Dreams Are Produced by the Deliberation of the Manas

Question: In summer, after falling asleep with the air conditioner on, one sometimes dreams of walking in a world of ice and snow, feeling cold all over. From the perspective of Yogācāra, what is going on here?

Answer: In the middle of the night, with the air conditioner on, the body is very cold after falling asleep, but without the six consciousnesses to perceive the cold, the problem of the body being cold cannot be solved. The manas does not sleep; although it knows the body is cold, it has no way to deal with the matter—it cannot pull up a blanket or turn off the air conditioner. In order to resolve this, it produces a dream about the body feeling cold, in which the mind consciousness feels the body is very cold, shivering in a world of ice and snow.

If the mind consciousness is rather clever and quick, it will wake up; after waking, it knows that the body really is very cold, then observes why it is cold, realizes that the air conditioner is on, and so turns it off, covers up with the blanket, finishes dealing with the matter, and goes back to sleep. If the mind consciousness is less alert, it will continue to endure the cold until waking at daybreak, and may even catch a cold from the chill. This matter proves that the manas can know many dharmas, but without the six consciousnesses as assistants to help Him do things, He is powerless and cannot run the activities of the five aggregates. The six consciousnesses serve the manas, work for the manas, and satisfy the manas' needs.

Dreams are all thought up by the manas. The manas' mental activities manifest in many ways: in dreams, in bodily, verbal, and mental actions, in all kinds of mental activities, in emotions, in the body's subconscious reactions, and in the body's involuntary reactions. The manas, together with the tathāgatagarbha, controls and regulates the physical body and the five aggregates; the moment the manas' mind stirs, the body moves, and the five aggregates begin to operate.

What ordinary people observe are only the surface phenomena of the six consciousnesses, or they classify the manas' mental activities under the mind consciousness as well, unable to distinguish the mental activities of the manas from those of the mind consciousness. When the mind consciousness disappears or becomes weak and feeble, the manas very much wants the five aggregates to be active, wants the five aggregates to run normally, but the six consciousnesses do not appear, the six consciousnesses are weak, and there is no way to make the five aggregates operate. That anxious, powerless feeling of the manas is something ordinary people cannot experience; even if they are aware of it, they mistake it for the anxiety and powerlessness of the mind consciousness. Their thinking and cognition can only remain at the level of the mind consciousness, following the mind consciousness' lead, unable to probe further into the deep psychological layers of the manas behind the mind consciousness.