Why Does the Phenomenon of "A Rise of Rice Breeds Gratitude, a Measure of Rice Breeds Resentment" Occur?

When a person is first shown a small kindness, in conscience he knows gratitude. But when kindness is continuously bestowed upon him, a habit of being given alms is formed; he enters a comfort zone, comes to take it for granted, and develops dependence. When this taken-for-granted situation is broken—when others no longer give, the comfort zone is gone, and there is nothing left to depend on—he feels uncomfortable, cannot accept it psychologically, and thus hatred arises. It is very difficult to break a person's habits; not letting someone depend on you will breed resentment. No one is willing to break their habits, especially habits of comfort and enjoyment. No one is willing to accept teachings that differ greatly from their own habits and views. If you want to change a person, you must proceed slowly and not rush things.

Since habits have such stickiness, one should strive to cultivate good habits in order to drive out bad ones. For example, once contemplating the breath becomes a habit, it will drive out scattered thoughts. When one is lost in random thoughts, as soon as one contemplates the breath, all of the manas' energy concentrates on the breath; meditative concentration (samādhi) appears, and the scattered thoughts disappear. It is the manas that gradually adapts to receiving kindness, forms the habit, and develops dependence. The manas has great greed and inertia: forming bad habits is easy, but changing them is very difficult; receiving favors is easy, but losing benefits is hard to bear.

Which mind feels gratitude? Which mind turns to enmity? Love, hate, affection, and enmity all depend on which level and degree they fall into—whether they are real or false, how real, and how false. Emotions that are relatively deep belong to the manas; those that are relatively shallow and have not yet become habitual belong to the mind consciousness. At the stage of the mind consciousness, emotions are easy to regulate; once they fall into the manas and become habitual, emotions are hard to control.

Upon receiving a favor, anyone with a bit of conscience will have a grateful heart, keeping it in mind moment after moment, thinking of repaying it when they have money—both the mind consciousness and the manas are like this. If the mind consciousness must constantly remind the manas to be grateful, it shows that the manas has no conscience; a person with a conscience does not need reminders from the mind consciousness. It is like a person whose mind consciousness has realized the fruit: he needs to remind the manas at every moment not to have afflictions, not to be attached to the five aggregates (pañcaskandha), that the five aggregates are false. But when the manas itself realizes the fruit, there is no need at all for the mind consciousness to keep reminding it; the mind consciousness need not speak, need not keep reciting that the five aggregates are illusory—the manas knowing it is enough.