Direct Perception and Discrimination of the Six Consciousnesses (5)

When feeling the tactile sense-objects on the physical body, in the first instant the body consciousness directly perceives the coarse aspect of the tactile object, in the second instant the mind consciousness directly perceives the subtle aspect of the tactile object, and next the two of them simultaneously engage in direct perception again. However, when the tactile object encountered is very unusual, the body consciousness and mind consciousness each discern one, two, or three instants, and then must immediately withdraw and can no longer remain in contact with the tactile object. For example, when the body touches fire, the body consciousness immediately feels the heat, but has no concept of it; the mind consciousness immediately discerns the degree of the fire's heat, but has not yet had time to analyze, compare, or deliberate, whereupon the manas immediately makes the decision to dodge away from the source of fire at once. This is the manas making a direct perception based on the discernments of the body faculty and of the body consciousness and mind consciousness, and thus it directly makes the decision: dodge away. Here, all three—the body consciousness, the mind consciousness, and the manas—are engaged entirely in direct perception, without inference or non-valid cognition, because before the mind consciousness has had time to make inferences or non-valid cognitions, the manas has already decided to dodge away at once, and the body consciousness and mind consciousness thereupon vanish from the fire's tactile object.

Another example: when a finger accidentally touches the tip of a needle, both the body consciousness and the mind consciousness discern the pain in the very first instant; the mind consciousness has no time to think, analyze, and make a decision, and the manas directly acts as the master and decides to pull the hand away, and so the hand suddenly jerks. Here all three consciousnesses are engaged in direct perception, without the mind consciousness's inference or non-valid cognition, because there was no time for that. Only after the finger has dodged away from the needle tip does the mind consciousness continue to discern the sudden situation that just occurred, and then it knows what exactly happened—it turns out the finger accidentally touched the needle tip. Only at this point is there the mind consciousness's inference and non-valid cognition. Inference may possibly be correct discernment, thereby arriving at a correct conclusion; whereas non-valid cognition is incorrect discernment, completely at odds with the facts.