The Manas Governs the Arising and Ceasing of Mind Consciousness

Question: With mind and dharmas as conditions, the manas serves as the predominant condition (adhipati-pratyaya), which is an assisting cause, while the seeds of the mind consciousness are the generating cause, and the mental factor of attention (manaskāra) is what determines the arising of the mind consciousness. Why is it said that the manas governs the arising and ceasing of the mind consciousness?

Answer: The contact between faculty and object is the necessary and essential condition for the birth of the six consciousnesses. With mind and dharmas as conditions, the mind consciousness arises; the contact between the manas and the mental sense-objects (dharma-viṣaya) is the necessary and essential condition for the eighth consciousness to give birth to the mind consciousness. "Condition" represents a prerequisite, a premise. If there were no faculty of the manas, and no contact with the mental sense-objects, the eighth consciousness could not give birth to the mind consciousness, because there would be no prerequisite condition—that is, no reason for the mind consciousness to arise. This shows that for the eighth consciousness to give birth to the mind consciousness and the five sense consciousnesses, there must be a prerequisite condition, a reason. The eighth consciousness will not give birth to the six consciousnesses without cause, because the eighth consciousness has no self-nature; it does not act on its own initiative, does not manipulate any dharma, and does not exercise dominion. It is a mental activity that accords with conditions: when conditions exist, it gives birth to dharmas; when conditions are absent, it does not give birth to them.

Moreover, regardless of what dharma is born, it is always born by the eighth consciousness, because the eighth consciousness possesses seeds and gives birth by means of seeds; what has no seeds cannot be born. The consciousness-seeds of the mind consciousness are a cause—or one may call it a condition—for the birth of the mind consciousness. But seeds have no mind and no mental factors (caittas); therefore, seeds themselves cannot give birth to any dharma. It is the eighth consciousness that uses the seeds contained within its own substance to give birth to dharmas.

Furthermore, the mental factor of attention (manaskāra) is not a consciousness; it has no initiative and cannot determine the arising of the mind consciousness. The arising of the mind consciousness is determined, on the one hand, by the deliberation mental factor (manasikāra-caitta) of the manas, and on the other hand, by the deliberation mental factor of the eighth consciousness; then the eighth consciousness gives birth to the mind consciousness. Therefore, there are two important governors of the birth of the mind consciousness: one is the manas—if the manas does not determine, the mind consciousness cannot arise; the other is the eighth consciousness—if the deliberation mental factor of the eighth consciousness does not determine, the mind consciousness cannot arise. And the determination of the deliberation mental factor of the eighth consciousness is brought about by the determination of the deliberation mental factor of the manas; if the deliberation mental factor of the manas does not determine, then the deliberation mental factor of the eighth consciousness has no determination.