What is the Uninterrupted Path of Seeing?

After truly seeing the Path, the mind will be uninterrupted in the Path, thought after thought. What does "uninterrupted, thought after thought" mean? Which mind is the uninterrupted mind? Which mind is the intermittent mind? Why can it be interrupted? The eighth consciousness and the manas are uninterrupted minds, while the first six consciousnesses are intermittent minds. For seeing the Path to be uninterrupted, the manas and the mind consciousness must see the Path simultaneously; the mind consciousness alone cannot see the Path. In true seeing of the Path, even when the mind consciousness ceases, the fruit of the Path remains; whereas in false seeing of the Path, once the mind consciousness perishes or becomes weak and inferior, the fruit of the Path is gone.

True seeing of the Path is the manas seeing the Path. After the manas sees the Path, the mind forever abides in the Path and will no longer regress from it. But the mind consciousness seeing the Path is not like this. The mind consciousness is an intermittent mind and is not the mind that makes decisions. If the manas does not see the Path, the mind consciousness will obey the manas's arrangements and directives, will not acknowledge the so-called Path, and thus will no longer be in the Path. If the mind consciousness then gives rise to doubt, regression will occur. Even if the mind consciousness does not regress, because the manas makes decisions everywhere, the bodily, verbal, and mental actions will not change—one remains the same as before.

Some people, because their mind consciousness has seen the Path, or because they take meditative absorption states as the Path, in order to avoid regression, frequently sit in meditation to cultivate concentration and maintain the meditative state, so as to preserve the state they have realized. Others strive to use the mind consciousness to pull the manas along and make it comply with themselves. But this is ultimately not a lasting affair—paper can never wrap up fire, and in the end the truth will be fully exposed. After the manas sees the Path, the attraction of sense objects to the manas and the mind consciousness diminishes; the mind consciousness can easily be turned around, but once the manas accepts a principle, it is very hard to turn it away from the truth—ten oxen cannot pull it away.

Precisely because the manas has such stubbornness, and its wrong views and false knowledge accumulated over beginningless kalpas are deeply rooted, it is not so easy to pull the manas toward the true Dharma. The manas is not easily influenced, which is why attaining the fruits is so difficult. Some people have heavy afflictions; explaining principles to them lightly and casually is of no use at all. Only after suffering great evil retribution, hitting walls severely, and ending up bruised and bleeding, can they somewhat learn to reflect on themselves. Such people are those of poor indriya—ten oxen cannot pull them away; they cling stubbornly to fixed ideas, are inflexible, and love to contend.