Manas and the Correspondence of Karma Seeds

The mental faculty directly corresponds with karma and karmic seeds. Karmic seeds from past lives can manifest upon the mental faculty. The habitual tendencies of the mental faculty constitute karma, encompassing both wholesome and unwholesome karma. When the mental faculty corresponds with wholesome karma, it manifests as wholesome habits; when it corresponds with unwholesome karma, it manifests as unwholesome habits. When the mental faculty corresponds with wholesome karma, there is wisdom; when it corresponds with unwholesome karma, it becomes extremely ignorant.

Sentient beings possess both wholesome and unwholesome karma. Their mental faculty corresponds with both wholesome and unwholesome karma, sometimes exhibiting wisdom, sometimes ignorance—wise in certain aspects, ignorant in others. For instance, animals are generally ignorant, which is unwholesome karma. However, it is undeniable that animals also possess an aspect of intelligence and wisdom; perhaps in past lives they were humans, celestial beings, or bodhisattvas, having traversed all six realms, leaving behind karmic seeds. Animals possess the wisdom innate to their kind, inherent and not acquired through later learning. Due to their ignorance, animals cannot engage in extensive thinking, analysis, reasoning, or judgment; they often rely on intuition to survive and respond to all environments. This intuition is the awareness of the mental faculty, possessing both an ignorant aspect and a wise aspect. The wisdom of an animal's mental faculty lies in its sensitivity to changes in the material universe, possessing a precognitive awareness. Animals know of major disasters and events unknown to humans; their senses are highly acute, often relying on this precognitive awareness to adapt and survive. Humans, however, cannot do this; they must rely on the thinking, analysis, reasoning, and judgment of the conscious mind, along with scientific means, to discern impending changes in the material universe.