What Does It Mean That Manas Internally Clings to Ālayavijñāna as the Self?

This means that the mental faculty (manas) clings to the functions and activities of the Alaya consciousness as its own functions and activities, without recognizing that these are actually the functions and activities of the Alaya consciousness. It perceives the dharmas (phenomena) presented by the Alaya consciousness and regards them all as "self" and "what belongs to the self," unaware that they are produced by the Alaya consciousness, belong to the Alaya consciousness, and are fundamentally of the nature of Alaya consciousness. Consequently, it becomes attached to the functions and activities of the Alaya consciousness, delights in them, and clings to them. Because the mental faculty possesses these attachments and cravings, it becomes bound and fails to attain liberation, thus remaining unable to relinquish the cycle of birth and death. The mental faculty fundamentally does not recognize what the Alaya consciousness is. Therefore, it is not clinging to the Alaya consciousness itself, but mistakenly believes that all the functions produced by the Alaya consciousness are its own functions, and that all dharmas belong to itself, thereby generating attachment.

What are the functions and activities of the Alaya consciousness? They are none other than the functioning of the five aggregates and the eighteen elements, none other than the functions and activities of all worldly dharmas. The mental faculty takes these functions and activities to be "self" and "what belongs to the self." This misconception only begins to gradually dissolve after realizing the Alaya consciousness. When the mental faculty realizes the Alaya consciousness, it, along with the conscious mind, observes that the functions and activities of the five aggregates and eighteen elements are all produced by the Alaya consciousness, that they are the functions and activities of the Alaya consciousness, and not the functions and activities of the mental faculty as "self." Thus, it gradually eradicates the attachment to self. Subsequently, by successively realizing that all other dharmas are also functions and activities of the Alaya consciousness, and not functions and activities of the mental faculty as "self," it gradually eradicates the attachment to dharmas. Ignorance is gradually exhausted, leading to the attainment of supreme nirvana (anuttara-samyak-sambodhi) and great liberation.

Do animals possess attachment to self and attachment to dharmas? Which among them knows of the Alaya consciousness? They merely take the functions produced by the Alaya consciousness and the dharmas born from it to be their own. The mental faculty clings only to the dharmas produced by the Alaya consciousness. Could it be clinging to the Alaya consciousness itself?

Studying the Dharma is not about dissecting words; one cannot merely circle around the surface level of the text. One must delve deeply into contemplation and practice to penetrate its profound and ultimate meaning. Most people study the Dharma with very superficial intellectual thinking, never cultivating concentration to engage in deep contemplation and practice. This is why so many practitioners of the Hinayana teachings on suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self end up concluding that "the five aggregates are not different from the eighth consciousness" – a conclusion that is logically incoherent. How could an ordinary person possess the notion that "the five aggregates are the eighth consciousness"? Anyone holding such a view is no longer an ordinary person; fundamentally, there would be no need for them to further engage in contemplation to sever the view of self and to realize the eighth consciousness.