The Direct Realization of All Dharmas Lies in the Manas

Sentient beings all take the functions and activities of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) as the self, and especially take the feelings and perceptions of the six consciousnesses of the aggregate of consciousness as self and what belongs to self. They cling to their own feelings and perceptions, and for their sake create all kinds of wholesome and unwholesome karmic actions, even not hesitating to commit unwholesome deeds. Because of such karmic actions, they sink through birth and death and suffer retributive results. Where do the feelings and perceptions of the six consciousnesses come from? They arise after the faculties and sense objects come into contact; thereafter, the manas takes these feelings as self and grasps them, creating the ignorant karma of craving and attachment. To be liberated from birth and death, one must engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the illusory, unreal nature of the feelings of the six consciousnesses—their nature of suffering, their emptiness (śūnyatā), and their non-self nature. Knowing that feelings are empty and illusory, unreal, and no longer paying attention to feelings, the mind gradually becomes empty; then one can eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), no longer grasp at feelings, and the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion will be weakened and eliminated, and one will no longer create ignorant and unwholesome karma. Being able to contemplate feelings as empty is an extremely important matter. The five aggregates are without self, and feelings are also not self—this is a very important conceptual understanding. 

The feelings of the six consciousnesses are easy to observe, but the hidden feelings of the manas behind them are extremely important and crucial. Because the manas has feelings, there are the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion; because it grasps at feelings, it drives the six consciousnesses to create karmic actions. The manas regards all dharmas as "mine," as belonging to self, and takes the mind consciousness as its own function. Therefore, eradicating the view of self means eradicating the manas's view of self, and realizing enlightenment also requires the manas to realize the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha. Thus, the realization of all dharmas lies entirely with the manas, not with the mind consciousness. Through contemplative practice that is truthful and in accord with principle, the more one practices, the more one feels that the most fundamental cultivation and realization lies in the manas. The manas is the key to becoming a Buddha and also the master of the cycle of birth and death. When the manas has been successfully cultivated through permeation, one attains liberation and accomplishes the Buddha Way.

When the manas, through investigation and deliberation (manasikāra/manana), once realizes the Dharma, it will overturn its previous attention that was not in accord with reality; its mental activities change, it no longer grasps at the five aggregates, and it attains initial liberation—this is the key to cultivation. Why is it that some people, after studying much theory, all feel that the five aggregates are not self, that they are empty and illusory, yet they still create defiled karmic actions for the sake of the body of the five aggregates, without the slightest change in their mental activities? Because those feelings are feelings of the mind consciousness's understanding and simply do not count. Since the manas has not realized it directly, it will, as always, take the five aggregates as self and follow its own mental afflictions to create karma. Therefore, all such feelings are unreliable; any dharma only counts when it is realized by the manas.

The manas also constantly takes the various merits of the tathāgatagarbha as its own, taking all dharmas produced by the tathāgatagarbha as self and what belongs to self, not knowing that all dharmas are illusorily manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, and not knowing that even itself is manifested by the tathāgatagarbha—this is why it creates ignorant karmic actions. Studying and learning the Buddhadharma means first letting the mind consciousness know theoretically that these dharmas are without self, and knowing the reality of the tathāgatagarbha, and then permeating the manas, letting the manas deliberate upon and realize the tathāgatagarbha within all dharmas, realizing that all dharmas are neither self nor what belongs to self. 

All dharmas are manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; none of them belongs to the manas—they are all functions and activities of the tathāgatagarbha. Only after the manas realizes this principle will the mind become empty and be able to stop grasping at the self of the five aggregates. In this way, one can not only eradicate the self-grasping but also eradicate the grasping at dharmas; when the grasping at dharmas is completely eradicated, one perfectly becomes a Buddha. Therefore, the key to cultivation lies entirely in the manas. Ignorance belongs to the manas; eradicating ignorance means eradicating the manas's ignorance, and eradicating afflictions likewise means eradicating the manas's afflictions. Attaining liberation means letting the manas attain liberation; when the manas no longer grasps at any dharma, there is no bondage—this is liberation. Who is it that becomes a Buddha? Since the six consciousnesses cease in every single life, the six consciousnesses cannot become a Buddha; it is the manas that becomes a Buddha. The tathāgatagarbha also does not become a Buddha. But in the ultimate level of reality, even the manas does not become a Buddha—on the day of buddhahood one will know: there is no Buddha to be attained; only then can one perfectly become a Buddha.