When does the mental factor of directed mental engagement (manaskāra) associated with the six consciousnesses begin to engage?

After the manas grasps at the dharmas manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, when it considers certain dharmas to be important, the manas directs its attention (manaskāra) toward them; once attention has been directed, there arise the three mental factors of contact, feeling, and perception, and afterward the volition mental factor (cetanā) arises. After the tathāgatagarbha discerns the manas's volition mental factor and its attention mental factor, it actively cooperates with the manas: whatever dharma the manas directs its attention to, whatever dharma it deliberates upon, whatever dharma it decides to discern—on that dharma the eighth consciousness gives rise to the six consciousnesses. The six consciousnesses that are generated must arise upon the mental sense-object (dharma-object) toward which the manas has directed its attention and deliberation; if the manas does not direct its attention to a certain dharma, the six consciousnesses cannot arise. Therefore, the discernment of the six consciousnesses is all brought about by the manas's attention and its volition mental factor. Once the manas has deliberated, the eighth consciousness, in cooperation with the manas, gives birth to the six consciousnesses.

For example, suppose the manas directs its attention to a flower. After making contact with the flower, and after feeling and perceiving it, the volition mental factor arises; at the same time, the eighth consciousness also discerns the manas's volition mental factor, and upon the inner material sense-object of the flower at the supreme faculty (rūpa-prasāda) in the back of the brain, it gives rise to the eye consciousness and the mind consciousness. Before the eye consciousness arises, while still in the seed stage, the eye consciousness already inclines toward and directs its attention to the inner material sense-object of the flower. The seed stage is the stage of the seeds of consciousness; before a seed of consciousness is born, there must be a direction and a location for its birth, and it moves toward that location to be born. Because the sense-objects at the supreme faculty in the back of the brain are extremely numerous, upon which sense-object the eye consciousness—and the six consciousnesses—will be born depends upon which dharma the manas directs its attention to. If the manas directs its attention to the flower, the seeds of the eye consciousness are output at the flower; thus, before the seeds of consciousness are born, they are prepared to be born upon the inner material sense-object of the flower at the supreme faculty in the back of the brain. This preparation is precisely the attention (manaskāra).

When the eye consciousness and the mind consciousness, still in the seed stage, are about to be born at the location of that flower, first there is the location of the flower's visible colors (varṇa); the seeds of the eye consciousness in the seed stage are prepared to be born upon the flower's visible colors—this is equivalent to directing attention to the flower's visible colors. Once attention has been directed, the seeds of the eye consciousness are transmitted forth upon the flower's visible colors, and the eye consciousness immediately arises. After the eye consciousness is born, the operation of its four mental factors—contact, feeling, perception, and volition—begins. At the same time, at the supreme faculty in the back of the brain there are also the flower's shape (saṃsthāna), expressive form (vijñapti), and non-expressive form (avijñapti), which are mental sense-objects. The seeds of the mind consciousness are prepared to be transmitted forth at the location of the flower's shape, expressive form, and non-expressive form; the seeds of the mind consciousness are transmitted forth at the location of the flower's mental sense-objects, and the mind consciousness rushes toward that mental sense-object of the flower's shape and expressive form to be born. Thus the mind consciousness is formed, and next there is the operation of the mind consciousness's four mental factors of contact, feeling, perception, and volition with respect to the flower.

After the eye consciousness and the mind consciousness are born, these two consciousnesses make contact with the flower. The attention had already appeared in the seed stage; once the two consciousnesses are born, the operation of the contact mental factor begins. The initial attention must take place in the seed stage; after making contact with the flower, the feeling, perception, and volition mental factors arise. After operating in this way, attention is directed again—but this attention is no longer the attention of the seed stage; it is the attention occurring within the ongoing operation of the eye consciousness and mind consciousness themselves. Through another round of contact, feeling, perception, and volition, and after discernment, a final decision is made, and the matter of the eyes seeing the flower comes to an end. Such is the sequence of the arising and operation of the eye consciousness and the mind consciousness.