How Do Athletes Train the Manas? (On Training the Manas)

When athletes compete in a match, they are all exercising the skills and functions of the manas. For example, in various competitive sports—competing in speed, technique, reaction, and strength—full attention is required, with energy highly concentrated and the mind free of distracting thoughts. At such moments, for every movement, for every instant of responding to an opponent, is there still time to use the mind consciousness to think? Not at all. Otherwise, just as one begins to think about how to respond, the opponent's move has already been executed, and one would be defeated in an instant. On the field of competition, time is the most precious thing; time determines victory and defeat. If one uses the mind consciousness to deliberate on countermeasures, the opponent will not give you the chance to wait for your, so all on-the-spot adaptation is the functioning of the manas. The manas, without fanfare, silently and methodically completes each movement, responding to each unexpected attack and challenge, relying entirely on the experience of usual training, which has formed conditioned reflexes. The conditioned-reflex activity of any living being is a response of the manas, leaving no room for the mind consciousness to play a role. Conditioned reflexes are the habits and tendencies of the manas, a mechanism formed through the manas's long-term learning and perfuming. The mind consciousness does not understand this and can do nothing about it; it can only obey and comply completely.

How does the manas form conditioned reflexes? It is the result of intense training in ordinary times. Training until it becomes a habit, as if it had become muscle memory, any movement or technique can be executed directly without going through the brain. This means that it does not take the route of the mind consciousness's deliberation; at such times the mind consciousness is not used for—but is there still time? It is like on a battlefield where the enemy's swords, spears, and halberds are pointed at you—could you still scratch your head and ponder countermeasures? The deliberation and analysis of the mind consciousness are only for use after the competition or the battle is over; they are useful when summarizing experience afterward. Even during training itself they are hardly needed. Once you know how to train, just train according to the method. Only when the training has become proficient and the technique has passed muster can one go participate in competition. Competition relies on the techniques and skills developed through training, on the proficiency of the manas—not on lucky on-the-spot improvisation, thinking up countermeasures on the spot.

So does the manas have mental activity during the tense process of responding? Of course it has mental activity, and extremely fast and silent at that. Not only do the five universal mental factors link together ring upon ring, the five particular mental factors also follow closely and appear constantly. The most prominent are the concentration mental factor and the wisdom mental factor. Without concentration there is no focus; with the slightest distraction or stray thought, the movements become disordered, the opponent seizes the opening, and the match is lost. At such times the wisdom of the mind consciousness can hardly exert any force; everything relies on the wisdom of the manas. If the manas has no wisdom, one flails about in panic, unable to respond normally to various situations—then what would be the point of competing at all?

It is the same when we actually cultivate contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of the Buddha's Dharma. The mind consciousness positions the manas onto the dharma being contemplated, carrying the knowing of the object of contemplation, settled on the dharma; the rest is the manas's direct perception (pratyakṣa) observation. For example, in observing a flower, just keep gazing at the flower and observe it—just look, and there is no need to use the mind consciousness to analyze and imagine: what variety this flower is, where it was grown, its form and colors, whether it is beautiful, whether it will bloom again, whether it can still grow, what would happen if it were given to so-and-so, and so on. All these miscellaneous thoughts should be entirely strangled and extinguished. Still less should one forcibly draw a subjective conclusion based on theories one has learned, saying: this flower is subject to arising and ceasing, illusory, empty; it is manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; it uses the four or five great seeds; it is generated by relying on such-and-such conditions. One has not even managed to observe—how can a conclusion already be drawn? So many extraneous matters—what benefit is there in them?

Just observe with the manas alone. Whatever there is, observe it. Do not imagine, infer, or analyze. Until you have clearly observed the phenomena of arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing of the object of contemplation, until the dharma before your eyes no longer has any reality, and samādhi appears—then you have realized emptiness and no-self. So just how strong is the power of wisdom (prajñā-bala) of the manas? Is it still that manas of inferior wisdom? With inferior wisdom, how could one carry out contemplative practice? How could one know the arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing of dharmas? How could one realize the Path? By now, what mental factors the manas has and does not have should all be clear, shouldn't they?