The Interdependence of Body and Mind

Why does poor rest of the physical body affect the manas? Body and mind depend on and lean upon each other. On the surface, this "mind" seems to refer to the six consciousnesses, seems to refer to the mind consciousness, but in actuality it is the manas that relies on the physical body, using the physical body to perceive sense objects, after which there will be some kind of activity. What is relatively obvious is that when the six consciousnesses are absent, the manas lives entirely by relying on the physical body; when its own capacity is insufficient, it awakens the six consciousnesses to do things on its behalf, and thus bodily, verbal, and mental actions arise.

The body faculty, the physical body, is merely a piece of wood composed of the four great elements. If the body had feelings, then the corpse of a dead person should also have feelings, and wood and stones should also have feelings. What can feel must be the conscious mind, not material form (rūpa-dharma). Body and mind influence each other: because the states of the body's four great elements differ, the inner six sense objects (ṣaḍāyatana) that the tathāgatagarbha manifests in accordance with them differ, and after the conscious mind cognizes them, the feelings experienced differ. By the same token, the conscious mind can also influence and change the material four great elements of the body.