Is the Mind Faculty (Manas) a Neutral Feeling?

The mind of neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā) dwells with the mind abiding nowhere and attaching to nothing toward all favorable and unfavorable 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 exactly like this: the mind abides nowhere and attaches 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, then, like the tathāgatagarbha, it would be equal and uniform toward all dharmas, 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. That sentient beings have all kinds of afflictions of greed and hatred 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。 Here the feelings of the eight consciousnesses are discussed: only the Ālayavijñāna is of neutral feeling, while all the other transforming consciousnesses 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 cultivated one is, the fewer emotions one has, and the more one corresponds to neutral feeling. The last of the seven factors of enlightenment is the factor of equanimity: the mind-state is 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 of neutral feeling; they also have feelings of suffering and happiness. After the mind consciousness eradicates afflictions and transforms consciousness into wisdom, neutral feeling increases more and more, emotionality decreases more and more, and feelings of suffering and happiness grow fewer and 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 craving and attachment.

But the manas of arhats still has feelings of suffering and happiness; otherwise they would not flee the suffering of the Sahā world and choose Nirvāṇa without remainder, choosing to leave suffering and attain happiness. If the arhat's manas did not feel the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) and the world as suffering, they would not discard the body and extinguish consciousness, entering nirvāṇa regardless of everything, extinguishing suffering and seeking coolness and happiness. In the Small Vehicle's cultivation of the Four Noble Truths of suffering, origin, cessation, and path, once the mind consciousness has finished cultivating them, it perfumes the manas, and together with the manas realizes suffering, origin, cessation, and path. Therefore the manas, like the mind consciousness, must also know suffering and cut off the origin, yearning for cessation, cultivating the path (nirodhābhiprāya-mārga-bhāvanā). In the end the manas knows suffering and cuts off the origin, hoping through cultivating the path to extinguish itself. From this it can be seen that the manas must know suffering and have the feeling of suffering in order to resolutely cut off the origin.

Only with profound meditative concentration (samādhi), contemplating and practicing (vipaśyanā-caryā) the Buddha's Dharma, can one contemplate and practice to the truth of reality, and then genuine wisdom will arise; only then can one truly rely on the Dharma rather than on certain authorities and celebrities. Without meditative concentration, unable to contemplate and deliberate, one invariably relies on persons rather than on the Dharma. Reciting other people's words 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 deliberated out within meditative concentration; it is absolutely not a matter of reciting famous sayings and quotations like a parroting machine. Nowadays the internet is full of parroting machines, and each person is still smugly pleased with themselves, thinking how learned they are, how much they know, how rich their knowledge is—simply "learning that fills five carts." But even if the learning filled a hundred carts, it would have nothing to do with birth and death, and could not liberate one from birth and death.