The Mental Factors of the Manas from the Perspective of the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination

The three links taught in the twelve links of dependent origination—ignorance conditions volitional formations (avidyā-pratyayāḥ saṃskārāḥ), volitional formations condition consciousness, and consciousness conditions name-and-form—clearly reveal that the suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death of sentient beings is all caused by the ignorance of the manas. Because of the manas's ignorance, sentient beings have wholesome and unwholesome karma and the cycle of the six realms of rebirth; thus the manas's ignorance encompasses all afflictions and possesses all mental concomitants of affliction. Because sentient beings have all afflictions, they have segmented birth-and-death (pariccheda-maraṇa) and transformational birth-and-death (parināma-maraṇa); and once the manas's ignorance is completely eradicated, sentient beings become Buddhas. At that time the manas possesses all wholesome mental concomitants, which constantly accompany the manas in its operation, whereas previously they did not constantly accompany it—especially at the stage of ordinary beings, when they rarely accompanied the manas in its operation.

To summarize: the manas possesses all mental concomitants, no fewer than the mind consciousness. If the manas did not possess all the mental concomitants of affliction, the mind would not be so heavily defiled, would create less karma of birth-and-death, and would experience less suffering; yet for immeasurable kalpas, sentient beings have experienced all the sufferings of birth-and-death and have created all kinds of karma of birth-and-death, which shows that the manas possesses all the mental concomitants of affliction. If the manas did not possess all the wholesome mental concomitants, the mind would not be completely and thoroughly pure, and one could not become a Buddha; yet all sentient beings will ultimately become Buddhas, so the manas possesses all the wholesome mental concomitants. It is only that these wholesome and unwholesome mental concomitants do not constantly accompany the manas in its operation. In the manas of ordinary sentient beings, only the four great root afflictions—the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), self-conceit, self-grasping, and self-delusion—constantly and ceaselessly accompany the manas in its operation, never departing from it for even a moment. It can be seen that these four great root afflictions are the bane of the karma and suffering of birth-and-death; from these four great root afflictions, other afflictions are triggered to manifest at times and lie hidden at other times.

Once the affliction of the view of self is severed, the other three root afflictions will also be gradually eradicated accordingly; once the four great root afflictions are severed, all other afflictions will be completely eradicated along with them, and segmented birth-and-death will thereby be ended. Therefore, after sentient beings eradicate the view of self, the affliction of the view of self can neither constantly accompany the manas in its operation nor intermittently accompany it; and even after the afflictions of self-grasping and self-conceit are completely eradicated, they can neither constantly accompany the manas in its operation nor intermittently accompany it, but will never again accompany the manas in its operation. The same applies to the affliction of self-delusion: once it is completely eradicated, the manifest afflictions of the manas are exhausted, and at the end of life one can depart from the three realms and enter Nirvāṇa without remainder (Anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa).

The wholesome mental concomitants of the manas of ordinary sentient beings are not complete and cannot constantly accompany the manas in its operation; rather, they appear at times and are absent at other times, manifesting and hiding intermittently. Once the manas eradicates the mental concomitants of affliction, the wholesome mental concomitants will gradually become complete and will constantly accompany the manas in its operation; this is then the mental activity of a noble one, no longer the mental activity of an ordinary being. To summarize: in the manas of ordinary sentient beings, only the four great root afflictions constantly accompany the manas in its operation, while other afflictions appear at times and are absent at other times, manifesting and hiding intermittently—the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra discusses it precisely in this way. The wholesome mental concomitants of the manas of ordinary sentient beings likewise appear at times and are absent at other times, manifesting and hiding intermittently; after afflictions are eradicated and one becomes a noble one, the wholesome mental concomitants will frequently accompany the manas in its operation, and eventually will constantly accompany it.

In recent decades, many people have grossly misunderstood the mental concomitants of the manas. The reason is severe insufficiency in meditative concentration (samādhi) and wisdom, making it impossible to observe the mental activity of the manas directly in the present; their comprehension is also not strong, and they have misunderstood the expositions of the bodhisattvas—a misunderstanding that has continued to this day. Since the levels of meditative concentration and wisdom of the various great bodhisattvas are uneven and vary in height, contradictions are inevitable in the bodhisattvas' expositions. If such a situation arises, one should give primacy to the exposition of Bodhisattva Maitreya, whose wisdom is the deepest; if there are Buddhist sūtras as corroboration, one should give primacy to the sūtras. If there are no sūtras to corroborate, then one should take genuine realization as the standard and facts as the standard, for facts, after all, speak louder than eloquence.