The reason why the wisdom of the mind consciousness is greater than the wisdom of the manas

The dharmas that the mind consciousness takes as its object include the mental sense-objects of the Image-Only Object, as well as the mental sense-objects that manifest simultaneously with the five sense-objects. The memories, delusive thoughts, and fantasies of the solitary mental consciousness all take the Image-Only Object as their object, and this is easy to observe and judge as illusory shadows. When the eyes see forms and the mind consciousness observes the mental sense-objects, it is not so easy to determine that they are shadows.

Because the mind is focused on contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), meditative concentration (samādhi) arises; the manas no longer clings much to the body or to dharmas, and thus meditative states such as bodily tranquility and comfort appear. As long as the mind is fairly concentrated and possesses meditative concentration, the dharma meanings that the mind consciousness contemplates and observes are easily accepted by the manas. Once the manas accepts them, changes in meditative states occur, and various states of meditative concentration will manifest.

Engaging in such contemplative practice every day is an elevation of wisdom for both the mind consciousness and the manas, and of course meditative concentration will also be strengthened. At the beginning of contemplative practice, the components of erroneous cognition/non-valid cognition and inference are greater, but toward the end, the component of direct perception/valid direct cognition will grow ever greater, and the mind becomes increasingly able to acknowledge the illusory and unreal nature of the world of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha). Contemplative practice has a certain process: as the power of concentration strengthens, the wisdom of contemplative practice also strengthens, and the strengthening of wisdom in turn promotes the strengthening of meditative concentration. For the dharmas brought forth through contemplative practice, it is relatively easy for the mind consciousness to confirm them, but not easy for the manas. What the mind consciousness confirms alone brings no change at all in body and mind; whatever degree the manas confirms determines the degree of transformation.

When encountering sense objects, why do we get carried away by them and turned by them? It is because the states contemplated by the mind consciousness have not yet gained the acknowledgment of the manas and have not penetrated deep into the manas's mind, so that when the time comes to make a decision, the manas's decision is the same as its former habitual tendencies, taking the sense objects as real.

At the beginning of contemplative practice, the depth and breadth of contemplation are insufficient and the scope is rather narrow; the various dharmas cannot be connected together, and thus one cannot effectively permeate and motivate the manas. If the objects the manas engages with are relatively few, the ignorance in the mind is not very deep and heavy, and over beginningless kalpas one has not accumulated boundless karmic obstructions of birth and death, then the manas can possess wisdom like the mind consciousness—even with insufficient evidence, it could still reach a reasonable conclusion and thereby realize the truth. But the manas is not like this, and that is why it makes our practice and realization so difficult.

The wisdom of the mind consciousness far exceeds that of the manas. One reason is that the mind consciousness engages with far fewer objects than the manas; He is not the master consciousness and does not need to take charge of anything, so He has not so many attachments, can easily focus on thinking through problems, and discerns sense objects with relative clarity. How many things does the manas engage with, worry about, and discern? Far too many. Whatever dharmas the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to, the manas can engage with them all; all matters, past and present, related to oneself—the manas can discern even the minute changes in the body faculty at every instant, knowing them all; and even things unrelated to itself, due to the habit of grasping, it will still grasp at and worry about them.

Another reason the mind consciousness's wisdom exceeds the manas's is that He exists for only one lifetime, is only lightly influenced by environmental conditioning, and does not have as many afflictions and as much ignorance as the manas, nor so many karmic obstructions; with fewer obstructions, the mind consciousness is more intelligent than the manas.