The Steps of Deliberating (manana) on the Idiom “Worrying over Gains and Losses” (Manas Training Series)

Step one: take a deep breath, calm the mind down, and calm it down further, until distracting thoughts gradually diminish to none.

Step two: let the eye consciousness fixate on this idiom, while the mind consciousness grasps the general idea without engaging in thought or analysis; keep thoughts unmoving, remaining in a state of blankness, daze, and spacing out. This process is equivalent to transmitting the information of the idiom into the manas. It is like a bag that is already full of things, yet there are still more things to put in, so you press down on the things inside the bag, give it a pause, to make room for the remaining things to be loaded in. The pressing and pausing is the moving of things from the mouth of the bag down to the bottom of the bag; the more you move, the more space is freed up. The mouth of the bag corresponds to the mind consciousness, and the bottom of the bag corresponds to the manas.

Step three: after the information has all been transmitted to the manas, the manas begins to process the information. At this time, you should maintain and prolong the state of blankness, daze, and spacing out; the mind consciousness should not stir a thought, and one may even close the eyes to nourish the spirit.

Closing the eyes means the eye consciousness and mind consciousness close their eyes and do not see forms; what is being nourished is of course the manas, this conscious spirit. When the manas feels it should rest and decides to close the eyes and not see forms, the two consciousnesses obey the decision and close the eyes. If the manas wants to see forms, the two consciousnesses cannot close their eyes no matter what. If the mind consciousness says, "This form is really nice, let's look a while longer," and the manas says, "Then look a while longer," the two consciousnesses see forms and do not close their eyes. In all matters it is the manas that takes charge and makes decisions; although some matters are suggested by the mind consciousness, the manas must still agree to the mind consciousness's suggestion before taking charge and deciding. Once the two consciousnesses close their eyes and cease activity, the manas no longer needs to expend attention on the matter of seeing forms, thus saving mental energy, or turning to deliberate on other important matters.

After the mind consciousness has settled down and all the information has been transmitted to the manas, the manas begins to deliberate—silently, without motion and without stillness, so quiet that the mind consciousness can hardly detect and feel His existence and operation. That is why most people say the manas is a fool and a mere ornament with no real function or effect, when in fact the principal functions of the five aggregates all belong to the manas; the manas plays the role of bearing the main pillar.

Step four: the manas first deliberates on the character "患" (huàn, "worry"). The mind consciousness should not analyze it; it must refrain from interfering and making trouble, not let the manas be distracted, and not let the manas depart from deliberating on the idiom. Keeping the manas from leaving the object it should deliberate on is the mind consciousness's task; if it is done poorly, it may affect the results of the manas's deliberation. If the manas is already skilled in deliberation, the mind consciousness need not supervise. The mind consciousness must not, in its eagerness for results, participate in the process; it absolutely must not engage in thinking, otherwise the manas will have no wisdom to produce. Results produced by the mind consciousness's thinking do not represent genuine wisdom and cannot be used.

At the very beginning, the mind consciousness may not know how to supervise and prompt, and the manas may not know how to deliberate; both need to study hard. Once past this stage, one can proceed smoothly on the path of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā). After the manas has deliberated for some time, it knows that "患" carries the meanings of fault and harm, worry, fear, and fretting over; which meaning exactly applies must be decided by looking at the characters that follow. So it then deliberates on the character "得" (dé, "gain"). Since "得" has too many meanings, it links "得" and "失" (shī, "loss") together and deliberates on them as a pair, thereby circumscribing the meanings of gain and loss. Then it deliberates on what is gained and what is lost, and knows that it is the fretting and grasping over the worldly dharmas of the five aggregates—wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep, family and relatives, power and status, and so on—these perishable, empty, false dharmas of the human world. Finally, deliberating on the four characters as a whole, it knows that "worrying over not gaining" means fearing one will not obtain something, and "worrying over losing" means fearing that what has been obtained will be lost again—fretting and grasping intensely, seeing through nothing and letting go of nothing; it is entirely the working of self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) and self-grasping. This is the psychological state of an ordinary being in birth and death—how pitiable.

What should be deliberated on last? That depends on each person's manas wisdom and views. The manas should review the gains and losses of one's entire life and, with wisdom, deliberate that both gain and loss are unobtainable—there is nothing to gain and nothing to lose; it is merely pointless fussing, truly foolish. Of course, most people's manas cannot deliberate to this step; just practice deliberation slowly.

Because wisdom is insufficient, the method is unfamiliar, and meditative concentration (samādhi) is also lacking, the initial practice of deliberation may be very slow and not necessarily correct, but that is all right; the day of proficiency will always come. Once the manas learns to deliberate and contemplate in accordance with the Dharma, that wisdom will gush forth like a spring, and nothing can hold it back.

Those who formerly emphasized the mind consciousness's hearing and reflection, studied broadly and learned much, and spent all their time in various massive Yogācāra treatises—looking at it now, have they not come out at a loss? Decades of gnawing at Yogācāra treatises with the mind consciousness—what results have come of that gnawing? Should they not now turn back to shore up the foundations and set about actual practice step by step? However, some people, because they are accustomed to the mind consciousness's hearing and reflection, find that during actual practice the mind consciousness refuses to be honest and quiet, which is a great obstacle to actual practice; meditative concentration is very hard to develop, let alone contemplative practice. Those with a strong theoretical bent, compared with those who emphasize actual practice and combine theory with reality, differ greatly in the depth of their cultivation and realization: with a few years of effort, the latter have developed meditative absorption (samādhi) and already attained the fruit of stream-enterer (Srotaāpanna) or once-returner (Sakṛdāgāmin), able at any time and place to realize the emptiness (śūnyatā) of the tathāgatagarbha, whereas one's own theory is not yet understood, and meditative concentration has not even a trace.

From this comparison, one should know that if theory is not combined with reality, empty talk often ruins the endeavor; if theory cannot be grounded in the concrete, realization is harder than ascending to heaven. What is the concrete place? The concrete place is the place of the manas, the place of seeing with one's own eyes, the place where one can touch the truth of facts; whereas the mind consciousness is the abstract place, the place of hearing with the ears, the place where one cannot touch the truth of facts.