Preface to the Manas and Mental Factors

Modern science, including psychology, is based on hypotheses, supplemented by experiments, and uses logical reasoning, deduction, and induction. When the conclusions of deduction and induction ultimately match the experimental results, achievements are produced. This is still hypothesis and experiment unrelated to religion; of course, if the researchers have religious faith, that is another matter. If they had religious faith, they might not have been able to produce such achievements at all, because they would have been bound hand and foot by thousands of years of religious worship. Religion does not allow surpassing one's predecessors. Once someone is regarded as a great master, that person becomes the absolute benchmark, forever correct; even what is wrong is considered right. Later generations can only prostrate in worship at their feet, and all their wisdom is suppressed, their talents and intelligence sealed off. Their views, thoughts, and ideas absolutely cannot conflict with those of the great masters of the past, much less surpass or break through them.

The reason why people of aspiration and resolve outside religion have produced one achievement after another is precisely that they are not constrained by authority. Western psychology not only has clear and profound theory, but also emphasizes application—applied to sociology, theology, medicine, physical and mental development, and so on—with astonishing results. Our Buddhist community, however, is not like this. The Buddhist community has always valued fame and authority. As soon as someone gains a great reputation, they acquire a secure status and prestige, and sentient beings enshrine them as a deity. They no longer have the rationality to use their own minds to think about anything, because blind worship has imprisoned and sealed off their brains, making breakthrough realization impossible. In this way, the errors of predecessors continue on into future lives, causing sentient beings, who already lack wisdom, to become even more foolish.

In Consciousness-Only, the content concerning the manas and the mental factors (caitta) is such that, because the vast majority of people have no actual realization and cannot directly perceive the manas, and lack the ability to discriminate such profound dharma meanings, they have also imbibed some vague theoretical knowledge from various sources. They then feel they already understand it, and regardless of whether what they have learned is right or wrong, they set it up as a lever and a yardstick, measuring everything everywhere, cutting the feet to fit the shoes. In this way, they make the Consciousness-Only theory—the essence of the Buddhadharma—even more obscure, blinding many people’s eyes, and no one can walk out of the mistaken path. Direct contemplative observation of Consciousness-Only and the manas is the realm of wisdom of bodhisattvas on the grounds (bhūmis). Even enlightened bodhisattvas in the three worthy stages cannot achieve direct observation; they can only understand it analogously to some extent. How much less can ordinary beings, who are still immeasurably far from enlightenment, directly observe the functioning of the manas.

The mental factors of the manas are very difficult to verify. However, some of its contents—because one has studied and practiced for a long time, can distinguish the difference between the mind consciousness (manovijñāna) and the manas, and with the addition of meditative concentration—should not be too difficult to directly observe a small portion of the manas’ functions. Although these belong to the seed-wisdom portion of Consciousness-Only, as long as someone can provide correct guidance, with correct theoretical direction, plus meditative concentration and the wisdom of contemplative practice, actual realization is still possible. Secular psychologists have a certain degree of observational wisdom and have reached relatively reasonable conclusions—how much more so for us Buddhist disciples who study the Mahāyāna Dharma?

Those whose meditative concentration and wisdom are relatively deep, and who are unwilling to be imprisoned by authority, can also, under the guidance of a good spiritual friend who possesses the wisdom of direct observation, contemplatively observe a portion of the mind activities of the manas. As long as one has grasped the basic concepts and logical framework, and has strong meditative concentration, one can clarify the mind consciousness and the manas by observing the psychology of oneself and others. This is not too difficult. The key issue is that Buddhists today generally have insufficient concentration, and even less wisdom, which makes it rather difficult. Researchers in various fields of worldly knowledge who have a spirit of inquiry actually have fairly good concentration when exploring, which is why they can produce some results. If only they could faithfully accept the tathāgatagarbha Dharma and then realize the tathāgatagarbha, their wisdom would be extraordinary. But they lack good roots and merit, do not take refuge in the Buddha’s gate, do not take refuge in the Three Jewels, cannot correctly believe in the Buddhadharma, and thus cannot grasp the principle of neither arising nor ceasing.

Those who possess the seed-wisdom of Consciousness-Only can organically integrate the Buddhadharma with all areas of social life, can also distill the Buddhadharma from social life, and can use Consciousness-Only theory to effectively solve problems existing in real life, serving humanity and society with the Buddhadharma. The Buddhadharma touches every aspect of social life—especially the study of Consciousness-Only—and it is impossible for it to be separated from these worldly dharmas. Once separated from the worldly realm, there is no Buddhadharma and no Consciousness-Only. Current researchers of Consciousness-Only are divorced from reality; they do not correspond it to the physical and mental worlds of themselves and sentient beings. They only know how to recite texts and follow inherited theoretical knowledge, and cannot even grasp the psychological states of themselves and others. Thus, the profound Dharma of Consciousness-Only can never be actually realized.