Only Through Direct Perception Can the Manas Be Transformed

How can the manas be changed? Only through direct realization in present awareness (direct perception) can the manas be changed; apart from this, nothing can change the manas. For example, a small child does not understand the danger of fire; even when adults tell him not to play with fire, he does not listen, until one day he gets burned in an accident. Only then does he realize how formidable fire is and no longer plays with it. This is because the manas has personally witnessed the danger of fire; without needing further deliberation or observation, it immediately accepts it, immediately learns the lesson, and immediately decides never to play with fire again—thus the manas changes its habit of playing with fire. Another example: it is widely publicized that smoking is harmful to health, yet smokers harbor a lucky mentality, and only when one day they contract lung disease are they willing to quit smoking. Once the manas personally witnesses the harm of nicotine, it changes the habit of smoking. Many such examples show that the manas is only willing to believe after personally experiencing and directly realizing something; once it believes, it changes—to the degree it believes, to that degree it changes.

It is the same with realizing the fruits of the path. When the non-self nature of the five aggregates and eighteen realms is directly realized, the manas changes and one obtains the beneficial functioning of liberation. To the degree of direct realization, to that degree there is change—from the first fruit all the way to the fourth fruit, the manas continuously deepens its direct realization of the principle of non-self in the five aggregates and eighteen realms, its understanding continuously deepens, and when the non-self nature of the five aggregates is fully and directly realized, the ignorance of a single thought is completely severed, self-grasping is completely severed, and one is liberated from the world of the three realms, no longer engaging in any activity. At the first three fruits, the depth of the manas's direct realization is still insufficient; afflictions and the ignorance of a single thought have not yet been completely severed, so there is still some activity, and one cannot immediately be liberated from the world of the three realms. Even an arhat liberated by wisdom alone, due to insufficient meditative concentration and lack of direct realization of superknowledges, has no ability to come and go freely, and the five aggregates remain limited.

If the manas does not eradicate the view of self at the first fruit, then when will it eradicate the view of self? It must eradicate the view of self eventually—so when exactly? It eradicates the view of self at the first fruit, and afterwards, through deep cultivation, it severs afflictions, ignorance, and the delusions of thought. That is, by further deep contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and deliberation on the dharmas of the five aggregates and eighteen realms, the wisdom of non-self continuously deepens, the manas obtains more evidence, realizes more deeply, and changes more greatly, to the point of severing afflictions, severing self-grasping, and severing craving for the three realms. This is on the side of the Small Vehicle.

This shows that there are different degrees of eradicating the view of self; different wisdom leads to different degrees of transformation of the manas. From the first fruit to the fourth fruit, it is the different levels of the manas's realized wisdom of the non-self of the five aggregates that lead to different fruits, different levels of presence or absence of afflictions, and different degrees of subduing and severing self-grasping. It is the same with realizing the fruits in the Great Vehicle: the depth and level of realizing the tathāgatagarbha differ, wisdom differs, the degree of severing ignorance differs, and thus the fruits differ.

On the side of the Great Vehicle, when the tathāgatagarbha is directly realized, the manas changes at the moment of realization; to the degree of realization, to that degree it changes, all the way to the direct realization at the Buddha stage, when the manas is completely transformed, the consciousnesses are completely transformed into wisdom, and no further transformation is ever needed—the Buddha then abides in nirvāṇa with no abiding place.