A Yogācāra Analysis of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

OCD is a symptom manifesting from the conflict between the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. A person's manas strongly wants to do something, but the mind consciousness is very rational and believes it cannot be done, that doing so would bring bad results. But the mind consciousness does not know why the manas wants to do this, and therefore cannot effectively persuade and guide the manas; it can only forcefully refuse to carry it out, refusing to act.

Why does the manas have such a thought, wanting to do something so unreasonable? The most reasonable explanation is karmic obstruction (karmāvaraṇa): the manas follows along with karmic force, controlled and manipulated by it. The mind consciousness understands principles, has rationality, and knows that this thought and decision are very bad, so it controls, stops, and opposes the manas's decision, refusing to execute the manas's decision and command. Thus the two clash fiercely, and OCD appears. In a past life, the child may have harmed the mother; in this life, due to karmic conditions they meet again, and the mother will take revenge on the child. But the mind consciousness has no such thought, does not follow karmic force, and will stop the manas's act of revenge. Karmic force confronts rationality; the emotion of loving the child confronts the emotion of hating the child. Love and hate intertwine, conflict arises, the mind is extremely torn, and there is great suffering—this too is the coercion of past-life karmic conditions.

Who will prevail in the end depends on which is stronger: whether the mind consciousness's rationality is stronger, or the manas's karmic force is stronger. To make the mind consciousness strong and prevail, one must grow the wisdom of persuasion and guidance—understanding principles thoroughly, thinking clearly, with sound reasoning and evidence, with patience, with methods, with skillful means—then one can gradually guide the manas to abandon its original views and thoughts. The mind consciousness must carefully and patiently understand why the manas has such mental activities and thoughts. It must persuade the manas to be broad-minded and magnanimous, to safeguard the mother-child relationship more, to consider the boundless benefits and joys the child will bring in the future, to think more about the child's suffering, to realize that treating the child well is treating oneself well, and to reflect on the hardship and difficulty of one's own pregnancy.

From the relationship between the mind consciousness and the manas, we find that both have their own different positions. Why can their thoughts and views be inconsistent? If the two could be completely consistent, would that be good? In coercion, there is the mind consciousness coercing the manas, and also the manas coercing the mind consciousness. In OCD, generally who coerces whom? It is always the manas coercing the mind consciousness, and the mind consciousness not complying. If the two could together eradicate ignorance, until ignorance is completely broken and exhausted, achieving the ultimate transformation of consciousness into wisdom, then the sixth and seventh consciousnesses would be completely unified, coordinated and consistent, cooperating with perfect tacit understanding, with powerful capacity for action. Action is the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses; the capacity for action comes from one source in the mind consciousness's power and from another in the manas's power. The mind consciousness's power can be transmitted to the manas, and the manas's power can bless the mind consciousness; when the two are in harmonious accord, the capacity for action is greatest.