Several Situations in Which Sentient Beings Do Not Give Rise to Discriminating Consciousness

When the manas faces many states of objects, it is selective—this is its deliberative and discerning nature (manasikāra). What does it base its choices on? Of course, it chooses whatever is beneficial to itself; it has the capacity for recognition and can discern whether a dharma is important or not. The manas has different degrees of attachment toward different dharmas—why is that? Because it knows which dharmas are beneficial to itself and which dharmas are important.

Seeds cannot force the manas into attachment. For example, after an arhat's manas has eradicated attachment, it no longer has interest in worldly dharmas; even though the seeds are all flowing forth, He still does not look, listen, or think—there are no thoughts or longings. Why does the manas allow the mind consciousness to clearly discern certain dharmas? It is still because the manas has intention and interest in them, and only then does the tathāgatagarbha cooperate by producing the mind consciousness to focus on and discern those dharmas in detail.

Under the following several conditions, sentient beings have only a bodily shell without discrimination:

1. When asleep without dreams, the manas knows the physical body needs rest, and since there is nothing to grasp at, the six consciousnesses do not arise.

2. In the fetal stage, there are also no fully developed five gross sense faculties or supreme faculties (indriya), so the six sense bases (ṣaḍāyatana) cannot form; the eighth consciousness has not manifested the inner object-aspects, and the manas does not contact material sense-objects, so it cannot receive and discern them. Therefore the first six consciousnesses cannot arise.

3. When unconscious, the brain—the supreme faculty (indriya)—is damaged, the six sense bases cannot enter the supreme faculty, and the causes and conditions for the arising of the six consciousnesses are not complete.

4. In the meditative concentration of no-perception (asaṃjñi-samāpatti), although the supreme faculty is intact, the manas does not wish to discern form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharma in depth and detail, so the six consciousnesses do not arise.

5. In the meditative concentration of cessation (nirodha-samāpatti), the manas's feeling mental factor and perception mental factor have both ceased, and the manas does not grasp at the six sense-objects, so there are no six consciousnesses receiving the six sense-objects.

As long as the manas exists, there is attention (manaskāra); it attends to the states of the six sense-objects. Even in unconsciousness and in the concentration of no-perception there is attention, and it also attends to the body faculty in dependence on the eighth consciousness; therefore one can wake up from unconsciousness and emerge from meditative concentration. Otherwise, one could not wake up, nor could one emerge from the concentration of no-perception or the concentration of cessation.

When asleep in the middle of the night, if an earthquake suddenly occurs, the manas also wants to run—so why can it not run? Because the six consciousnesses cannot arise quickly, and the manas can only fret helplessly. When a nightmare demon presses down on the body, the manas also wants to shake it off—so why can the body not move? When being pressed down by the demon, one also wants to wake up but just cannot; one still knows in one's mind that the chest feels heavy, yet one cannot move. Because the six consciousnesses are very weak, their strength is insufficient to deal with the nightmare demon.