Consciousness Is Not the Governing Consciousness

Question: Regarding the doctrinal principle of consciousness being the master, as in the verse from the Verses on the Eight Consciousnesses that states "In moving the body and producing speech, it is uniquely the foremost," and the mental factors of deliberation, decision, and impelling – are these all speaking of consciousness being the master?

Answer: None of these passages state that consciousness is the master. "Moving the body and producing speech" means that consciousness, together with the body consciousness, can move and activate the body, creating bodily karma. Consciousness, together with the body consciousness, can produce vocal sounds, creating verbal karma. In bodily and verbal karma, the function of consciousness is the greatest and primary, while the function of the body consciousness is secondary and weaker.

The mental factors of deliberation, decision, and impelling describe the function of the mental factor of volition (cetanā) within consciousness. Although consciousness possesses these functions of the volition mental factor and can make decisions, whether its decisions ultimately have the intended effect depends on whether the manas (the seventh consciousness, the thinking mind, or "will") accepts them and to what degree. For example, a child may decide to buy a toy, but whether it ultimately gets bought depends on whether the parents agree, because the parents control the money and have the decision-making power over spending. Another example: a staff officer may decide to initiate a military exercise, but whether this is ultimately carried out is decided by the commanding officer or commander-in-chief. The staff officer merely makes a suggestion; whether it is listened to or not is up to the leader.

Consciousness exists to serve manas. If manas does not require the service of consciousness, it will not decide to bring forth consciousness; then consciousness will not arise, and the question of it being master or making decisions becomes irrelevant. The five sensory consciousnesses (of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body) also possess the volition mental factor and can make decisions. However, the decisions of the five sensory consciousnesses are even weaker than those of the mental consciousness (the sixth consciousness). Whether these decisions are heeded or effective depends entirely on manas. Then, even after manas, as the master, makes a decision, whether it can be accomplished depends on the eighth consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna). If there are no corresponding karmic seeds and merit, the eighth consciousness is powerless to bring it about. Therefore, manas being able to master and accomplish things, bringing forth specific phenomena, also has prerequisite conditions; it is not that manas can accomplish whatever it wishes.