All dharmas are the result of the manas pervasively cognizing them.

The Buddha said that the manas silently contains all dharmas; "silently containing" is equivalent to universally cognizing them. Most importantly, the eighth consciousness cannot manifest dharmas on its own, nor can it hold and sustain dharmas on its own—it must have the manas. Otherwise, the eighth consciousness in nirvāṇa without remainder would also be able to manifest dharmas and hold dharmas, and then it would not be tranquil. The manas is the fundamental driving force behind the arising of the dharmas of the three realms; the arising of any dharma is propelled by the manas, and the eighth consciousness cannot operate alone. This shows that on all dharmas there is not only the operation of the eighth consciousness but also the operation of the manas; therefore, the manas can cognize all dharmas, and no dharma is without the manas.

Even the karmic retribution that the manas is unwilling to undergo, and the karmic seeds it is unwilling to engage with, are manifested by the eighth consciousness only because of the manas's engagement. If it were not so, then since arhats still have karmic seeds, in nirvāṇa without remainder the eighth consciousness should manifest those karmic seeds; if they could be manifested, it would no longer be the state of nirvāṇa without remainder, and the eighth consciousness would be creating conditioned karma.

The mind consciousness cannot have any single function or role operating independently; all of its functions are bound together with the manas and are the result of the manas's assistance. The mind consciousness cannot operate independently apart from the manas. Therefore, the role of the manas is extremely prominent and important.

The process by which a person's mind consciousness is activated is as follows: the manas first stirs a thought; after the mental engagement (manaskāra), the volitional mental factor (cetanā) arises, and then the mind consciousness produces thoughts and ideas. When a thought is stirred, it is always the manas that stirs the thought first, and then the mind consciousness's thought emerges. Without the manas's thought, there is no thought of the mind consciousness. In investigating the huatou, in the end it is still a matter of tethering the manas to the huatou, never forgetting it for a single thought, morning and evening, and only then can one break through the doubt. This, too, is the result of the manas stirring a thought. The manas's arising of thought is precisely mental engagement (manaskāra). Stirring a thought is mental engagement—the words simply differ.

In fact, the six consciousnesses and the eighth consciousness are always performing a two-person act together; thus one can discover the traces of the eighth consciousness in the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses. Likewise, the manas and the eighth consciousness are also performing a two-person act together; thus one can also find the traces of the eighth consciousness in the operation of the manas—in the manas's mental engagement, contact, feeling, perception, and volition, and in all of the manas's functions of making decisions and exercising dominion. Therefore, awakening to the Way through the manas is deeper, more direct, more thorough, and more ultimate, and the wisdom thus generated is the deepest.