The Meaning of Manas is Alaya-vijñāna

The manifesting consciousness of the manas (mind faculty) refers to the consciousness of direct perception (pratyakṣa), meaning the method of seeing through direct perception, the method of recognizing through direct perception, or the method of manifesting through direct perception. Some people misunderstand the manifesting consciousness of the manas as the function of the manas resembling a mirror reflecting images, possessing the functional role of manifesting dharmas (phenomena) like a mirror. This is a significant misconception. The relationship between a mirror and its reflection is one of producer and produced. That which produces must necessarily be an unborn and undying dharma, while that which is produced is subject to birth, cessation, and change. However, the manas itself is precisely subject to birth, cessation, and change; it is a produced dharma. Therefore, the manas does not manifest various images like a mirror. It is precisely the Tathāgatagarbha (Buddha-nature) that manifests various images like a mirror, and the manas is itself one of those images.

Why is it said that the manas is a consciousness of direct perception? Because when the manas perceives dharmas, it perceives dharmas that presently exist; it perceives dharmas as they truly are. It lacks the functions of inferential perception (anumāna) and erroneous perception (mithyā-jñāna). The very first moment the Tathāgatagarbha manifests a dharma, the manas is able to perceive it. This is the objective realm with substance (sāropama-pratibhāsa), which is close to the essential realm (vastu) and is relatively true and reliable. After the manas perceives the objective realm with substance, if it wishes to cognize it in further detail, it then transmits the dharma to the six consciousnesses for perception. What the six consciousnesses then perceive is no longer the relatively true objective realm with substance; they perceive a dharma that has already undergone alteration. The dharma manifested by them is further removed from the essential realm and the true realm, making it more illusory than the dharma perceived by the manas. Moreover, the consciousness (mano-vijñāna, the sixth consciousness) also perceives dharmas through inference and erroneous perception, making the dharmas it manifests far less credible.

If we compare it to the connotation of manifesting consciousness, the Tathāgatagarbha's perception of dharmas is even more direct perception, more true and reliable than that of the manas. Whatever dharmas the Tathāgatagarbha perceives are dharmas it itself presently generates and sustains. There is not the slightest obstruction between it and the dharmas. It perceives whatever dharma it generates; it perceives whatever dharma it sustains. It does not perceive what it does not generate; it does not perceive what it does not sustain. There is absolutely no occurrence of inferential or erroneous perception. For the Tathāgatagarbha, there are fundamentally no past dharmas nor future dharmas; all are present dharmas. Even dharmas from countless kalpas (aeons) ago are present dharmas. However, for the six consciousnesses, these are not present dharmas. In fact, the six consciousnesses cannot perceive present dharmas at all; whatever dharmas they perceive are already altered dharmas, dharmas of the past.

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