In Samādhi, One Does Not Necessarily Take Only One Dharma as the Object.

When the mind consciousness is in meditative concentration (samādhi), is the mind consciousness really focused on a single dharma? For example, while recollecting the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti), can the mind consciousness focus solely on the Buddha's name, unaware of anything else? If so, that person would be unable to work, would not know whether it was day or night, and would not know east, south, west, or north. Even when entering samādhi during sitting meditation, one cannot have only a single thought—besides reciting the Buddha's name, one still knows that one is sitting in meditation, and still knows whether it is day or night. So it is not a single thought, yet it is still called entering samādhi.

Therefore, the manas also has samādhi. When the manas is in samādhi, it does not necessarily have to engage in feeling, perception, and volition toward all the dharmas it contacts; rather, it selectively engages in feeling, perception, and volition toward only a small portion of the dharmas—this is samādhi. If the manas had to engage in feeling, perception, and volition toward all dharmas, then the mind consciousness would have to arise and discern all dharmas. In that case, not only would the mind consciousness lose its samādhi and collapse, but the manas would also be unable to bear it.

For example, suppose there are a hundred people in front of you; the manas can contact them all. But if the manas had to engage in feeling, perception, and volition toward all one hundred people simultaneously, whose manas would have such great energy? The mind consciousness would be even more overwhelmed. If someone had such an ability, then you could hand him a hundred tasks to complete all at once, and one person's workload would equal that of a hundred people—such a person would be a genius. In reality, this is impossible.