Practice According to Phenomena, Practice According to Consciousness, Practice According to Thusness

Taking up actions in accordance with circumstances, taking up actions in accordance with consciousness, taking up actions in accordance with suchness. "Action" refers to the activity of the conscious mind, especially the mental activities of the six consciousnesses, including bodhi conduct, bodhisattva conduct, and practice. This sentence omits the subject, the manas, because "taking up" (grasping) is primarily done by the manas, the master consciousness that grasps, after which the actions of the six consciousnesses follow. What kind of actions the six consciousnesses should perform depends on what kind of grasping the manas engages in. What does the manas grasp in accordance with? In accordance with phenomena, in accordance with the discrimination, deliberation, and judgment of the six consciousnesses, in accordance with karma, in accordance with bodhicitta, in accordance with the power of vows, and so on. The "suchness" at the end generally refers to the true mind and self-nature, but ordinary sentient beings' manas does not know that there is a true mind and self-nature, and bodhisattvas who have not attained realization also do not know which one is the true mind and self-nature, so they cannot directly follow the deliberation of the true mind. However, when the true mind is about to manifest karmic actions in accordance with karmic seeds, the manas will comply with the karmic seeds, make choices and engage in deliberation—this too is the action of the manas.

When you identify the subject, predicate, and object in a sentence, you know what the subject wants to do and what the object is. In these three phrases, the subject is not explicitly stated, but there is the predicate "taking up," followed by the object "action," from which one can determine that only the master consciousness can take up dharmas, can take up actions and make choices about actions.

The precondition for taking up is accordance with circumstances, with consciousness, and with suchness. Once the meanings of the three words—circumstances, consciousness, and suchness—are clarified, one will know what the action taken up by the manas is. No matter what dharma the manas grasps, once it has grasped, actions will follow. One should then know that after the manas makes its choices, it is the six consciousnesses that carry them out; the actions of the six consciousnesses are the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the five aggregates—whether wholesome or unwholesome actions, great or small actions, actions of selflessly benefiting others, or actions of selfish self-interest.

Since "taking up" is the grasping done by the manas, and only afterward do subsequent dharmas appear, we should know that the arising of all dharmas, the existence of the threefold world, the transmigration of the five-aggregate body, and so on, are all the result of the manas's grasping. Then the false master of the dharmas of the threefold world must undoubtedly be the manas; the importance of the manas far exceeds that of the six consciousnesses. If the manas does not take up dharmas, the six consciousnesses will not arise, and there is no need for the six consciousnesses to actualize the manas's grasping.

Among the twelve links of dependent origination, if there were no grasping by the manas, there would be no birth-and-death transmigration. Clearly, in birth-and-death transmigration, the manas is the primary cause. Why does the manas grasp? Because of ignorance. Without the ignorance of the manas, all dharmas would cease and would not exist. Therefore, so many Buddhist practitioners do not apply effort to the manas, but only attend to the mind consciousness; ignoring the master, they instead comply with the servant—they have all mistaken the object. What is the result? Thankless toil, wasted effort. By now, the principles of enlightenment have been explained very clearly and thoroughly, yet there are still those who insist that eradicating the view of self and seeing the mind can be accomplished by the mind consciousness alone—what kind of intelligence is that? Truly not worthy of admiration!

When practitioners encounter problems, they should learn to contemplate in accordance with the Dharma. Having a certain capacity for logical thinking is one's greatest wealth, providing inexhaustible benefit life after life.