Do those who have severed self-grasping still have thoughts?

After eradicating the grasping at self, there still remain some thoughts concerning one's own survival and livelihood. When dealing with people, it is impossible to have no thoughts; when encountering various states, thoughts about how to handle them will arise, and thoughts will also arise when expounding the Dharma to sentient beings in accordance with conditions. These thoughts are relatively pure and slight, all of a nature that accords with conditions, without deliberately contrived thoughts, and are not thoughts that grasp strongly at the self or the like. When the Buddha came into the world, He also had thoughts, and those thoughts were all pure, selfless, and without partiality, with nothing that He grasped at. Because the mental factors of all the consciousnesses include the mental factor of thought (vitarka-related mental factor), thoughts inevitably appear in the operation of the consciousnesses.

However, there is a great difference between the thoughts of a person who has eradicated grasping at self and one who has not. Thoughts can reveal whether a person has attachments: the thoughts of one who has attachments are intense, while the thoughts of one without attachments are slight, and the state of mind is easygoing and accords with conditions.

For one who has eradicated grasping at self, there are no longer any thoughts about future lives; such a person will not make arrangements or plans for future lives. Of course, in this life he lives in accordance with conditions, coping with everything around him, with no more pursuits—living one day at a time, not contending with others. Regarding the matter of delivering sentient beings, he likewise accords with conditions: when there is a karmic connection, he expounds some Dharma; when there is none, he does not think about it. In short, most of his thoughts arise under compulsion, and he rarely actively generates any thoughts.

Under this coping mentality, the thoughts of the mind consciousness are evident, while those of the manas are very faint. Because the thoughts of the manas are faint and few, the thoughts of the mind consciousness are also few and slight, mostly passive. Since the manas has no major ideas or designs, there are no dreams; in daily life one is calm and at ease, with a peaceful state of mind.