A Consciousness-Only Analysis of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a symptom that manifests from the conflict between the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. A person's manas is extremely stubborn and wants to do something, but the mind consciousness is very rational and unwilling to do it, believing that doing so is not good. However, the mind consciousness does not know why the manas wants to do this, and therefore cannot effectively persuade and guide the manas; it can only forcibly refuse to carry it out, refusing to act.

Why does the manas have such a thought, wanting to do something so unreasonable? The most reasonable explanation is karmic obstruction, sometimes also called the force of habit. The manas follows along with karmic force, controlled and manipulated by karma. The mind consciousness understands principles and has rationality; it knows this thought is very bad, so it controls and opposes the manas's decision, refusing to execute the manas's decision and command. Thus the two clash fiercely, and obsessive-compulsive disorder appears. For example, a child may have harmed his mother in a past life; in this life, due to karmic conditions, they meet again, and the mother will take revenge on the child. But the mind consciousness has no such thought and is unwilling to follow karmic force, so it will obstruct the manas's vengeful behavior. Karmic force confronts rationality; the emotion of loving the child confronts the emotion of hating the child. Love and hate intertwine, conflict arises, and the mind is extremely conflicted, causing great suffering—this is because of the coercion of karmic conditions from past lives.

Who will prevail in the end depends on which is stronger: whether the mind consciousness's rationality is stronger, or the manas's karmic force is stronger. If you want the mind consciousness to become strong and prevail, you must grow the wisdom of persuasion and guidance—understanding principles thoroughly, thinking clearly, with sound reasoning and evidence, with patience, with methods, with skillful means—then you can gradually guide the manas to abandon its original thought. The mind consciousness must carefully and patiently understand why the manas has such a thought; it must persuade the manas to be broad-minded and magnanimous, to maintain the mother-child relationship well, to consider more the boundless benefits and joys the child will bring in the future, to think more about the child's suffering, to realize that treating the child well is treating oneself well, and to reflect on the hardship and difficulty of one's own pregnancy.

From the relationship between the mind consciousness and the manas, we find that the mind consciousness and the manas each have their own different positions. Why can their thoughts and views be inconsistent? If the two could be completely consistent, would that be good? Compulsion includes the mind consciousness compelling the manas, as well as the manas compelling the mind consciousness. In obsessive-compulsive disorder, who generally compels whom? It is always the manas compelling the mind consciousness, while the mind consciousness does not comply. If the two could together eradicate ignorance, until ignorance is completely eradicated and the transformation of consciousness into wisdom is ultimate, then the sixth and seventh consciousnesses would be completely unified, coordinated and consistent, cooperating with perfect tacit understanding, with powerful capacity for action. Action is the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses; the capacity for action comes from one source, the power of the mind consciousness, and from another, the power of the manas. The power of the mind consciousness can be transmitted to the manas, and the power of the manas can bless the mind consciousness; when the two are in harmonious accord, the capacity for action is greatest.