THE DOUBLE ROLE OF THE MIND (MANAS) The five classes of consciousness which created within us the impression of an a solid outside world, separate from the I, the consciousness of sight, hearing, smell, taste, tactile and mental give rise to the seam of consciousness which solidifies within us the idea of a continuous self. The observation of this continuity is what gives rise to our self- consciousness, which is described by the Vijnanavadins as a function of manas, the seventh class of consciousness, which is thus distinguished from the mere co-ordinating and integrating of sense-impressions in the thought-consciousness ( mano-vijnana). Thus the object of the seventh class of consciousness (manas) is not the sense-world, but that ever-flowing stream of becoming or depth-consciousness, which is neither limited by birth and death nor by individual forms of appearance. For, since birth and death are only the communicating doors between one life and another, the continuous stream of consciousness flowing through them does not only contain on its surface the causally conditioned states of existence, but the totality of all possible states of conscious- ness, the sum total of all experiences of a beginningless past, which is identical with a limitless future. It is the emanation and manifestation of the basic universal consciousness, which the Vijanavadins called the eighth or Store-Consciousness (alaya-vijana). In the Lankavatra-Sutra the sixth consciousness (mano-vijnana) is defined as intellectual consciousness, which sorts out and judges the results of the five kinds of sense-consciousness, followed by attraction or repulsion and the illusion of an objective world to which one gets bound by action. The universal consciousness, on the other hand, is compared to the ocean, on the surface of which currents, waves and whirlpools are formed, while its depth remains motionless, unperturbed, pure and clear. The Universal Mind (alaya-vijana) transcends all individuation and limits. Universal Mind is thoroughly pure in its essential nature, subsisting unchanged and free from faults of impermanence, undisturbed by egoism, unruffled by distinctions, desires and aversions. Mediating between the universal and the individual-intellectual consciousness is the spiritual consciousness (manas), which takes part in both sides. It represents the stabilizing element of the mind, the central point of balance, upholding the coherence of its contents by being the centre of reference. But for the same reason it is also the cause for the conception of egohood in the unenlightened individual, who mistakes .this relative point of reference. for the real and permanent centre of his personality. This is what the Mahayana- Samparigmha-Sastra calls the defiled mind (klista manas) the nature of which consists in an uninterrupted process of ego-creating thought or egocentric discrimination -while the Lankavatara-Sutra shows the positive and intuitive side of manas, consisting in its liberating knowledge: Intuitive-mind (manas) is one with Universal Mind (alaya-vijnana) by reason of its participation in Transcendental Intelligence (arya- jnana) and is one with the mind-system (the five senses and the intellect) by its comprehension of differentiated knowledge (according to the six classes of vijnana). Intuitive-mind has no body of its own nor any marks by which it can be differentiated. Universal mind is its cause and support but it is evolved along with the notion of an ego and what belongs to it, to which it clings and upon which it reflects. When it is said that manas has no body of its own and is one with the universal as well as with the individual empirical consciousness, manas can only be conceived as the overlapping of the universal and the individual empirical consciousness. This also explains the double character of manas which, though being without characteristics of its own, becomes a source of error if it is directed from the universal towards the individual or self-consciousness, while in the experience of the opposite direction, from the individual towards the universal, it becomes a source of highest knowledge (ii1ya-jfitina). The difference in the effect of these two directions may be compared to the vision of a man, who observes the manifold forms and colours of a landscape and feels himself different from it (as I and here) - and the vision of another one who gazes into the depth of the firmament, which frees him of all object-perception and thus from the awareness of his own self as well, because he is only conscious of the infinity of space or of emptiness. His I here loses its position through lack of contrast or opposition, finding neither anything_ to grasp nor from which to differentiate itself. Manas is that element of our consciousness which holds the balance between the empirical-individual qualities on the one side and the universal-spiritual qualities on the other. It is that which either binds us to the world of the senses or which liberates us from it. It is the base metal of the alchemists, which through magic power· (siddhi) is turned into gold, the coal that is turned into diamond, the poison that is transformed into the Elixir of Life. An extract from Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism, by Lama Anargarika Govinda.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 14:34:37 +0000
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