The World of Black Boxes
Chapter 7 The Relationship Between Manas and the Black Box
I. Manas is the Supreme Commander and Dispatcher Within the Black Box
Manas is the sovereign consciousness, exercising authority over the five aggregates body. Most dharmas within the five aggregates body are concentrated within the subtle sense faculties (the black box). The internal five faculties, the internal six sense objects, plus the six consciousnesses—all these are subordinate to manas, belong to manas, and obey its arrangements and dispatch. If manas wishes to see forms, it dispatches the eye consciousness and mental consciousness to see forms; manas then perceives along with them, but does not guarantee freedom from erroneous perception. If manas wishes to hear sounds, it dispatches the ear consciousness and mental consciousness to hear; manas then hears along with them, but does not guarantee freedom from mishearing.
If manas wishes to smell scents, it dispatches the nose consciousness and mental consciousness to smell; manas then smells along with them, but does not guarantee freedom from erroneous smelling. If manas wishes to taste flavors, it dispatches the tongue consciousness and mental consciousness to taste; manas then tastes along with them, but does not guarantee freedom from erroneous tasting. If manas wishes to feel tactile sensations, it dispatches the body consciousness and mental consciousness to feel; manas then feels along with them, but does not guarantee freedom from erroneous sensation. If manas wishes to engage in mental wandering or fanciful thought, it dispatches the solitary mental consciousness to roam freely; manas then roams along with it, but does not guarantee the thoughts are correct, nor that they correspond to actual objective reality.
The reasons for errors are manifold: (1) Problems with the subtle sense faculties cause the six sense objects falling into them to become distorted and deformed, preventing the six consciousnesses from correctly recognizing them, leading manas to misperceive. (2) The six consciousnesses are scattered and coarse, their discernment insufficiently detailed or clear, leading manas to misperceive. (3) Manas itself is heavily obscured by afflictions, preventing the six consciousnesses from discerning clearly and accurately, making misperception easy. (4) Manas is mentally deranged or frenzied, dwelling in a delusional realm unwilling to emerge, resulting in erroneous recognition of all objective realms. (5) Problems with the five physical sense faculties cause the sense objects transmitted through them along the sensory pathways to become deformed and unreal; the six consciousnesses discern erroneously, causing manas to misperceive.
II. Manas' Rapid and Sensitive Response in Special Circumstances
Why is manas able to react extremely quickly in urgent, special circumstances and major events, finishing the response before the mental consciousness even has time to consider anything? Because manas can not only perceive the six sense objects falling into the subtle sense faculties, but also perceive the six sense objects outside the subtle sense faculties that are about to enter them. Before these sense objects enter the five physical sense faculties, manas, along with the ālaya-vijñāna (storehouse consciousness), perceives them. When they enter the five physical sense faculties and are transmitted along the neural pathways, manas can still perceive them. When they enter the cerebral cortex, manas can still perceive them. Finally, when they enter the subtle sense faculties, manas can perceive them even more clearly. Manas also controls the cerebral cortex tissue outside the subtle sense faculties, thus enabling it to perceive the six sense objects passing through the cerebral cortex.
Since manas can perceive the sense objects during the transmission process, it becomes alert to some special and significant sense objects. If it detects a special situation and, based on experience, knows it is harmful, it should take evasive action or handle it urgently. When the sense objects enter the subtle sense faculties, manas immediately decides how to handle them. The six consciousnesses are then instantly born and handle and respond according to manas' instructions, without allowing the mental consciousness to deliberate or consider further; the six consciousnesses complete the processing. Afterwards, the solitary mental consciousness recalls and contemplates the occurrence and outcome of the entire event.
III. Which Sense Objects Do Manas and Mental Consciousness Correspond To?
Manas is both an internal consciousness and an external consciousness. It can discern all internal appearance-forms within the subtle sense faculties and external appearance-forms outside them. As long as it is a dharma manifested by the eighth consciousness based on the essential objective realm, manas, relying on the eighth consciousness, can perceive and discern it, including the five sense objects realms. Mental consciousness, however, is only an internal consciousness; it can only perceive the mental objects (dharmas) within the subtle sense faculties and cannot perceive other sense objects realms, except when possessing psychic powers.
When the eighth consciousness perceives the essential objective realm, it apprehends the four great elements particles from that realm, immediately transforms them into appearance-forms resembling the essential objective realm, and then transmits them along the pathway into the subtle sense faculties, becoming internal appearance-forms. This transmission passes through many mediating substances all the way to the five physical sense faculties. The part before reaching the five physical sense faculties belongs to the external sense objects, external realms, and external appearance-forms. How many layers of appearance-forms does the external realm have in total? Passing through one mediating substance forms one layer of external realm appearance-forms, and this sense object appearance-form changes once. Passing through another mediating substance, the sense object appearance-form changes again. The more mediating substances passed through, the more changes occur. So, how many layers of external appearance-forms are there? There are as many layers as there are mediating substances.
Then, when the appearance-forms are transmitted to the five physical sense faculties, they pass through the transmission nerves of these faculties towards the subtle sense faculties. The appearance-forms before reaching the subtle sense faculties still belong to external appearance-forms, or are in a state of being half-external and half-internal appearance-forms. The mediating substance at this stage is the five physical sense faculties, causing the external sense objects to change once more. Before this, manas continuously perceives and discerns all the appearance-forms manifested by the eighth consciousness along this entire path. This demonstrates that manas can discern this continuously transmitted and changing realm of external appearance-forms, whereas the six consciousnesses have not yet arisen and certainly cannot discern them. How far away from the subtle sense faculties are the external appearance-forms discerned by manas? As far as the distance from the sense faculties to the essential objective realm, very close to the essential objective realm.
The internal appearance-forms discerned by mental consciousness are relatively far from the essential objective realm and also some distance from the five physical sense faculties; it can only discern the appearance-forms within the subtle sense faculties. The appearance-forms and sense objects before the subtle sense faculties are unknown to the six consciousnesses. The dharmas known by the six consciousnesses are extremely narrow, while the dharmas known by manas are very numerous and extensive, and the timing of its knowing is also much earlier than that of mental consciousness. Therefore, when encountering special events, we have sudden reactions and responses before we can even think—this is manas discerning first and making the decision. At this time, even without mental consciousness, manas, discerning alone, knows the general situation and can also judge the impact of the event on oneself. If the impact would be significant, manas will react first.
After reacting, the appearance-forms and sense objects have already been transmitted to the subtle sense faculties. The six consciousnesses immediately appear and handle the sense objects according to manas' intention. Only afterwards does mental consciousness realize what just happened. This is the result of manas discerning the external six sense objects first. When manas discerns the external appearance-forms, it may discern all of them; manas knows the entire process of the external sense objects' transmission. Therefore, its decision was already made long before; afterwards, the six consciousnesses appear and make a very rapid response and reaction according to manas' decision.
IV. Manas' Emergency Response
For example, while driving, if one suddenly encounters a car rushing head-on and a collision is imminent, the driver suddenly swerves sharply to avoid the oncoming car, preventing a crash. Then, upon mental consciousness recalling, one realizes what happened and breaks out in a cold sweat. Just now, when mental consciousness was unaware of the situation, manas decided to swerve sharply to avoid it.
Why was manas able to make this decision so quickly? Because the sense object of the oncoming car was discerned by manas before it was transmitted into the subtle sense faculties; manas had already made a choice in its mind. When the sense object of the oncoming car was transmitted into the subtle sense faculties, manas immediately decided to turn the wheel. Mental consciousness had no time to think or discern carefully; without understanding the situation, it was mobilized by manas to perform the turning operation along with the body consciousness. If manas had not discerned the six sense objects outside the subtle sense faculties, it would only perceive them when they were transmitted into the subtle sense faculties. Then, after deliberating and deciding, it would be too late to avoid the car, and a collision would be inevitable.
For example, if boiling water suddenly scalds one's hand, mental consciousness has no time to think anything; one instantly flings the hand away. Manas' discernment of the boiling water and the scenario of water droplets splashing begins at the cerebral cortex, or even when it just enters the five physical sense faculties, or even before it enters them. Consequently, as soon as the sense object of the boiling water enters the subtle sense faculties, it instantly causes the body consciousness and mental consciousness to dodge or fling it away, avoiding scalding the skin.
The sense objects of the body faculty must also be transmitted into the subtle sense faculties, including the tactile object of scalding heat. When the hand contacts the scalding tactile object, these appearances enter the subtle sense faculties, instantly giving birth to body consciousness and mental consciousness to handle this matter. There are many such examples; the general process is mostly similar, and the principle is the same. All demonstrate that the scope controlled by manas is vast, far exceeding the range touched by the mental consciousness and the six consciousnesses.
V. Manas' Supreme Command Headquarters
Manas is a special faculty. It is both a faculty and a consciousness. As a faculty, it differs from the first five material faculties; it is an immaterial faculty. As a consciousness, it is the sovereign consciousness, possessing the intrinsic nature of constant examination and deliberation, clinging to all things, and acting as master everywhere. Since beginningless kalpas, it has coexisted with the eighth consciousness. Since manas can constantly and everywhere act as master and commander, where is its supreme command headquarters?
Manas moves the whole body by pulling a single hair; its headquarters for pulling that single hair is located in the cerebrum and cerebellum. However, the various important internal organs of the body are not manas' headquarters; they are solely upheld and operated by the ālaya-vijñāna. Although manas can come into contact with them, it cannot directly regulate or act as master over them. For example: heartbeat, respiration, blood pressure, pulse, body temperature, gastrointestinal peristalsis, and the secretion of digestive glands, etc., are not controlled by manas. Therefore, the internal organs are not manas' headquarters.
However, changes in the emotional state of manas and mental consciousness can indirectly affect the operation of these organs. For instance, phenomena like anger harming the liver, joy harming the heart, grief harming the lungs, overthinking harming the spleen, fear harming the kidneys, etc. Also, when manas is emotionally agitated, it can cause a sudden rise in blood pressure and accelerated heart rate. When manas is excessively worried, it can inhibit gastrointestinal peristalsis and antagonize the secretion of digestive fluids, leading to gastrointestinal diseases. The organs of the peripheral nervous system connected to the cranial nerves are governed by manas. For example: moving the eyeballs, blinking, sniffing, sticking out the tongue, wiggling the ears, making faces, smacking the lips, whistling, puffing out or sucking in the stomach, expanding or contracting the chest, extending the limbs, etc.
Manas primarily controls the operation of the six consciousnesses. The six consciousnesses arise based on the six sense objects within the black box. The five sense objects within the black box reside in five different areas of the subtle sense faculties. The five consciousnesses arise in their respective corresponding five areas. The sense-field mental consciousnesses (accompanying the five senses) arise respectively in the five sense-fields of form. Manas, located in the cerebrum and cerebellum, acts as master, regulating and commanding. Manas uses the various sensory and functional areas of the cerebral and cerebellar cortex as its command center, exercising regulatory functions over vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, as well as language, thought, movement, balance, etc. It is evident that the black box is manas' supreme command headquarters. Manas also regulates in the cerebral cortex, the forehead area, and the forebrain area. The cerebral cortex is the outermost layer, receiving material signals and information first. Manas receives the information first, reacts first, and only then does mental consciousness react. Therefore, manas is the most sensitive and the subtlest, difficult to observe, surpassing mental consciousness.
The six sense objects outside the subtle sense faculties are called external sense objects. Apart from the essential objective realm, manas can perceive them all, accompanying the ālaya-vijñāna. When external sense objects enter the brain's subtle sense faculties and become internal sense objects, manas can still perceive them. Manas can perceive both internal and external sense objects and can decide whether detailed discernment is necessary, thereby regulating the six consciousnesses. Mental consciousness, however, can only contact internal mental objects; its scope is very limited, and thus its knowledge of dharmas is finite. Therefore, the knowing of mental consciousness cannot compare to that of manas. Manas knows many dharmas that mental consciousness does not know, so mental consciousness' understanding of manas is extremely limited, and there is much it does not know. Ironically, sentient beings universally regard the knowing of mental consciousness as knowing. Whatever mental consciousness does not know, even if manas knows it, is generally said to be unknown. This is the foolish nature of mental consciousness. Thus, while using the black box as its supreme command headquarters, manas can also command the first six consciousnesses to serve its purposes.
