The Relationship Between Thought-Free Numinous Awareness and the Manas

"Ling" means sensitivity and agility; "li-nian" (freedom from thought) means temporarily departing from thoughts and mental notions. Such knowing involves both the mind consciousness and the manas. For the mind consciousness, being free of thought is relatively easy to achieve; for the manas, it is comparatively difficult, though not impossible. Why can the mind consciousness be free of thought? First, the mind consciousness itself no longer has the desire to discriminate objects, nor any matters it dwells upon. Second, the manas also has no coarse thoughts or notions, no desires or ideas, and does not grasp at sense objects; only then will it not mobilize the mind consciousness to think, to be mindful, to imagine, or to fabricate.

As for those especially subtle thoughts and notions of the manas, they manifest as bodily, verbal, and mental actions without the participation of the mind consciousness, and the mind consciousness is also unable to detect or take part in them. At this time the manas is in a somewhat tranquil (praśama) state—that is, a state of meditative concentration (samādhi), a state of no desires and no seeking. Therefore, when the mind consciousness is in a state free of thought, it must be that the manas is tranquil and abiding in meditative concentration, no matter how deep the concentration or how long it lasts.

In fact, at this time there are still subtle thoughts; without thought, how could there be knowing? It is merely that when one is extremely familiar with an object, one can know it without effortful discrimination; at this time mental activity is extremely slight, and this is called "the numinous knowing free of thought" (li-nian ling-zhi). The term "numinous knowing free of thought" does not come from the Buddhist sūtras; the sūtras contain no specific description of it. It is a concept proposed by later people according to their own views, and it is not very accurate. Discerning this requires very profound cultivation in Yogācāra and keen powers of observation to observe and distinguish.