Which mind's thought is effective?

When practicing qigong, using the mind to guide the qi, circulate the qi, gather the qi, and employ the qi—all of this is the mental activity of the manas. When the manas mentally directs the qi to gather at the Laogong acupoint in the palm, and once the qi becomes strong enough, one then mentally extends the hand and strikes the qi outward. For those with sufficient skill, mountains crumble and walls collapse, trains come to a halt, and cars move in reverse—this is pure qigong. But whether it is qigong or any other kind of gong, it is all training the power of mental attention (smṛti) of the manas. When the attention is strong, the mental force is strong; when the qi is strong, the energy is strong, and then one can do as one pleases and be invincible wherever one goes.

Some will say: the manas has no mental attention; it is all the mind consciousness that attends. Fine then, you try attending with your mind consciousness—would the tathāgatagarbha take notice of you and heed you? Would the attention be of any use? Could it bring about any effect? Qigong attended by the mind consciousness—there is no gong of any kind, no use whatsoever; it is flowery fists and embroidered legs, mere decoration, mere playacting.

The qi follows the attention—it follows the attention of the manas, not the attention of the mind consciousness. Otherwise, everyone's mind consciousness could attend, yet those who succeed in training the qi are extremely few, and it takes a considerably long time of practice to succeed. Why does it take such a long time to train? Because it is using the mind consciousness to train the manas—the mind consciousness finds it easy, but the manas does not. The main difference among sentient beings lies in the manas; all mind consciousnesses can think and can attend, yet it is of no use.