Evidence that the Manas Has Three Kinds of Feeling (V)

The mind of neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā) dwells nowhere and clings to nothing with regard to all pleasant and unpleasant states; toward all states it is equal and uniform, neither delighted nor averse, neither greedy nor hateful. Such a mind is the liberated mind, the tranquil mind, the unconditioned mind. The eighth consciousness is just like this: the mind dwells nowhere and clings to nothing, without hatred or delight, equal and uniform, immovable in suchness (tathatā-acalita) toward all states, completely in neutral feeling. If the manas were of neutral feeling, it would be equal and uniform toward all dharmas just like the tathāgatagarbha, immovable in suchness toward all states, without hatred or delight, without greed, hatred, and delusion, tranquil and liberated. If that were so, sentient beings would no longer need to cultivate and seek liberation. Therefore it is said that the manas is not solely of neutral feeling; it also has feelings of suffering and happiness. The manas can receive the perfuming of wholesome and unwholesome influences and create wholesome and unwholesome karma, so it is not of neutral feeling. Sentient beings have all kinds of afflictions of greed and hatred, which shows that the manas is not of neutral feeling. The eighth consciousness never gives rise to greed or hatred toward any dharma—only this is the mind of neutral feeling.

The Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, Volume Sixty-three, discusses that the manas possesses all three kinds of feeling: 又诸转识。或于一时。一切唯与乐受相应。俱有而转。或于一时。亦有苦受。或于一时。亦有不苦不乐等受。相应俱转。阿赖耶识相应受。于一切时唯是不苦不乐. This passage discusses the feelings of the eight consciousnesses: only the Ālayavijñāna is of neutral feeling, while the other transforming consciousnesses all have three kinds of feeling. The transforming consciousnesses refer to the seven flowing consciousnesses. Here it says that the seven transforming consciousnesses are sometimes associated with pleasant feeling, sometimes with painful feeling, and sometimes with neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling.

The more one cultivates, the less emotional one becomes, and the more one accords with neutral feeling. The last of the seven factors of enlightenment is the factor of equanimity: the mind and its states are extremely peaceful, without fluctuation; whatever state one encounters, one remains calm, the mind like still water. Here there is the neutral feeling of the mind consciousness as well as the neutral feeling of the manas; if the manas were not of neutral feeling, the mind consciousness could not be of neutral feeling. Even after the manas has transformed consciousness into wisdom, it is not of neutral feeling at all times; there are still emotional moments, only fewer and milder than before. Because arhats have eradicated the grasping on self and removed the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, their minds are plain and calm most of the time, but not at all times in neutral feeling; they also have feelings of suffering and happiness. After the mind consciousness has eradicated afflictions and transformed consciousness into wisdom, neutral feeling grows ever greater, emotionality ever less, and feelings of suffering and happiness ever fewer. However great the suffering, arhats generally do not feel it as suffering; however great the pleasure, arhats do not regard it as pleasure, because they have no greed or craving.

But the manas of arhats still has feelings of suffering and happiness; otherwise they would not avoid the suffering of the Sahā world and choose Nirvāṇa without remainder, choosing to leave suffering and attain happiness. If the manas of an arhat did not feel the suffering of the world of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha), it would not extinguish the body and terminate consciousness, entering nirvāṇa at all costs to eliminate suffering in pursuit of coolness and happiness. In the Small Vehicle, one cultivates the Four Noble Truths of suffering, its origin, cessation, and the path; after the mind consciousness completes this cultivation, it perfumes the manas, and together with the manas realizes suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path. Therefore the manas, like the mind consciousness, must also know suffering and sever its origin, yearning for cessation, cultivating the path (nirodhābhiprāya-mārga-bhāvanā); in the end the manas will know suffering and sever its origin, hoping through cultivating the path to extinguish itself. From this one can see that the manas knows suffering; because it has the feeling of suffering in its mind, it can resolutely sever the origin of suffering.

Only with profound meditative concentration (samādhi), contemplating and practicing the Buddha's teachings, can one contemplate and practice one's way to the truth of reality; then genuine wisdom will arise, and only then can one truly rely on the Dharma rather than on certain authorities or famous figures. Without meditative concentration, unable to contemplate and practice, one invariably relies on persons rather than on the Dharma. Reciting the words of others all belongs to relying on persons, whereas relying on the Dharma means relying on the truth of reality. The truth of reality must be contemplated and worked out through contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) within meditative concentration; it is by no means reciting famous sayings and quotations like a parroting machine. Nowadays the internet is full of parroting machines everywhere, and each person is still smugly self-satisfied, thinking how learned they are, how much they know, how rich their knowledge is—as if their learning filled five carts. But no matter how many carts of learning one has, it has nothing whatsoever to do with birth and death; knowledge cannot liberate one from birth and death, because knowledge is a conditioned dharma subject to arising and ceasing.