The Five Aggregates Are Used and Dominated by the Manas

There was a patient with a brain injury who, due to brainstem hemorrhage, fell into a deep coma, completely unable to move, without consciousness. After treatment stopped the bleeding, the nerves began to pulse, but the person did not wake up and remained in a coma; later, the body regained the sense of touch, and when fed liquid food, the tongue could swallow, yet the person still had not awakened—there was faint consciousness, but no ability to think or analyze. So in the early and later stages of the coma, without the assistance of consciousness, what role did the manas play in maintaining the faint functions of the physical body?

Many people say that the manas is like a fool, that it is nothing at all. But in fact, it is precisely this fool that, with its own unique functions, sustains the existence of the living being. When consciousness is absent, the living being composed of the physical body, the manas, and the eighth consciousness is still the self of a sentient being. So this "self"—does it mainly refer to the manas or to the mind consciousness? Which is more important? No one can say: "When the six consciousnesses are gone and only the manas remains, there is no self anymore; the manas is not the self." Then, after the six consciousnesses and the mind consciousness have ceased, can what remains be dismissed as negligible—not counted as a person?

During a coma, the mind consciousness does not think, "I should move my eyeballs, twitch the corners of my mouth, make my nerves quiver." At such a time, even if consciousness exists, it is extremely faint, with hardly any thinking function, and it cannot discern sense objects. It is all the powerful functioning of the manas—wanting the physical body to have some awareness, attempting some activity, swallowing saliva and liquid food. From this, it is not difficult to discern what mental factors (caittas) the manas possesses. Do not say again that the manas is nothing at all, has no functions, has no mental activity, has no thoughts or ideas. If the manas had no ideas of its own, could a person in a coma ever wake up again? Could they struggle to make the physical body move again?

When a person has tenacious vitality, can adapt to all living environments, and can enjoy the world of the five aggregates, one must not only be grateful to the tathāgatagarbha, but also thank the manas for its unyielding persistence, or rather its perseverance. All of this is mainly enjoyed by the mind consciousness, so it should be the mind consciousness that thanks the tathāgatagarbha and the manas for giving it the nature of seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, enabling it to enjoy the world of the five aggregates.

Conversely, the manas should also thank the mind consciousness, for having such an assistant to do things on its behalf, to discern the six sense objects for it, and thereby the manas comes to possess all dharmas of the world. That is why, during a coma, the manas grows anxious and does everything possible to make the mind consciousness wake up, so that there will be a sound and healthy activity of the five aggregates. This proves that all dharmas are used by the manas, and that the manas regards all dharmas as "self and what belongs to self." Some also say that the manas, apart from the mind consciousness, can accomplish nothing. But when there is no mind consciousness, what did the manas do? Who can observe that?