The Difference Between the Sixth Consciousness and the Seventh Consciousness

The difference between the sixth consciousness and the seventh consciousness is: the seventh consciousness is the conscious mind that makes decisions and exercises dominion; it is also the dependent faculty (indriya) upon which the mind consciousness relies for its arising. What governs and directs bodily, verbal, and mental actions at every moment is the seventh consciousness. What carries many habitual tendencies and inertias is the manas; what makes decisions according to inertia is the manas. Sometimes an event suddenly occurs, and the mind has no mental preparation whatsoever, and the mind consciousness has no time to analyze or deliberate—the manas makes a decision according to its inertia as to how to handle it. When dealing with matters, what decides and acts without time to think is the manas; whereas what deliberates back and forth is our mind consciousness. What is hastily decided and done without deliberation is often regretted afterward, because when the mind consciousness deliberates anew after the event, it thinks: that matter should not have been handled that way. Therefore, the manas is the conscious mind that exercises dominion according to habitual tendencies and inertia, while the mind consciousness is the conscious mind of rational deliberation. These two conscious minds are essentially different in nature and cannot be conflated into a single conscious mind.