The Passive Perception and Discrimination of Manas and the Six Consciousnesses

Question: Regarding the "silent containment of all dharmas" by the mental faculty (manas), can "silent containment" be understood as passive acceptance? For example, with the auditory dust among the six sense objects, if a sound is grating and one does not wish to hear it, there is no choice but to endure it unless one removes oneself from the causal condition of that sound dust, or unless the mental faculty directs the mind elsewhere.

Answer: The meaning of the mental faculty silently containing all dharmas is that the mental faculty, following the Tathāgatagarbha (Buddha-nature), is able to perceive all dharmas and comprehend all dharmas. Within all dharmas, there is not only the operation of the eighth consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna) but also the operation of the mental faculty. The operation of these two consciousnesses is extremely profound and subtle. The reason it is described as profound and subtle is precisely because the meditative concentration (dhyāna) and wisdom (prajñā) of the mental consciousness (mano-vijñāna) are insufficient to observe the increasingly subtle operations of these two consciousnesses. Hence, it is said that the dharmas of the mental faculty and the Tathāgatagarbha are profound and subtle, and the operation of consciousness is even more subtle.

It is the six consciousnesses that passively accept objective dharmas. Due to the habitual discerning power of the mental faculty, the mental consciousness is unable to subdue it and is thus compelled to discern some objects it would rather not discern. The situation where the mental faculty passively accepts objective dharmas is this: when the Tathāgatagarbha manifests the six sense objects and non-sense objects based on ripened karmic seeds, the mental faculty must passively accept and discern them. Many of these are adverse conditions and unfavorable circumstances, though there are also karmic rewards from wholesome actions.

The mental consciousness may wish to enter meditative concentration and cease receiving the six sense objects. However, if the mental faculty is not subdued, it will incessantly compel the six consciousnesses to discern objects that interest the mental faculty or objects the mental faculty habitually clings to. The six consciousnesses must then continuously discern according to the mental faculty. Subsequently, the mental consciousness must continually guide and persuade the mental faculty to stabilize on the dharma the mental consciousness wishes to contemplate and investigate. Only when the mental faculty is persuaded and subdued by the mental consciousness does it reduce its clinging and discerning, stabilizing on the specific sense object or mental object requiring focused discernment. Only then can the six consciousnesses enter concentration. In reality, it is the mental faculty that first attains stability; only afterward can the six consciousnesses manage to settle into concentration.