The Manas Silently Contains All Dharmas, Indicating That the Manas Has a Wholesome and Unwholesome Nature

Original text of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume Four: 如意默容。十方三世。一切世间出世间法。唯圣与凡。无不包容。尽其涯际。当知意根圆满一千二百功德。

Explanation: For example, the manas can silently contain all worldly and supramundane dharmas of the three times—past, present, and future—throughout the worlds of the ten directions, whether ultimate truth or conventional truth, whether the dharmas of sages or those of ordinary beings; all are included within it, exhausting the boundaries of all dharmas. Therefore, you should know that the manas is perfect and complete with one thousand two hundred merits.

"Silently" means quietly, secretly, without making a show; "contain" means to accommodate, accept, possess, direct attention (manaskāra), contact, perceive, deliberate, be concomitant with, take as object, know, and see. Why does the manas silently and secretly take all dharmas as objects, contact everything, see all dharmas, know all dharmas, and reject none of them? It is silent because the manas cannot speak, cannot write, and cannot use words, language, or sounds to convey and reveal its own mental activities. It is secret because the mind consciousness, most of the time, does not understand Him, does not know Him, and is unaware of and does not see His mental activities and operations, nor His merits—hence it is called "secretly." If the mind consciousness could fully comprehend the merits of the manas and its operations upon all dharmas, then it would no longer be secret.

That the manas can contain all dharmas means it can take all dharmas as objects, accommodate and accept all dharmas, discern all dharmas, know and see all dharmas, and can exercise its five universal mental factors upon all dharmas, being concomitant with all dharmas—of course also concomitant with wholesome and unwholesome dharmas, able to contain both the wholesome and the unwholesome, itself possessing both wholesome and unwholesome natures. The range of dharmas that the manas can take as object and does take as object is extremely vast and boundless; the dharmas that the mind consciousness takes as object cannot compare with those the manas takes as object, and neither is as vast as the dharmas that the tathāgatagarbha takes as object.

What is included among all these dharmas that the manas takes as object? First are the dharmas of the three times throughout the worlds of the ten directions, which is the largest spatial scope in the conventional world; the temporal scope is past, present, and future, which is also the largest. Within this greatest span of space and time, the dharmas the manas takes as object include all worldly dharmas—that is, the dharmas of subsequent existence generated by the tathāgatagarbha using the seeds of the seven great elements, such as material form, mind, and mental factors—as well as supramundane dharmas that must operate and manifest within the world, such as the tathāgatagarbha, buddha-nature, and suchness (tathatā), and also the path practiced by sages—the ultimate truth, the truth of the highest meaning. Both sages and ordinary beings are included within it, all the way to the very edge of all dharmas, beyond which the manas can no longer take as object\: the dharmas that only the tathāgatagarbha can take as object alone, and the dharmas that lack worldly marks and do not operate within the world.

Because the manas can encompass dharmas of such a vast scope, having exhausted the boundaries of the dharmas that operate within the world, He possesses the full one thousand two hundred merits, the most complete, second only to the merits of the tathāgatagarbha. Thus, without question, the manas also contains the dharmas of sages and of ordinary beings, contains wholesome and unwholesome dharmas, and possesses the wholesome and unwholesome natures, the wholesome and unwholesome mental factors, and mental activities. If it were not so, the merits of the manas would not have exhausted the boundaries of all dharmas; there would be dharmas it could not contain, and its merits would not be perfect and complete.

This passage was spoken by the World-Honored One when expounding the merits of the manas: the manas can be perfect and complete with one thousand two hundred merits. He did not say that the merits of the mind consciousness are perfect and complete, because the mind consciousness arises and ceases moment by moment, cannot act autonomously, cannot span the three times, and even the dharmas of this present life it cannot fully encompass—there are many dharmas it cannot take as object or discern, let alone the dharmas of the ten directions and the three times, which it certainly cannot reach. Therefore the mind consciousness is not an ultimate dharma, not a fundamental dharma, and is not worth relying upon. Practice must cultivate the fundamental dharma, the dharma that can be relied upon, the dharma that is autonomous; only by removing the ignorance of the manas and perfecting the wisdom of the manas can one attain buddhahood.