Manas Pervasively Touches All Dharmas

The manas is bound together with the tathāgatagarbha. Whatever dharma the tathāgatagarbha manifests, the manas contacts that dharma and perceives that dharma. However, the manas's discernment also has priorities and levels. If the dharma He pays attention to is not clearly discerned by Himself, He will direct attention and make a decision, and the six consciousnesses will come forth to discern it. If the dharma is something the manas can clearly discern by Himself but cannot handle, He will direct attention and make a decision to have the six consciousnesses come forth to discern and handle it.

There are an enormous number of dharmas that the manas can clearly discern by Himself and that require no handling, of which the mind consciousness knows nothing; likewise, there are an enormous number of dharmas contacted by the manas that do not require discernment by the six consciousnesses, of which the mind consciousness also knows nothing. There are also an enormous number of dharmas that the manas contacts and clearly discerns, and an enormous number that He wants the mind consciousness to know and handle; yet because the mind consciousness lacks sufficient wisdom, it cannot know them, remaining muddle-headed, and may even feel baffled by the manas's hints and suggestions, so that in the end the matter is left unresolved.

The tathāgatagarbha manifests the realms of the six sense objects. When the six sense objects first appear, it is the manas that contacts them first and discerns them first. If the manas cannot clearly discern the six sense objects, the six consciousnesses come forth to discern them carefully. When the six consciousnesses have just begun to discern, they have nothing to compare the six sense objects against, and so their discernment is also unclear; the mind consciousness feels everything is vague and hazy. Only after several kṣaṇas of discernment, when there is something to compare the earlier and later sense objects against and the object-realms become connected into a continuum, does the mind consciousness know what the six sense objects are. For example, when writing a character: after the first stroke is written, no one knows what the character is; after the second stroke, still no one knows; after the third stroke, one can vaguely guess what the character is; after the fourth stroke, one knows what the character is.