Recitation and Memorization Are Mental Activities Primarily Based on the Mind Consciousness

Some Buddhist practitioners are very familiar with the sūtra texts and can recite them at will, appearing to understand their meaning, but in fact they have not truly understood. Because the texts are so familiar, it is not easy for them to think further about their real meaning, and they stop at an understanding of the surface meaning. Reading and reciting sūtras is an activity of the mind consciousness; it is relatively effortless, requiring no deep contemplation, neither tiring the brain nor burdening the mind. Deep contemplation, however, requires engaging the manas and activating the brain's nerve cells, consuming the brain's energy; the body must continuously supply the brain with qi, blood, and other resources, and the mind feels tired. Thus sentient beings choose to do what is relatively easy—merely reading and reciting sūtras—and, compounded by insufficient power of meditative concentration and insufficient power of wisdom (prajñā-bala), they are unable to engage in deep contemplation.

Reading sūtras and reciting mantras are mental activities dominated by the mind consciousness, with the mind consciousness playing a prominent role. Memorizing sūtra texts and the Śūraṅgama Mantra is likewise dominated by the mind consciousness, with its role being prominent. Once memorized, the mind consciousness can recite rapidly and fluently, like flowing clouds and water, very smoothly, without any deliberation. If the recitation is somewhat slower, the role of the mind consciousness diminishes somewhat, and the role of the manas becomes somewhat more prominent; if slower still, the activity of the mind consciousness weakens and the role of the manas strengthens—the slower it is, the more the manas's role stands out. The result is that the less the mind consciousness is active, the less fluent the recitation becomes, until finally one cannot recall the content to be recited.

Because the manas cannot recall or recite sūtra texts—recollection is a function of the mind consciousness—when the mind consciousness's activity weakens, its functioning diminishes, and recitation becomes difficult. In a waking state, the less the mind consciousness is active, the deeper the meditative concentration; and the deeper the concentration, the less the mind consciousness manifests in activity. When the mind consciousness's activity diminishes to a certain degree, one simply cannot recite sūtra texts anymore: the mouth cannot move, not a single word can be uttered, and even the mental activity is about to cease—one can no longer recite silently in the mind either.

Therefore, to cultivate meditative concentration well so as to be able to investigate Chan, one's bodily, verbal, and mental actions must all be slow, slow—reducing the activity of the mind consciousness so that the manas's function is strengthened and its role of direct intuition becomes prominent. When the manas's intuitive function reaches a certain degree, one can directly perceive the mechanical nature of the physical body while walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, and thereby can eradicate the view of the body, or eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), or attain seeing the mind—none of this can be predicted. This is precisely the kind of function that meditative concentration serves.

Without meditative concentration, or when the concentration is shallow, the mind consciousness's function of discernment is very active, and it then performs the functions of reading, reciting, and acquiring knowledge. Although the mind consciousness's deliberation is very active, very clever and quick-witted, what is learned remains shallow, belonging to the realm of understanding and the level of knowledge; deep in the mind one has not yet deeply understood its meaning, because the manas has not realized it. What the mind consciousness learns consists of other people's thoughts and viewpoints—perhaps all spoken by the Buddha and realized by the Buddha—but one has not actually realized them oneself; they all belong to the level of knowledge. Knowledge learned in this way must not be claimed to others as one's own realization, as something one has personally verified to be correct; because one has, after all, not yet proven it, nor found the evidence. Only after the manas cooperates with the mind consciousness in deep deliberation (manasikāra/manana) and one has genuinely realized it—only then are one's thoughts and reflections one's own viewpoints and views, one's own insight, and only then may one say to others: "I believe such and such." Otherwise, one must not say "I believe" or "I feel." If one insists on saying "I believe" or "I feel," that is merely the mind consciousness's believing and feeling, having nothing to do with the manas, and is not yet genuine insight.