly understood slowly descended, landing upon an infinitely large and solid energy body. One could perceive that this energy body, since beginningless kalpas, had taken seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing to be itself; that attachment was so solid it seemed to permeate every cell.
That slowly descending statement made the interior of that energy body stir slightly, but it still could not peel away that attachment. Are seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing the self? The mind consciousness kept asking this way. Then there seemed to be panic within, doubt, and also unwillingness to accept it; the back began to tremble slightly, and tears wanted to fall. With such great emotional feelings arising, at first I thought it was entirely the manifestation of the manas. When I continued to contemplate more deeply, I then understood that this feeling involved the stirring of the manas, but was still more the feeling of the mind consciousness.
Because when I once again calmed my mind and felt that enormous energy body, I found it still clung to seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing as the self just as before. This attachment is not expressed through language and words; it is presented as a kind of feeling. Only then did I understand that in many cases, when we think we have greatly stirred the manas, although there are very strong feelings and experiences, it is still more the feelings of the mind consciousness. Because the manas's attachment since beginningless kalpas is engraved in the bones and permeated into the cells—how could it easily undergo an enormous change through just one session of contemplative practice?
This discovery is just as observed above: after great feelings arose, when I calmly contemplated that enormous energy body again, I found its attachment still there, and still so deep and heavy. Perhaps it had a trace of stirring, but that trace of stirring, compared to its overall attachment, was insufficient to make it undergo a great change.
In sharing this passage, what I want to express is that this kind of stirring contemplative practice needs to be carried out time after time, countless times; one must never lightly assume that because a great feeling or experience appeared, the manas has completely accepted the correct cognition. We need the spirit of the foolish old man who moved mountains; we must not be excessively optimistic and self-confident, but also must not stop and must keep moving forward. Because the manas's attachment will always, under our deep contemplative practice, gradually diminish bit by bit.
Assessment: The wise cognition of the mind consciousness is divided into many levels. As meditative concentration (samādhi) progresses, the mind consciousness's wise cognition continuously strengthens, deepens, becomes concrete, refined, and precise. The true wisdom of the mind consciousness is also the wisdom after enlightenment; before that, it is not ultimate and will be changed and corrected. The deeper the meditative concentration, the wiser the mind consciousness, and the greater its role in perfuming and inspiring the manas; the more concrete the mind consciousness's cognition, and the more evidence and realization it has, the greater its perfuming and inspiring effect on the manas. Therefore, the mind consciousness's superficial knowing has little effect, like scratching an itch through a boot; only after knowing deeply can it stir the manas.
The wise cognition of the manas is also divided into many levels. As meditative concentration deepens and as the mind consciousness's wisdom becomes perfected, the manas's wisdom becomes ever deeper. When it deepens to a certain degree, it will decisively sever the previous cognition, completely reverse the views, transforming them into insight, and enlightenment is attained. Many people, when the mind consciousness's knowing is still very shallow, think they have realized; in fact they are still far from realization—perhaps it will take several kalpas before they reach the edge of realization. One must know that the deep wisdom of the mind consciousness also does not arise easily.
Jun Ruolan's situation belongs to using wisdom to lead into concentration: using super-strong mind consciousness wisdom to fix the mind on the dharma being contemplated in the present moment, without distraction or stray thoughts, so that the mind consciousness's cognition of the dharma gradually deepens and penetrates, driving the manas's cognition, then continuously strengthening the cognition of both mind consciousness and manas, and further wisdom arises from this—this is called advancing level by level. Those with strong wisdom can use wisdom to lead into concentration; those with weak wisdom can only cultivate concentration step by step, then contemplate and generate wisdom. But because their wisdom is weak, it is not easy to settle the mind; it requires repeated pulling back and forth before it can be temporarily settled. So as long as there is wisdom, everything can be worked out; the prerequisite is having merit (puṇya)—merit is the foundation of all cultivation.
Seven. Contemplative Practice Must Also Introspect the Roots of Greed, Hatred, and Delusion
Jun Ruolan's contemplative practice: These past few days I encountered an unfair matter, so I began contemplative practice. Fairness was not obtained, and hatred arose—this is attachment to dharmas (clinging to rules). Why cling to rules? It is to keep one's own interests from being harmed; this is to satisfy greed. Form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness are all empty—what is there to be greedy for?
During the contemplative practice, at first the mind consciousness participated more; later, by the last sentence, the mind consciousness's thinking stopped moving, and there was only a pure awareness present. At this time I saw an image: "I"—a body, light and floating, half-dissipated there. Later even that half-dissipated image no longer existed; there was only a light, floating sensation, until the end. After the contemplative practice ended, when I thought about this matter again, I found my mind very calm. Whenever something in reality stirs my emotions, I take time out to contemplate. The more I contemplate, the more I discover how many problems my manas really has—self-attachment is deep and heavy.
Assessment: Jun Ruolan's contemplative practice is very much on point, showing that her wisdom is very good and her wisdom is strong. I don't know whether her meditative concentration is as strong as her wisdom; I feel it is slightly weaker. But at this pace, the meditative concentration will quickly strengthen again; when meditative absorption (samādhi) appears, cultivation will reach a great turning point—grasp it well, and seeing the Path can be expected.
Everyone's greed, hatred, and delusion have an origin, that is, a root. What is this root? It is the self. Because of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), in order to protect the self and satisfy the self, greed, hatred, and delusion automatically arise. So the phenomena of greed, hatred, and delusion objectively reflect the view of self and self-attachment in the mind. Even though those of the first and second fruits have already eradicated the view of self, it has not been eradicated thoroughly; so although the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion have been subdued, they have not been uprooted. After the first dhyāna concentration, at the third fruit, the afflictions of greed and hatred are uprooted, but the affliction of delusion has not yet been eradicated. This delusion refers to delusion regarding the dharmas within the three realms, not delusion regarding the Mahāyāna dharma.
The subduing and eradication of the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion must come after effective contemplative practice, especially after meditative absorption (samādhi) arises—the effect is very obvious; without the mind consciousness forcibly suppressing afflictions, the afflictions naturally do not arise. During the contemplative process, once the manas understands the falsity and unreality of the five-aggregate body and mind, its thoughts and views change, and it no longer takes the physical body seriously; the coarse greed for the desire realm naturally does not manifest; the six sense-object realms such as clothing, food, dwelling, and travel naturally become a matter of indifference—no picking, no caring, no pursuing; the mind of hatred is also naturally subdued; one feels it doesn't matter regarding everything—one phrase of "it doesn't matter" dissolves many entanglements.
Cultivation means using theory to guide practice; the practice is each link of the five aggregates in the present moment, each bodily, verbal, and mental action. What is cultivated is precisely the body-mind and the bodily, verbal, and mental actions—this is the final foothold, the final goal. To observe each person's cultivation results, one must observe their bodily, verbal, and mental actions, observe every detail of their five-aggregate activities—details determine success or failure, determine effectiveness. Why observe the details of the five aggregates and the bodily, verbal, and mental actions? Because thoughts and views determine the bodily, verbal, and mental actions, determine the details of the five aggregates' activities. Only when theory is implemented in place will views transform; if theory is not implemented in place, it is merely theory—nothing worth discussing.
Eight. Bai Xuexiang's Deconstruction of Dharma-Marks
The mind of hatred, the mind of arrogance, the mind of jealousy, the mind of affliction—look, how do these minds arise? Let me give an example, such as jealousy and arrogance; these are actually the same type of mind. When others are better than "me," I feel very uncomfortable—this is jealousy; when "I" am stronger than others in certain aspects, this is called arrogance.
Observe carefully: there must be a thing, a cognition of a thing. When others do better than me, I am jealous; when they do worse than me, I am arrogant. How to solve this? Throw away the "me." Regarding worldly affairs, people have an idiom, "the myriad manifestations" (sen luo wan xiang); the Huayan Sūtra has a description, "the ocean-seal and myriad manifestations"—that is to say, worldly affairs are far too many. Each has their specialty; when others do well, one should praise them; when I do well, I should be humble, because there are plenty of people who do better than me—there is nothing worth arrogance or pride. The matter itself carries no emotion; what produces emotion is merely human imagination—empty, illusory, and unreal. The matter itself is also changing and arising-ceasing from moment to moment—where is there anything that needs pride or jealousy?
Observe again more carefully: I said to throw away the "me." Look—I produced emotion, then threw away the emotion; in fact what was thrown away was an empty, illusory thing, and nothing was really thrown away. On the level of the matter there is no increase or decrease, nothing is delayed in being done, and one remains very calm.
Just now I mentioned various minds. The mind has various discriminations; with various discriminations there are various minds—this is called the myriad manifestations. The myriad manifestations are like reflections in a mirror—this is called mind-dharmas, also called the dharmadhātu. That the mirror can reflect the myriad manifestations is the mirror's inherent function; the Buddhist scriptural term for this is "thus it is by nature" (dharmatā). This function is called the nature—that is, seeing the nature. The function that can discriminate the myriad manifestations is consciousness; subdividing consciousness gives the eight consciousnesses. The mirror is called "suchness" (tathatā), and those images within it are called "coming" (and going). This mirror has another function: after reflecting, it can retain a negative, like a camera's film—this is called seeds. The function of storing seed-negatives is called "store" (cáng, zàng); the whole is called tathāgatagarbha. Because one does not know or understand how to use it, it is called a "store" (cáng, hidden); when one understands and is greatly awakened, it becomes a treasure trove (zàng).
The "I" spoken of by worldly people and the "I" spoken of by Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are not the same thing. The "I" of worldly people is a role—the various worldly roles, which can be listed: father, mother, son, daughter, superior, subordinate, vegetable buyer, goods seller, driver, American, Chinese, believer, and so on—countless, immeasurable roles. "I" can play various roles, but the role is not me. With what does one play this role? The answer is the body; the body is used to enter the role, and that is why we always think the body is "I." The body is like an object, so it needs thought to direct it; therefore we also think thought is "I." Thought is the role's script; the body is the role's prop.
Thought, this role, is a mind-dharma. One thought of ignorance gives rise to the three subtle marks: the karma-mark, the turning mark, and the realm-mark. Read the Master's dharma teachings carefully; Yogācāra explains these classifications in great detail—it is truly a great essential dharma that can enable people to transcend the world. The Master emphasizes the importance of the manas, with the premise that the mind consciousness must first clarify these threads thoroughly, then use the manas to realize them. In fact, we ordinary people's manas also has realization—such as being very attached to worldly fame, profit, and emotion; this is also the manas's realization, only it is crooked, like a funhouse mirror; otherwise it would not be so hard to realize. Transform the manas's cognition: before transformation the manas is a tangled mass of hemp; after having correct cognition and correcting the manas's cognition, after the transformation it becomes cool and tranquil.
Assessment: This is purely insight gained from actual realization, very wise; it deconstructs the dharma-marks of name and form in the worldly realm, and the degree of deconstruction is not shallow—thus the dharma-marks of the five aggregates are also deconstructed. Only by deconstructing the dharma-marks can one be liberated from the dharma-marks of the five aggregates and not be bound by them. And to deconstruct them, one must actually realize the suffering, empty, impermanent, and non-self nature of the dharma-marks; the mind consciousness's role of understanding is very slight—once it comes to concrete matters, it is of no use.
Only those who actually realize are without afflictions. What the mind consciousness works out does not solve the problem of afflictions. So quite a few people skip over the Small Vehicle's contemplative practice and actual cultivation, and also skip over meditative concentration and precepts, going directly to working out the Mahāyāna tathāgatagarbha. Even if they work it out, they lack the wisdom that breaks through the five aggregates; with the five aggregates unbroken, they remain as before, laden with afflictions, still creating evil karma, without a trace of liberation. True cultivation skips over no stage, nor does it look down on the cultivation effect of any dharma, much less overestimate its own wisdom. Only by being realistic and down-to-earth can one achieve something, produce true wisdom, and have the mind separate from the worldly realm and attain liberation.
Nine. There Is a Great Difference Between the Mind Consciousness's Seeing-Awareness and the Manas's Seeing-Awareness
Disciple Wei Shi's recollection-of-the-Buddha (buddhānusmṛti) experience: Last night I planned to recite the Buddha's name for one hour, but ended up reciting for nearly three hours and was reluctant to stop; finally, feeling there was still homework unfinished, I forced myself to stop. Let me report my feelings.
1. Slow-speed Buddha-name recitation makes it easier to gather the mind. 2. At the beginning, I imagined myself reciting the Buddha's name together with immeasurable sentient beings—sometimes reciting together, sometimes I recited first. Later I could no longer hear other recitation sounds, and I clearly heard my own recitation. 3. I could still hear the noise at home, but it did not occupy my mind. The various thoughts that usually disturb me all felt very weak this time—no sooner did a thought arise than it was cast aside. Only the recitation sound was something I was reluctant to stop. There was joy in my heart. 4. In the final period, I felt every recited word had power; reciting one word, my ears could hear many echoes, and I waited until the echo of that word died away before reciting the next word—every word felt powerful.
Assessment: This is the recitation of the Buddha's name becoming somewhat continuous and lingering—it is the flavor of meditative concentration (samādhi), also called dharma-joy; the joy enlightenment-factor has appeared; it is the effect of the Buddha's blessing. After the mind settles down, the four great elements of the physical body and the magnetic field become harmonized, one feels comfortable, and joy appears; the mind immerses in it and is reluctant to leave the current comfortable state. It seems a bit greedy, but the more one craves the Buddha-dharma, the better the cultivation results, and the faster meditative absorption (samādhi) appears.
When there is meditative power, feeling that every recited word has power is mostly the manas's feeling; without meditative power, the feeling is flat—mostly the mind consciousness's feeling. It can be seen that what the manas and the mind consciousness each see and perceive are different. Usually it is the mind consciousness's seeing-awareness that predominates, feeling flat and ordinary, with ignorance and afflictions undiminished. But when the manas's seeing-awareness predominates, the feeling differs from the ordinary—perhaps greatly different, even completely opposite. Therefore, at the time of seeing the Path, it is certainly the manas that sees the Path; the manas's seeing-awareness is the standard, and the mind consciousness follows along.
Without meditative power, whether listening to the sound of rain, the ticking of an alarm clock, or the sound of Buddha-name recitation, everything feels flat, with no ripples or impact in the mind. But when meditative power is very strong, listening to the rain or the alarm clock is deafening, resounding through the heart; even the sound of breathing and heartbeat feels very loud, and the recitation sound may even linger unceasingly in the ears. If one continues contemplating further, one finds that the sense-object realm will undergo a series of changes, the mind-state will change accordingly, and then one can see the Path. With concentration or without concentration, the sense-object realm seen is one and the same, yet the results seen are vastly different—this is because of the arising of wisdom in the manas and the mind consciousness.
When the recitation of the Buddha's name goes very well, strike while the iron is hot and continue reciting to deepen the recitation skill; do not think about other homework. One must distinguish which is more important, be clear in mind about what the goal is, and not do homework that is mere formality.
Disciple Ru Chun says: I feel that when reciting the Śūraṅgama Mantra very fast, I also enter a state of self-forgetting absorption—I feel only two lips opening and closing; a slight glance with the eyes suffices; without waiting for the mind consciousness to see the characters clearly, the mouth slides through that line of text. That feeling is also very interesting.
Reciting the Buddha's name or sutras very fast is also a kind of concentration, because there is no time for stray thoughts; but it consumes much qi and cannot be sustained for long. This situation occurs because the mantra is already very familiar, almost memorizable, and does not require much use of the mind consciousness to read; the manas can almost play it automatically. When you can recite sutras and mantras from memory, you should learn to recite mentally—that is, the manas recites: the sutra text and mantra flow through the mind without language, words, or sound, reciting silently without a trace; then entering concentration will be very fast and very deep.
Synthesizing everyone's cultivation experiences, it can be clearly seen: what is this thing called "the mind consciousness attaining the fruit, the mind consciousness seeing the mind"? It is nothing at all—just a trick to fool people. Whether the person who staged this show has meditative concentration, whether they have cultivation—a person with wisdom can tell at a glance.
Ten. An Ran's Personal Experience of Reciting the Śūraṅgama Mantra
Last night while reciting the Śūraṅgama Mantra, I remembered the Master's teaching that one can recite while tapping a wooden fish, so I recited while tapping the table with a pen. At first it was normal; after a few minutes, I felt my enunciation, rhythm, and pitch were completely different from usual, as if it were not me reciting. These changes were not controlled by my mind consciousness; they seemed to emerge automatically. At the time I felt my mind consciousness was very weak; my eyes could barely open, and I could only barely see the characters. But the recitation was smooth and fast, with a rhythm like chanting. After finishing, the mind consciousness was still very weak; I had to hold onto the table to lie down on the bed. Only after resting for quite a while did the mind consciousness return to normal.
Assessment: This is the blessing power of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas—inconceivable. Originally both recitation and sound are the doing of the mind consciousness, but at this time one's own mind consciousness could do nothing, was powerless; so this recitation was not an act led by the mind consciousness. This recitation was, first, produced under the guidance and blessing of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas or Dharma-protecting deities, and second, regulated by one's own manas—a recitation led by the manas, that is, the manas's own recitation. The first is easy to understand; how to understand the second? Why did the manas control the mind consciousness, even replacing the mind consciousness's recitation? This involves the power of meditative concentration; the blessing power certainly exists, but let us set that aside for now. Because the manas recognized the importance of the Śūraṅgama Mantra and participated in the mind consciousness's recitation, and having become very familiar with it, it recites autonomously, replacing the mind consciousness, which becomes powerless. This is a state within a slight samādhi of mantra recitation; deeper samādhi will subsequently appear, and subsequent cultivation will be very fast and smooth. Because samādhi has appeared and the manas personally takes the stage, memorizing the Śūraṅgama Mantra becomes easy—no need for the mind consciousness's recollection; the mind consciousness only needs to participate slightly.
If this were not shown by actual examples, most people would not believe it, and some would say: How could the manas recite or memorize? It is sheer nonsense. So what exactly is the principle behind memorization and samādhi? Memorization and samādhi are the doing of the manas, led by the manas—there is no other reason, because the mind consciousness is clearly powerless, unable to control, at a loss, unable even to see the characters clearly—how could it recite?
This state is exactly the same as my own state when I was in the Śūraṅgama retreat reciting the Śūraṅgama Sūtra. At that time, because I recited very fast without thinking, as I recited, my eyes could no longer see the text in the book, yet my mouth recited extremely fast—others could not keep up. This should more accurately be called reciting from memory. At that time my mind was empty and tranquil, like still water, as if in concentration; I only hoped the wooden fish would not stop, that the sutra would not end, that the recitation could continue forever without stopping. From then on I could recite the Śūraṅgama Sūtra from memory, without any deliberate memorization.
From this it can be seen how great the blessing power of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas is when receiving, upholding, and reciting the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Śūraṅgama Mantra, and Mahāyāna scriptures—how extraordinary the responsive resonance, how rapid the progress in cultivation. The merit of reciting and memorizing the Śūraṅgama Mantra is inconceivable; its meritorious benefits are explained in detail in the seventh fascicle of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra. I hope those whose cultivation has not yet gotten on the right track will resolve to cultivate the Śūraṅgama Mantra, use it well, and advance their progress on the Path.
