The Function of Manas Cognition

Question: Can one's own manas read the information of the seeds flowing forth from the other person's tathāgatagarbha? The key still lies in the tathāgatagarbha; the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings are interconnected.

Answer: The manas, relying on the perceiving-aspect (darśana-bhāga) of the tathāgatagarbha, can see all dharmas, and thus can read the information manifested by one's own tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbhas interact and interconnect with one another; the manas, relying on the tathāgatagarbha, can perceive all dharmas. For the tathāgatagarbha, there are no secrets among all dharmas—He knows everything—and the manas can accordingly know all dharmas as well. Things nearby that cannot be seen or touched, the manas can all know; it is only the mind consciousness that does not know. All the physiological reactions of the body are regulated by the manas, yet the mind consciousness does not know why these reactions occur.

That the minds of sentient beings can communicate with one another is also a merit of the tathāgatagarbha. When the tathāgatagarbhas exchange information, the manas can accordingly know this information, and thereby can know the other person's circumstances and state of mind; the manas then transmits it to the mind consciousness, and the mind consciousness can sense certain things. The better and closer the relationship between people, the more the manas understands, the stronger the mind consciousness's resonance, and the more common language and mutual fondness there is. The affinity and repulsion between sentient beings refer to the function of the manas; karmic affinity also refers to the manas's function of awareness. Because the manas has existed since beginningless kalpas and has never ceased, it knows all the people, matters, and things it has experienced, without the obscurity of the intermediate state (antarābhava); therefore, when sentient beings meet, there arises fondness or aversion, and they know how their karmic affinity is—all these are the functions of the manas's knowing.