The Meanings of the Five Designations of Manas

Original text from The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana: The cause and condition for arising and ceasing is that all sentient beings revolve according to the mind, consciousness, and mentation (manas). What does this mean? Relying on the ālaya-vijñāna, ignorance and non-enlightenment arise, giving rise to the ability to perceive, to manifest, to grasp objects, and to engage in continuous discrimination. This is designated as manas (the thinking mind, or the seventh consciousness). This manas further has five different names: The first is called karma-vijñāna (the consciousness of karmic activity), meaning that due to the power of ignorance, the mind moves without awareness. The second is called pravṛtti-vijñāna (the turning consciousness), meaning that relying on the moving mind, it can perceive objective appearances. The third is called pratyakṣa-vijñāna (the manifesting consciousness), meaning it manifests all appearances of objects. Just as a bright mirror reflects various forms, so too does the manifesting consciousness; as soon as the five sense objects confront it, they are immediately manifested without sequence and without requiring effort. The fourth is called jñāna-vijñāna (the discerning consciousness), meaning it discriminates between all dharmas, distinguishing the defiled and the pure, and their various differences. The fifth is called saṃtāna-vijñāna (the continuous consciousness), meaning it constantly and uninterruptedly corresponds with mental attention, perpetually holding past karmic actions of good and evil without letting them perish, maturing present and future karmic retributions of suffering and happiness without allowing them to go astray, suddenly recollecting events that have been experienced, and falsely discriminating events that have not been experienced.

Explanation: The arising and ceasing of all dharmas are manifested due to causes and conditions, among which manas is the most crucial condition for the manifestation of all dharmas. Sentient beings revolve continuously relying on manas. This means that manas relies on the ālaya-vijñāna; following the mind's ignorance, it perceives all phenomenal dharmas born from the ālaya-vijñāna, manifests all phenomenal dharmas born from the ālaya-vijñāna, grasps all phenomenal dharmas born from the ālaya-vijñāna, and continuously discriminates without ever realizing that it possesses such ignorance.

This manas has five different names. The first name is karma-vijñāna (the consciousness of karmic activity). Manas is the master that creates karma. Because there is ignorance and failure to realize this ignorance, the power of ignorance causes manas to move, to form intentions, to apply mental attention. Subsequently, contact, sensation, perception, and volition arise. Once the mind resolves, bodily, verbal, and mental actions are performed, leaving behind karmic seeds. In future lives, retribution is received, and birth and death continue unceasingly. Therefore, manas is called karma-vijñāna, corresponding to the karmic force of ignorance, corresponding to birth and death. Of course, through cultivation, it can correspond to purity, tranquility, and liberation. Therefore, cultivation means cultivating manas, severing the view of self, realizing the mind and seeing its true nature, transforming consciousness into wisdom, attaining the wisdom of all seeds according to the Vijñapti-mātra (Consciousness-Only) teaching, and achieving Buddhahood.

The second name of manas is called pravṛtti-vijñāna (the turning consciousness). When manas moves, the ālaya-vijñāna accordingly gives rise to objects. Manas then perceives the appearances of objects. As the mind moves again, the six consciousnesses arise and perform karmic actions, the functions of the five aggregates (skandhas) manifest, and future births and deaths continue unceasingly. Objects and the five aggregates appear following the movement of manas. Birth and death also arise following the movement of manas. Hence, it is called the pravṛtti-vijñāna of manas.

The third name of manas is called pratyakṣa-vijñāna (the manifesting consciousness). Relying on the ālaya-vijñāna, manas can cognize whatever objects the ālaya-vijñāna manifests and can present whatever objects in the mind, like a bright mirror reflecting all appearances of objects. When the ālaya-vijñāna gives rise to an object, manas almost simultaneously presents the object in the mind without deliberate processing.

The fourth name of manas is called jñāna-vijñāna (the discerning consciousness). It can discriminate all dharmas, such as good and evil, right and wrong, defiled and pure, and can distinguish all differences among dharmas. In The Awakening of Faith, it is said that manas is jñāna-vijñāna, which is absolutely correct. A master consciousness representing the fundamental nature of sentient beings determines everything for them. If the master consciousness of the five-aggregate body lacked such wisdom, then the five aggregates would lack wisdom, and there would be no wise people in the world. To say that manas has inferior wisdom is not entirely correct. When discriminating extremely specific and subtle sense objects (dharmas), manas is indeed inferior to the sixth consciousness (mano-vijñāna), which is why the sixth consciousness is utilized. Once manas gains the ability to discriminate subtle dharmas, the sixth consciousness and the five sense consciousnesses become unnecessary. Manas itself directly assumes the functions of the six consciousnesses. By abandoning the six consciousnesses and utilizing the root consciousness (manas), there would be far fewer troubles, far fewer obstructions, and great spiritual powers would manifest.

The fifth name of manas is called saṃtāna-vijñāna (the continuous consciousness). Manas is called the continuous consciousness because its five universal mental factors (universal mental concomitants) operate continuously without interruption. Consequently, the ālaya-vijñāna continuously produces and operates all dharmas according to manas, and the five-aggregate world continues unceasingly. Thus, all dharmas, whether good, evil, defiled, or pure, continuously manifest following manas. Good and evil karmas do not cease, and their karmic retributions do not perish. Events experienced by manas throughout countless lifetimes since beginningless time can suddenly be recollected when conditions arise. Events not yet experienced can also be falsely discriminated.

The Awakening of Faith states here that manas has the function of recollection. This statement is profoundly correct because manas is also mind, and moreover, an extremely important mind that plays a crucial role. A master, of course, possesses the function of recollection, has the mental factor of remembrance (smṛti), and can recollect and bear in mind all dharmas. Only the master remembers and recollects all dharmas. When it is time to handle them, the master summons the envoys (the six consciousnesses) to handle them specifically. The envoys do not appear constantly; they appear only when needed by the master and do not appear when not needed. Among the Vijñapti-mātra (Consciousness-Only) treatises, the realization level of The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana composed by the Bodhisattva Aśvaghoṣa is exceedingly high, enabling the true observation of the mental factors of manas. Its translator, the Bodhisattva Śikṣānanda, also possessed a high level of realization, and the translation is precise, true to the principle, and faithful to reality. This is a trustworthy Consciousness-Only treatise.