Cultivating the Manas Is Essential to Resolve Fundamental Issues

When one attains the Sunshine Samādhi, encountering any state or realm requires no deliberation; one simply passes through it directly. At the moment of genuinely severing the view of self, when the power of meditative concentration is sufficient, there is also no need for deliberation; one directly voids the state and moves past it, without fixating on these so-called realms. In contrast, those who have merely intellectual understanding, lacking meditative concentration and possessing arrogance, may experience even heavier afflictions than ordinary people when encountering such states.

Thus, it is evident that the actual realization by the manas (mind root) and the intellectual understanding by the manovijñāna (mind consciousness) cannot be mentioned in the same breath. The gap between possessing meditative concentration and lacking it is exceedingly vast. We should understand what true practice entails. When one genuinely attains any Dharma and possesses the power of meditative concentration, no problem remains a problem, and no event remains an event. But once meditative concentration is lost, the outcome is uncertain—like a great flood that may burst its banks, sweeping away the embankment of afflictions.

Whether one has genuinely cultivated or not is discerned through actions, not through spoken words. Words may sound lofty and noble, yet conduct may be debased and vile—such is the magnitude of the gap. Language and words correspond to consciousness, but this does not represent true cultivation. Behavior directly corresponds to the manas; this alone represents genuine cultivation. Therefore, cultivation means cultivating the manas. If one has not reached the manas, it is not true cultivation. All intellectual knowledge stands powerless before even moderately significant afflictions, especially in the face of life-and-death matters. Intellectual understanding cannot withstand afflictions, much less transcend life and death.