All mental activities that the mind consciousness cannot control belong to the manas.

For example, mental actions such as flying into a frantic rage are entirely directed and staged by the manas. The bodily, verbal, and mental actions all obey the manas's commands; only when the manas becomes frantic and exasperated can the frenzied, destructive things happen. Take, for instance, an act such as flying into a rage out of shame and embarrassment: after the manas feels shamed and humiliated, the six consciousnesses will then manifest the emotion of anger.

Whatever mental actions are uncontrollable and involuntary belong to the manas. The consciousness that wants to exercise control is the mind consciousness; the mind consciousness has rationality and understands principles. When the manas's rationality is relatively weak, it must rely on the mind consciousness to regulate it. Once the mind consciousness can no longer regulate the manas, things spiral out of control—the flood bursts the dam and overflows. Sometimes, in a sudden fit of furious rage, the mind consciousness has no time to react at all; only after the outburst does the mind consciousness realize what state it had just been in. Some people, when enraged, act without time for much thought and kill someone; only after the killing does the mind consciousness feel terror in hindsight, knowing how grave the matter is. Before the killing, there was not even a moment of thought—it was carried out directly by the manas acting on its own willfulness. The manas acts without allowing any argument, extremely domineering; at such a moment, karmic power manifests.