The Difference Between the Manas and the Thoughts of the Mind Consciousness (2024-04-24)

Ven. Shi Ruyuan: I am generally in the moment just after waking, when the conscious mind has not yet intended to discriminate things, at the very instant when the sound of the Buddha's name has just arisen in my mind, that I hear the sound of reciting the Buddha's name clearly, at a time when the first five consciousnesses have not yet emerged to discriminate. Because I recollect the Buddha in meditative concentration, when the manas is in samādhi, it can keep the whole household from grasping at conditions and from fabricating. In dreams, too, it is all the manas grasping at conditions, while the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) discerns the dream unclearly, with only a hazy feeling—when this delusive thought dwells on good things, good scenes appear; when the thought turns to whether this might be something bad, bad things immediately appear. Is this the phenomenon of the solitary consciousness's mental activity transforming the environment? When the solitary consciousness has not awakened from the dream, it is grasping at conditions along with the manas and discerning the dream, and there are no first five consciousnesses—is that correct or not?

Comment: There is a distinction between discrimination and discernment; they cannot be used casually. Discernment is when the conscious mind, at its initial arising, passively corresponds to sense objects; "discern" means to understand clearly, in the sense of knowing roughly. Discrimination comes after discernment, actively distinguishing the sense objects, with subtle mental activity and wisdom involved—a deeper level. Just upon waking, the mind consciousness hazily corresponds to mental sense objects; at this time it should be called discernment—it does not yet have the ability to discriminate, nor the ability to intend; if there is any intending, it is the manas's intending. As soon as the first five consciousnesses appear, the solitary consciousness transforms into the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses (pañcavijñāna-sahagata-manovijñāna), discerning the six sense objects together with the five consciousnesses.

Just upon waking, the solitary consciousness hears the sound of reciting the Buddha's name—this is the manas reciting the Buddha's name. The manas may have been reciting the Buddha's name all night; when there was no mind consciousness, the mind consciousness did not know, and only upon waking did it find out, mistakenly assuming that the sound of reciting the Buddha's name had just arisen—but in fact it had not. The manas's recitation of the Buddha's name is soundless; there is a thought of reciting the Buddha's name, and the mind is entirely on the Buddha. After the mind consciousness discerns it, it converts the manas's soundless recitation into a voiced recitation; that is, the mind consciousness interprets the manas's recitation. In actuality, the recitation the mind consciousness hears is soundless; when it is interpreted and discerned, the recitation becomes a voiced mental sense-object corresponding to the mind consciousness.

Within a dream, whatever can transform the dream must be the manas; the solitary consciousness's mental activity is all passive, turning along with the manas and controlled by the manas, unable to transform the environment. Therefore in dreams, when the manas has good thoughts, the dream scenery becomes good; when the manas has bad thoughts, the dream scenery becomes bad. If the solitary consciousness has thoughts, they are also passive thoughts arising in compliance with the manas, and cannot transform the dream; usually it serves the function of discerning the dream.