The Difference Between the Patience of the Mind Consciousness and the Patience of the Manas

Any state of mind and emotion, as well as any mental activity—the cognitive functions of the conscious mind such as recognizing, understanding, and discriminating people, affairs, objects, and principles—fall into two kinds: those of the mind consciousness and those of the manas. They differ in depth of level; there is a certain distinction between the two, and they are not entirely consistent or identical.

For example, patience is divided into two kinds: the patience of the mind consciousness and the patience of the manas. Both may have patience, or only one may have it. When the manas lacks patience, the patience of the mind consciousness does not last long. For instance, when one has been doing something for a long time, the manas loses patience and no longer wants to continue, yet the mind consciousness is still pretending to persist. This so-called pretending means that the two mentalities of the mind consciousness and the manas are not in accord—each has its own ideas—yet the current state is being maintained for the time being. In reality, the manas is planning something else; once the plan is settled, it will make the decision to go do something else, and the mind consciousness cannot take charge and continue to persist. Then the patience of the mind consciousness comes to an end.

When the mind consciousness lacks patience but the manas has patience, even though the mind consciousness is restless like a monkey with thoughts galloping like a horse, harboring all sorts of plans, because the manas is persisting without change and making no other decision, the mind consciousness has no choice but to continue—it has no alternative, because it cannot take charge. When both have patience, the attitude toward doing things remains unchanged, and one can do the same thing for years on end, or days on end, with the mind neither wearying nor slackening.