The Reasons Why the Manas Must Be Discussed More in the Present Age

As for the manas, śrāvakas only need to understand it simply: the manas is one of the six faculties, and it is the dominant condition (adhipati-pratyaya) for the arising of the mind consciousness—that is all they need to know. They only need to know that the manas is also subject to arising, ceasing, and change; there is no need to understand too much. Mahāyāna bodhisattvas, likewise, do not need to know much about the manas before seeing their true mind, and in the initial stage right after awakening to the true mind—before passing through mirage contemplation—they also do not need to know much about the manas.

However, in the Dharma-ending age, especially at the present stage, because sentient beings study and practice with a mindset eager for quick success and instant benefit, their minds are restless and agitated; they have no meditative concentration (samādhi) and cannot cultivate it. They often take their intellectual understanding by the mind consciousness as enlightenment, or take the interpretive awakening of the mind consciousness as enlightenment. The future karmic retribution for this is fearsome. Therefore, in the present era, the manas must be taught extensively, to prevent the embarrassing phenomenon of mistaking understanding for realization from growing ever more common, to prevent the phenomenon of "empty talk but an unemptied mind" from becoming ever more severe, and to prevent the superficial and hollow phenomena within Buddhism from worsening. Once the Buddha-Dharma degenerates, later generations will have nothing to rely upon. Teaching the manas so that everyone can distinguish the difference between interpretive awakening and realization is to address an urgent need, to prevent the disorder within Buddhism from growing ever heavier, and to prevent Buddhism from perishing prematurely. It is a measure adopted out of necessity.

Quite a few people neither want to properly uphold the precepts, fearing restraint, nor want to laboriously cultivate meditative concentration, being fond of ease and averse to effort. They do not want to transform their own dispositions or eradicate ignorance and afflictions; they only want to quickly obtain the final fruit and become noble ones, so as to enjoy boundless glory—unaware that pies never fall from the sky. If there were such a good deal, why would Śākyamuni Buddha and the Buddhas of the ten directions not let sentient beings know of it, and instead teach the precepts, concentration, and wisdom, and the bodhisattva's six perfections, making sentient beings cultivate so painstakingly? What could be the intent behind this?