The Mental Factor of Attention Functions First at the Seed State.

The tathāgatagarbha manifests and gives rise to the six sense objects—form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas—at the location of the supreme faculty (indriya) at the back of the brain. The first five sense objects must be manifested first. The first five sense objects are coarse forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches; a coarse set of five sense objects is first manifested for the first five consciousnesses to discern. Beyond the coarse first five sense objects, a subtle mental sense object (dharma-viṣaya) is then manifested, called form included within the dharma base (dharma-āyatana). When the faculty and the sense object make contact, the six consciousnesses arise; when faculty, sense object, and consciousness further come together in contact, the six consciousnesses can discern the six sense objects. Since the coarse forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches are manifested first, the five faculties naturally first contact the five sense objects, so the first five consciousnesses certainly arise first and discern the five sense objects first; only then, in the next moment, is the subtle mental sense object manifested. When the manas contacts the mental sense object, the mind consciousness can arise to discern the mental sense object. The mind consciousness must arise after the first five consciousnesses. This is the first moment: the first five consciousnesses first discern the coarse forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches; in the second moment, the mind consciousness discerns the subtle form included within the dharma base. Thus, in the first moment there are the five consciousnesses, in the second moment the mind consciousness, and in the third moment the five consciousnesses and the mind consciousness operate in conjunction, discerning together; thereafter, the two consciousnesses always operate in conjunction, discerning the dharmas of the six sense objects together, until the discerning activity with respect to this dharma comes to an end.

The Cheng Weishi Lun (Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi-śāstra) states that the initial mental-factor of attention (manaskāra) of the six consciousnesses is not the attention that occurs after the six consciousnesses have arisen. The same applies to the seventh consciousness: the attention at the initial discernment of the six sense objects must have begun first while still in the seed stage. After the attention in the seed stage, the consciousness seeds are then brought forth to form the consciousness, and the six consciousnesses begin to become manifest. The arising of consciousness seeds must have a direction and a location, a target toward which to arise; they cannot arise randomly without any aim. If that were the case, the manas's attention would be useless. If the six consciousnesses were to discern whatever dharma they happened to encounter, the lives of sentient beings would certainly be in utter chaos, and nothing could ever be accomplished. If there were no attention in the seed stage, not directed toward some dharma, where would the consciousness seeds arise? The consciousness seeds must have a direction and location for their arising, and this direction and location must be settled in the seed stage. Therefore, the mental factor of attention operates first, in the seed stage.