Practice Is Cultivating the Manas and Transforming the Manas

Question: If the emotion of hatred reaches the point of gritting one's teeth, that is the manas's deep hatred, a reaction of the manas. Does the manas have the minor affliction of hatred?

Answer: The manas is the decision-making consciousness. Bodily, verbal, and mental actions are directed and governed by the manas. The bodily activity of gritting one's teeth is created through the manas's direction and command. No matter what thoughts, ideas, or emotions the mind consciousness has, it cannot direct or govern the body to produce the phenomenon of gritting one's teeth. If you regard the manas as a normal knowing mind, it becomes easy to understand all of the manas's mental activities, and there will be no misunderstanding.

The manas is the master of the five-aggregate body, constantly dominating all bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the five-aggregate body. Our cultivation is precisely the cultivation of the manas, the transformation of the manas. After the manas undergoes the threefold transformation of consciousness into wisdom, one becomes a Buddha. If the manas did not have a certain kind of ignorance and affliction, then cultivation would only need to focus on the mind consciousness, and the manas could be ignored. And cultivating the mind consciousness is extremely simple, extremely relaxed, and easy: once one has learned the principles, after the mind consciousness deliberates and understands, it becomes clear and wise, mental activities can change, and transformation occurs. But in reality, cultivation is extremely difficult; it is not so simple and fast. Changing oneself is very hard; it requires long-term permeation, long-term introspection, and subduing oneself in the midst of circumstances and conditions, before one can make even a little progress. The manas's ignorance and afflictions are extremely numerous and extremely deep, not easy to subdue and eradicate—that is why cultivation feels difficult.

The twelve links of dependent origination show that the manas's ignorance leads to the subsequent immeasurable suffering of birth-and-death and saṃsāra, which demonstrates that the manas possesses all ignorance and afflictions in full. If the manas had no ignorance and afflictions, and only the mind consciousness had them, there would not be the suffering of birth-and-death and saṃsāra for beginningless kalpas—the mind consciousness's ignorance and afflictions are all easy to resolve. So one should think further: where do the mind consciousness's ignorance and afflictions come from? The "self" we usually speak of refers to the manas, mainly refers to the manas. As soon as we say "I," it is the manas's thoughts and views that emerge. The deeply rooted, habitually entrenched view of "I" is the manas. Therefore, if you want to observe the manas, just observe your own arising thoughts and mental habits and tendencies. The self is the manas; to observe the manas is to observe the self. Working on it from this angle is not difficult. The deep, hard-to-detect and hard-to-observe thoughts and views within the mind all belong to the manas; the deeply rooted, bone-deep habitual afflictions and wisdom all belong to the manas—they are extremely hidden, hard to know and hard to change. The mind consciousness's thoughts and views all float on the surface; they are easily permeated, easily discovered, easily subdued, and easily changed. If cultivation did not involve the manas, then learning Buddhism would be relaxed and pleasant, and becoming a Buddha would also be very fast.

All the functions and roles of the manas within the five aggregates can be observed. Only by knowing what the facts are and what the truth is can one say what the manas does or does not have, or state it precisely, or state it with certainty. Otherwise, one must follow what the Buddha said: do not believe your mind. One's own judgments will be severely limited by the wisdom of direct perception. When wisdom is insufficient and one cannot observe something, one must cultivate diligently, striving to be able to observe things as they truly are and with direct perception as soon as possible, so as to obtain true wisdom, wisdom that accords with reality, and the wisdom of direct perception. Before that, doubt is, after all, just doubt; one cannot draw conclusions that accord with reality, so one should not draw conclusions. Only by maintaining this attitude in learning Buddhism and practicing cultivation can one avoid the fault of mistaken evaluations and misjudgments. Strive to connect the Dharma throughout, to link it together, and then the meaning of the Dharma can be straightened out.