mana: conceit, pride, the eighth fetter
This is generally translated as "conceit" or "pride". "Conceit" means "an exalted conception of self worth". Mana is both gross and subtle. It appears as asmi-mana, the conceit of "I am": i.e. "I exist as a separate physical or mental entity". It is an underlying tendency (anusaya) to compare oneself with others in ways where one is identifying oneself with own mind or own body. Comparison is in itself not the fetter. I can say "I am bigger than he is or older or speak more French" but these may be simple conventional matters of fact, similar to "He has red hair, I have brown" or even "His hair is redder than mine". It is when I identify with something which may or may not be a fact, but which I grasp after as belonging in some way to me personally, that the fetter arises.
It arises in three forms: I am better than him, I am equal to him; I am not as good as him. Each of these may be matters of fact. One needs to be aware of the mental state that accompanies them to see if there is any trace of self-exaltation or self-satisfaction. One often meets people who are insistent that they are not as good as someone (Jesus perhaps. Or Joe DiMaggio.). This may well be true but, if they take undue satisfaction in their humility, it will, on examination, be found to be not humility at all but inverted pride.
It is clear that mana depends upon duality. Using the Universal Octopus, one can see that a tentacle is comparing itself to another tentacle.
New Project: The Ninth Sanyojana
(See Sanyojana The Buddha's Doctrine of the THE FETTERS)
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