Where does the merit of having attained the fruit in past lives manifest?

Once the manas accepts a certain principle, then at any time it will be absolutely resolute and without hesitation; whatever comes from the mind consciousness's deliberation (manasikāra/manana) will inevitably be doubtful, hesitant, and vacillating. It is like riding a bicycle: being able to ride and believing one can ride are two completely different states—the former is without hesitation, while in the latter the mind cannot be fully certain and lacks confidence. Some people have doubts within their minds but do not know they have them, and even think they have no doubts; that is because their minds are too coarse, their power of introspection (pratyavekṣā-bala) is weak, and their meditative concentration (samādhi) is insufficient. Therefore, not seeing the truth, they deceive themselves.

If only the mind consciousness eradicates the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) while the manas does not eradicate the view of self, and the manas has not been perfumed, it remains the manas of an ordinary person. When entering the womb in a later life, the mind consciousness ceases; when reborn as a human, neither the mind consciousness nor the manas has eradicated the view of self, and the manas behaves exactly like the ordinary person of the previous life, with no difference—so where would the merit of attaining the fruit in the previous life manifest?

But in fact, for those who in a previous life truly attained the fruit and realized seeing the mind and seeing the nature, because their manas was perfumed, when reborn as humans their mental conduct is decidedly different from that of ordinary people. The longer one cultivated in the previous life, the purer one's mental conduct becomes, and the greater the difference from ordinary people. Before studying Buddhism, the mind consciousness did not even know why it was different from other people; when scolded as a fool, the mind consciousness still felt distressed. Sometimes it wanted to be like everyone else, to keep pace with society, and likewise to engage in a bit of greed, anger, and delusion—but the manas was unwilling.