The Difference Between the Manas and the Five Sense Faculties

The five sense faculties are merely a condition for the arising of the five consciousnesses; the five faculties cannot determine whether the five consciousnesses arise and operate, or how they function. Because the five faculties are purely material form (rūpa), without the mental factors of a conscious mind, they possess no capacity for agency or decision-making.

The manas, however, is not only the root and condition that gives rise to the mind consciousness; it is itself a conscious mind, possessing the attributes of a conscious mind and the mental factors of a conscious mind. Moreover, the manas is not a conscious mind on equal footing with the six consciousnesses—it has very special attributes. This specialness is mainly reflected in its continual scrutiny and deliberation: that is, the manas always, constantly, and continually examines all dharmas and deliberates upon all dharmas. Why does it examine and deliberate upon all dharmas? Because it has the authority, the responsibility, and the obligation to govern all dharmas well.

The mind consciousness cannot do this. It must arise anew with each dharma; only after a dharma has already appeared does it arise, so it cannot be said to govern the dharmas. It can only offer suggestions regarding subsequent dharmas, devising strategies for the manas—and even then, only for a portion of the dharmas, not all of them, because the mind consciousness cannot correspond to all dharmas. It lacks that authority and simply has no way to do so. Therefore, the mind consciousness's scope is far inferior to that of the manas—this is a matter of vision and of limited experience.