Only When the Manas Is Associated with Wholesome Dharmas Is Perfuming Successful.

The wholesome mental factors (kuśala-caittas) are: faith (śraddhā), shame (hrī), remorse (apatrāpya), non-greed (alobha), non-hatred (adveṣa), non-delusion (amoha), diligence (vīrya), tranquility (praśrabdhi), non-negligence (apramāda), equanimity (upekṣā), and non-harmfulness (ahiṃsā).

The unwholesome mental factors opposed to them are: non-faith (aśraddhā), shamelessness (āhrīkya), lack of remorse (anapatrāpya), greed (lobha), hatred (dveṣa), delusion (moha), non-diligence, non-tranquility, negligence (pramāda), non-equanimity, and harmfulness (vihiṃsā).

If the manas does not correspond with the eleven wholesome mental factors, it must correspond with the unwholesome mental factors—one of the two must necessarily be the case; otherwise it is illogical. For example, if a horse is white, then it is not non-white; one of the two must be the case. If a person is wholesome, then he is not unwholesome; one of the two must be the case; otherwise it is illogical.

So does the manas actually correspond with the wholesome mental factors, or does it not? Or does it correspond with both—that is, is it both wholesome and unwholesome? If the manas does not correspond with these eleven wholesome mental factors, is that reasonable? If so, the manas would correspond with the unwholesome mental factors, namely: non-faith, shamelessness, lack of remorse, greed, hatred, delusion, non-diligence, non-tranquility, negligence, non-equanimity, and harmfulness, possessing the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion. Would this then be self-contradictory? Could cultivation still succeed?

"The six turning [consciousnesses] call it the basis of defilement and purity"—the defilement and purity of the six consciousnesses depend upon the manas: if the manas is defiled, the six consciousnesses are defiled; if the manas is pure, the six consciousnesses are pure.

Is the meaning of this statement not very profound? If the manas innately lacks a certain affliction, can the six consciousnesses still have that affliction by relying on the manas? If the manas innately possesses a certain affliction, can the six consciousnesses be purely pure on their own by relying on the manas? If the six consciousnesses could become pure on their own, why would it still be said that "the six turning [consciousnesses] call it the basis of defilement and purity"?

For those who study and practice the Buddha-dharma, whether they study and practice the Mahāyāna dharma or the Small Vehicle dharma, their minds should become increasingly pure, increasingly correspond with wholesome dharmas, and the mind should become increasingly unconditioned.

If, after a period of study and practice, the six consciousnesses all correspond with wholesome dharmas, but the manas still cannot correspond with wholesome dharmas, then the manas has not been successfully permeated and transformed, and the study and practice has not achieved initial success. Then the manas will still take charge and direct the six consciousnesses to create unwholesome dharmas that correspond with the manas, and the bodily, verbal, and mental actions cannot become pure; one also cannot achieve the eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) or seeing the mind and attaining enlightenment. If the manas does not correspond with the eleven wholesome dharmas, studying Buddhism is a failure: the tathāgatagarbha cannot store the seeds of wholesome dharmas, and in future lives one will not be able to enjoy the karmic retribution of wholesome karma.

If the manas has not been successfully permeated and transformed, then all the mental activities in dreams are the mental activities of the manas; the mind consciousness cannot take charge and must drift along and be dominated by the manas, just as at the time of death. So when one kills, commits arson, takes malicious revenge, gets into fistfights with people, and so forth in dreams—these defiled karmic actions of hatred—do they all correspond with the manas? If the manas did not have these defiled mental activities of greed, hatred, and delusion, how could it produce such dreams? Moreover, in dreams the mind consciousness cannot persuade the manas; one usually just drifts along with the waves of the manas, just like the situation in the neutrino-body (antarā-bhava) at death. Whatever afflictions one has in dreams, the manas has those same afflictions when awake. If the mental activities in dreams correspond with the eleven wholesome factors, then when awake the manas corresponds with the eleven wholesome factors; otherwise one could not create karmic actions that correspond with the eleven wholesome factors.