Manas and Its Correspondence with Karmic Seeds

The manas is directly in accord with karma, in accord with karmic seeds; the karmic seeds of past lives can manifest upon the manas. The habits of the manas are karmic force, which includes both wholesome karma and unwholesome karma. When the manas is in accord with wholesome karma, it manifests as wholesome habits; when it is in accord with unwholesome karma, it manifests as unwholesome habits. When the manas is in accord with wholesome karma, there is wisdom; when it is in accord with unwholesome karma, one becomes extremely foolish.

Sentient beings have both wholesome karma and unwholesome karma, and the manas of sentient beings is in accord with both wholesome karma and unwholesome karma—sometimes wise, sometimes foolish; wise in certain aspects, foolish in others. For example, animals are generally foolish, which is unwholesome karma. But animals also have a side that is clever and wise—this is undeniable. In past lives they may have been humans, devas, or bodhisattvas, having traveled through all six realms, and karmic seeds from all of these remain. Animals possess the wisdom inherent to animals; it is innate and does not need to be learned later in life. Because animals are foolish, they are unable to engage in much deliberation, analysis, inference, or judgment, and they usually rely on intuition to survive and cope with all environments. This intuition is the manas's faculty of awareness, which has both a foolish side and a wise side. The wisdom of an animal's manas lies in its sensitivity to changes in the material world (the inanimate environment), possessing the ability of foreknowledge and forewarning. Disasters and major events unknown to humans are all known to animals; their senses are very keen, and they can often rely on this foreknowledge to adapt to their living environment. Humans cannot do this; they must rely on the mind consciousness's deliberation, analysis, inference, and judgment, and on scientific means, to know the changes that are about to occur in the material world.