The Reason Why the Wisdom of Mind Consciousness Is Greater Than the Wisdom of Manas

The dharmas that the mind consciousness takes as its object include the subjectively imagined realm of mental sense-objects (dharma-objects) and the mental sense-objects that manifest simultaneously with the five sense-objects. What the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) takes as objects in memory, deluded thoughts, fantasies, and so on are all subjectively imagined realms, and it is easy to observe and judge that these are 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 fully engaged in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), meditative concentration (samādhi) arises; the manas does not cling much to the body nor grasp much at dharmas, and thus meditative states such as physical tranquility and comfort appear. As long as the mind is fairly concentrated and has 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 contemplative practice like this 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 non-valid cognition and inference are greater, but toward the end the component of direct perception will grow ever larger, and the mind becomes increasingly able to affirm that the world of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) is false and unreal. 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, confirmation by the mind consciousness is relatively easy, but confirmation by the manas is not. When the mind consciousness confirms something alone, there is not the slightest change in body and mind; whatever degree the manas confirms is the degree of transformation that occurs.

When encountering states of circumstance, 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 manas's acceptance and have not penetrated deep into the manas's mind, so that when a decision must be made, the manas decides just as it did according to old habitual tendencies, taking the states as real.

At the very beginning of contemplative practice, its depth and breadth are insufficient and its scope is rather narrow; the various dharmas cannot be connected together, and thus it cannot effectively permeate and motivate the manas. If what the manas takes as its objects is relatively few, if the ignorance in the mind is not very heavy, and if over beginningless kalpas it has not accumulated boundless karmic obstructions of birth and death, then the manas can have wisdom like the mind consciousness—even with insufficient evidence, it could still reach a conclusion that accords with reason, and thereby realize the truth. But the manas is not like this, and that is precisely 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 takes far fewer objects than the manas; He is not the master consciousness and need not take charge of anything, so He has not so many attachments, can easily concentrate on thinking through problems, and discerns states of circumstance rather clearly. How many things does the manas take as objects, worry about, and discern? Far too many. Whatever dharmas the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to, the manas can reach them as objects; all things past and present related to oneself, and even the minute changes in the physical faculty in every instant, the manas can discern and knows them all; and even things unrelated to itself, due to the habit of grasping, it will still grasp at and worry about.

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, does not have as many afflictions and as much ignorance as the manas, and does not have so many karmic obstructions; His obstructions are few, and therefore the mind consciousness is more intelligent than the manas.