The Decisive Role of the Mind Faculty in the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination

The aggregation of birth, aging, sickness, and death—this entire mass of suffering for sentient beings—arises solely due to ignorance. This ignorance is the ignorance of the manas (mind-root). Because the manas possesses ignorance, mental formations (volitional activities) and mental factors arise. With the existence of mental formations, there arises the choice to create karma, after which the six consciousnesses emerge. The first two limbs of the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination pertain to the manas. The third limb, the six consciousnesses, also arises because of the manas. Therefore, the manas holds absolute dominance over birth and death and exerts a driving force upon all other dharmas. Even the karmic actions of the third limb, the six consciousnesses, follow the lead of the manas. The seeds deposited (as latent impressions) exist because of the manas; hence, the name-and-form (nama-rupa) of future existences arises due to the manas. When the manas is defiled, the six consciousnesses become defiled, the seeds become defiled, and name-and-form experiences more suffering, especially the suffering of the three lower realms.

After name-and-form develops, the six sense bases are born. The contact between the six sense bases and the six sense objects is governed by the manas. When the manas grasps and clings extensively, contact increases, leading to more karmic actions of birth and death. When grasping is minimal, contact decreases, resulting in fewer karmic actions of birth and death. Following contact, there is feeling, craving, and grasping. Although there are feelings, cravings, and grasping associated with the six consciousnesses, what truly plays the decisive role and leads to the arising of the next limb is the feeling, craving, and grasping of the manas. If the manas lacks craving and grasping, the next limb will not arise. The final three limbs—becoming, birth, and aging-and-death—arise entirely due to the grasping of the manas. Therefore, the emergence of the cycle of birth and death is decisively determined by the manas.

The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination clarify that the manas is the root of birth and death. Both liberation and downfall lie within the manas. To end birth and death, one must resolve the issue of the manas and eradicate its ignorance. The manas is also the root of the Four Noble Truths: Suffering, its Origin, its Cessation, and the Path. Suffering arises because the ignorance of the manas prompts the six consciousnesses to create karma. The Origin (the accumulation of suffering) comes from the seeds deposited by the karmic actions instigated by the manas through the six consciousnesses. Cessation is the eradication of the ignorant mental formations of the manas. The Path is attained through the manas realizing the Dharma.

Since the manas plays such an immense and decisive role within the cycle of birth and death, it encompasses all mental factors (caitasika dharmas). It possesses all wholesome mental factors, all afflictive mental factors, and all neutral mental factors. The mental factors of the manas determine the mental factors of the five sense consciousnesses and determine the mental factors of the mental consciousness (mano-vijnana). When the mental factors of the manas change, the mental factors of the six consciousnesses change, and all dharmas change accordingly. If the mental factors of the manas remain unchanged, even if the mental factors of the six consciousnesses are altered, they will revert back. If the afflictions of the manas are not severed, even if the mental consciousness temporarily severs afflictions, they will regenerate. If the manas lacks meditative concentration (dhyana), even if the six consciousnesses attain some concentration, it will not last long and will inevitably become scattered again.

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