The Degrees to Which the Manas Is Perfumed Vary in Depth

Question: If I have heard a certain view and learned a certain dharma—such as the five aggregates being illusory, impermanent, empty, and non-self—and my mind has genuinely changed in daily life, whether in major adjustments to my work and life direction, or in being less attached to things I previously craved, feeling much fainter in craving, does this count as a transformation of the manas?

Answer: This is a change occurring at the stage of cultivating the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment, indicating that one's cultivation has become fairly effective. Once the mind has been perfumed, transformation begins—turning toward the Noble Eightfold Path and subduing some coarse afflictions of craving. When the body-mind world is transformed, it is because the manas has been perfumed and changed. That is to say, at any stage of cultivation, as long as the manas is perfumed, cultivation shows results. The thirty-seven aids to enlightenment must also be cultivated all the way to the manas; otherwise it is false cultivation, and one has not yet gotten onto the path. However, this kind of body-mind transformation is not yet sufficient to bring about a complete metamorphosis, to the point of being able to eliminate the view of self. This is why many people who claim to have eliminated the view of self show little improvement or change in body and mind after doing so—the bones have not changed, so the ordinary person's embryo cannot be exchanged for a sage's embryo.

Before realizing the fruits, the Buddhadharma must be perfumed into the manas. When the manas is perfumed by wholesome dharmas, it will undergo change, and the body and mind will transform—especially at the very moment of realizing the fruit; that is what is called the power of meditative absorption (samādhi). If, in the process of studying the Buddhadharma, the manas is not perfumed, and there is only the mind consciousness's absorption and understanding of knowledge, the manas will remain as it always has, and there will be no transformation of the body-mind world. Then the elimination of the view of self and the realization of the fruits will remain indefinitely out of reach.

Even if the manas has been perfumed before realizing the fruits, if it has not reached a certain degree, one still cannot eliminate the view of self and realize the fruits. Therefore, for the transformation of body and mind, the transformation of bodily, verbal, and mental actions, the elimination of the view of self, and the awakening to the true mind and seeing of one's nature, the manas must be perfumed to a considerable degree; a mere slight change in the manas will not do. A complete metamorphosis requires thoroughly transforming the manas, eliminating the manas's afflictive defilements of the mind, and cutting off the five grades of thought-delusion afflictions of the desire realm. Only when such karmic seeds are stored in the eighth consciousness can one be assured of rebirth in the wholesome destinies of humans and gods in future lives, and not fall into the three evil destinies. There are also people who cling stubbornly to the notion that the mind consciousness realizes the fruits, resisting the idea that it is the manas that realizes the fruits—obstinately unyielding, stubborn to the very end. Such people are truly beyond remedy.