The Differences in the Image-Manifesting Functions of the Three Transformative Consciousnesses

The manas is like a bright mirror reflecting images, but this differs greatly from the tathāgatagarbha being like a bright mirror reflecting images. When the tathāgatagarbha manifests images, there is a relationship of generating and being generated between the tathāgatagarbha and the images; whereas when the manas manifests images, there is no relationship of generating and being generated between the manas and the images. Although the manas is the second consciousness of transformative agency (parināma), this "transformation" does not mean generating something out of nothing; it means manifesting, meaning facilitating.

The mind consciousness and the five sense consciousnesses are the third consciousnesses of transformative agency (parināma), and they also have the function and role of manifesting images, but the images manifested by the mind consciousness are not as true-to-reality as those manifested by the manas; they can display erroneous, misplaced, and altered images, and therefore do not perform the simple function of illuminating and seeing all dharmas; rather, they are manifestations in which the images have been processed. Of course, the images manifested by the manas are not entirely true-to-reality either; there is a certain degree of distortion and alteration, only not as severe as the distortion by the mind consciousness. But when the tathāgatagarbha manifests images, it is completely true-to-reality, without distortion, without alteration, faithful to the original appearance of the dharmas; therefore only the images manifested by the tathāgatagarbha are truly like a mirror reflecting images. This is the difference in how the three consciousnesses of transformative agency (parināma) manifest images.