The Passive Discernment of Manas and the Six Consciousnesses

Question: The manas "silently encompasses all dharmas"—can "silently encompasses" be understood as passive reception? For example, with sound dust among the six dust realms: if a sound is grating and one does not want to hear it, there is no way to avoid it, unless one removes the condition of the sound dust, or the manas directs its attention to other content.

Answer: The manas silently encompassing all dharmas means that the manas, together with the tathāgatagarbha, can see all dharmas and know all dharmas. Upon all dharmas there is not only the operation of the eighth consciousness but also the operation of the manas, and the operations of these two consciousnesses are extremely subtle and profound. They are called subtle and profound because the mind consciousness's meditative concentration and wisdom are insufficient to observe the subtle and ever more subtle operations of these two consciousnesses; hence it is said that the dharma of the manas and the tathāgatagarbha is subtle and profound, and the operations of the consciousnesses are even more subtle and profound.

It is the six consciousnesses that passively receive the dharma of sense realms. Because of the manas's habitual power of discernment, which the mind consciousness cannot subdue, it has no choice but to discern some realms it does not wish to discern. As for the manas passively receiving sense realms: when the tathāgatagarbha manifests the six dust realms, as well as realms that are not six dust realms, in accordance with matured karmic seeds, the manas must passively receive and discern them. Many of these are adverse conditions and adverse circumstances, though there are also karmic retributions of wholesome karma.

The mind consciousness may wish to enter meditative concentration and not receive the six dust realms, but if the manas has not been subdued, it will insist on continuously having the six consciousnesses discern realms that interest the manas, or realms that the manas habitually grasps at, and so the six consciousnesses must discern them continuously in accordance with the manas. Then the mind consciousness must continuously draw the manas to settle on the dharma that the mind consciousness wishes to contemplate and reflect upon in its contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā). When the manas has been persuaded and subdued by the mind consciousness, the manas reduces its grasping and discernment and settles on the six dusts or mental dust that require focused discernment; only then can the six consciousnesses enter concentration. In actuality, it is still the manas that first attains concentration, and only then can the six consciousnesses settle down.