The Difference Between Mind Consciousness and Manas in Generating Doubt

The doubt of the mind consciousness is relatively shallow; it exists only on the surface and is not genuine doubt. For example, once something is explained and the mind understands, the doubt is dispelled. The doubt of the manas is much deeper, because the manas is the master consciousness, the master. All the mental actions and decisions of the master take effect and produce results. The mind consciousness is not the master; its doubt cannot play a primary role and is easily dispelled. For instance, if the manas doubts the wholesome dharmas it has itself created, this is genuine doubt, and it will offset part or all of the prior mental actions and karmic actions of those wholesome dharmas, so that the merit of the wholesome dharmas previously created is lost or diminished. Because the tathāgatagarbha cooperates behind the manas, the tathāgatagarbha knows all the mental actions of the manas. If the manas doubts and does not believe in those merits, the tathāgatagarbha will lighten the record of the merits of those wholesome dharmas, and the merit will decrease. Therefore, heavy doubt is also not good; doubt is an affliction, and among the three fetters we need to eradicate, it belongs to the fetter of doubt. With doubt and indecision, birth and death cannot be ended. Therefore, we must resolve the doubts in our minds, resolving the lack of understanding and indecision regarding the dharma of liberation. If the manas doubts the merit it has already created, that merit will be discounted. Therefore, having created wholesome karma, we should not harbor doubt; we must acknowledge from the depths of our hearts that this is wholesome karma, and that we will surely reap wholesome fruits accordingly in the future.

At the time of our death, if our minds are moment after moment filled with the unwholesome karma we have created in this life, the tathāgatagarbha will cooperate by causing the seeds of that unwholesome karma to ripen early, and we will be drawn along by that unwholesome karma to undergo unwholesome retribution. We should adjust our mental state, constantly thinking in our minds of all the wholesome karma created in this life; before death, we must strive to repent and purify all the unwholesome karma we have created. If repentance is truly impossible, then even before the time of death we should not let the unwholesome karma form a strong thought in the mind; try not to think of it, but instead think of wholesome karma. Then the tathāgatagarbha may (not certainly) prevent the seeds of unwholesome karma from ripening, and instead ripen the seeds of wholesome karma.

This means that the thoughts at the time of death are the mind's wishes, and the tathāgatagarbha will cooperate with you to make those thoughts and wishes come true. Therefore, at the time of death, as long as all our wishes are wholesome—such as the wish to be reborn in the land of bliss (sukhāvatī)—the tathāgatagarbha will cooperate and enable us to be reborn in the land of bliss. If the thought we hold at the time of death is not good and corresponds to the unwholesome karma of this lifetime, then the retribution of that unwholesome karma will manifest, and we may fall into the three evil destinies. If at the time of death we doubt the land of bliss or doubt Amitābha Buddha, we will not be able to reach the land of bliss; even if we barely make it, we will only reach the borderland city of doubt in the land of bliss, where we neither see the Buddha nor hear the Dharma, until the doubt in the mind and the karma of doubt are eliminated. Therefore, the thought at the time of death is the most important and the most useful.