The Mental Faculty Contacts All Dharmas

The manas is bound together with the tathāgatagarbha. Whatever dharmas the tathāgatagarbha manifests, the manas contacts and perceives. However, the discernment of the manas is also divided into focal points and levels. If the manas cannot clearly discern the dharmas it focuses on, it will generate volition and make choices, causing the six consciousnesses to arise and perform discernment. If the manas can clearly discern certain dharmas by itself but cannot process them, it will generate volition and make choices, causing the six consciousnesses to arise to discern and process them.

There are an immense number of dharmas that the manas can clearly discern without needing processing, which the mental consciousness is unaware of. There is also an immense number of dharmas contacted and discerned by the manas that do not require the six consciousnesses to discern, which the mental consciousness is also unaware of. There are likewise an immense number of dharmas clearly contacted and discerned by the manas that it wishes the mental consciousness to know and process. However, due to insufficient wisdom, the mental consciousness remains unable to know them, remaining muddled and even feeling perplexed by the hints and suggestions from the manas, ultimately leaving the matter unresolved.

When the tathāgatagarbha manifests the objects of the six dusts, at the initial appearance of the six dusts, it is the manas that contacts and discerns them first. If the manas cannot clearly discern the six dusts, the six consciousnesses arise to discern them carefully. When the six consciousnesses first discern them, there is nothing to compare the six dusts with, so they also cannot discern them clearly, and the mental consciousness feels vague. After discerning for several moments, when there are successive six dusts to compare, the dust objects become coherent, and only then does the mental consciousness know what the six dusts are. For example, when writing a character, after the first stroke is written, others do not know what character it is. After the second stroke, they still do not know. After the third stroke, they can vaguely guess what character it might be. After the fourth stroke, they know what character it is.

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