The Degree of Perfuming of the Manas Varies in Depth

Question: If one has heard a certain view or learned a certain dharma—for example, that the five aggregates are illusory, impermanent, empty, and without self—and the mind has genuinely changed in daily life, whether through major adjustments in the direction of one's work and life, or through becoming less attached to things one previously craved, feeling much fainter attachment—does this count as a transformation of the manas?

Answer: This is a change occurring at the stage of cultivating the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment, indicating that one's practice has become fairly effective. Once the mind has been perfumed, it begins to transform, turning toward the Noble Eightfold Path and subduing some coarse afflictions of greed. When the body-mind world transforms, it is because the manas has been perfumed and transformed. That is to say, at any stage of practice, as long as the manas is perfumed, the practice will show results. The thirty-seven factors of enlightenment must also be cultivated all the way to the manas; otherwise it is false practice, 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 eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi). That is why many people who claim to have eradicated 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 Buddha-dharma must be perfumed into the manas. When the manas is perfumed by wholesome dharmas, it will undergo some change, and the body and mind will transform—all the more so 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 Buddha-dharma, the manas is not perfumed, and there is only the mind consciousness's absorption and understanding of knowledge, the manas will remain as before, and there will be no transformation of the body-mind world; then the eradication of the view of self and the realization of the fruits will remain indefinitely far off.

Even before realizing the fruits, if the manas has been perfumed but not to a sufficient degree, one still cannot eradicate 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 eradication of the view of self, and seeing the mind and realizing one's nature, the manas must be perfumed to a considerable degree; the manas changing only a little will not do. A complete metamorphosis requires thoroughly transforming the manas, eliminating the manas's afflictions that defile the mind, and eradicating the afflictions of the five grades of meditative contemplation in the desire realm. In this way, the karmic seeds stored in the eighth consciousness will ensure rebirth in the wholesome realms of humans and gods in future lives, without falling into the three evil destinies. There are also people who cling stubbornly to the notion that the mind consciousness can realize the fruits, resisting the idea that the manas realizes the fruits, fighting obstinately and refusing to change—utterly pigheaded and beyond remedy.