The Realization of the Manas Is Far More Difficult Than the Understanding of the Mind Consciousness

(6) The mind consciousness must constantly permeate and influence the manas, in the hope of changing the manas's inherent cognition and views. For the mind consciousness, understanding all dharmas is not difficult; the difficulty lies in the manas's understanding and cognition, so changing the manas's views is extremely difficult. Yet once the manas's views are changed, attaining the fruits of realization becomes something easily within reach, and seeing the mind, realizing one's nature, and accomplishing various contemplative practices (vipaśyanā-caryā) all become easily attainable as well. Once the manas attains the fruit of realization, its views and ways of thinking are instantly transformed.

The mind consciousness understanding first and then permeating the manas is the prerequisite; the subsequent work—namely, the most essential work—is to let the manas personally investigate and deliberate (manasikāra/manana). Only after that can there be personal realization; without this procedure, everything is mere intellectual understanding.

An ancient saying goes:「三岁孩子说得，八十老翁做不得。」Some people can speak at the level of a Buddha's realm, taking the Buddha's realization as their own; but by the time they have truly realized and accomplished it themselves, they have already become Buddhas. This means that understanding a problem is extremely easy, whereas truly realizing it is difficult beyond difficulty. Therefore sages are rare, exceedingly rare—not like some people who read a couple of books, understand a bit, and then a sage appears out of nowhere.