What Does It Mean That Manas Internally Clings to Ālaya-vijñāna as the Self?

This means that the manas (the thinking mind) clings to the functions of the ālaya-vijñāna (storehouse consciousness) as being its own functions, unaware that these are the functions of the ālaya-vijñāna. It accompanies the dharmas (phenomena) perceived by the ālaya-vijñāna, considering all these dharmas to be "I" and "mine," unaware that they are produced by the ālaya-vijñāna, belong to the ālaya-vijñāna, and are essentially of the nature of the ālaya-vijñāna. Consequently, the manas becomes attached to the functions of the ālaya-vijñāna, delights in them, takes pleasure in them, and clings to them. Because of this attachment and craving, the manas becomes bound and cannot attain liberation, thus being unable to abandon the cycle of birth and death. The manas fundamentally does not know what the ālaya-vijñāna is; therefore, it is not clinging to the ālaya-vijñāna itself, but mistakenly believes that all the functions produced by the ālaya-vijñāna are its own functions and that all dharmas belong to itself, thereby generating attachment.

What are the functions of the ālaya-vijñāna? They are none other than the functional operations of the five aggregates (skandhas) and the eighteen elements (dhātus), none other than the functions of all worldly dharmas. The manas takes all these functions to be "I" and "mine." This misunderstanding only begins to gradually dissolve after realizing the ālaya-vijñāna. When the manas realizes the ālaya-vijñāna, it will, together with consciousness (vijñāna), observe that the functions of the five aggregates and eighteen elements are all produced by the ālaya-vijñāna, that they are the functions of the ālaya-vijñāna, not the functions of the manas as "I." Thus, it gradually eradicates the attachment to self (ātma-grāha). Subsequently, upon realizing that all other dharmas are also functions of the ālaya-vijñāna, not functions of the manas as "I," it gradually eradicates attachment to dharmas (dharma-grāha). Ignorance (avidyā) is gradually exhausted, leading to supreme nirvāṇa and great liberation.

Do animals have attachment to self and attachment to dharmas? Which among them knows of the ālaya-vijñāna? They merely take the functions produced by the ālaya-vijñāna and the dharmas born from it as their own. Does the manas cling to the ālaya-vijñāna itself? No, it clings only to the dharmas produced by the ālaya-vijñāna. Studying the Dharma is not about parsing words or getting entangled in literal meanings; one must deeply contemplate and investigate its profound and ultimate meaning. Most people study the Dharma with very superficial mental deliberation, never cultivating concentration (samādhi) to deeply contemplate and investigate. That is why so many people study the Hinayana teachings of suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self, yet end up concluding that "the five aggregates are not different from the eighth consciousness" – a conclusion that is logically incoherent. How could an ordinary person hold the view that the five aggregates are the eighth consciousness? Anyone holding such a view would not be an ordinary person; fundamentally, there would be no need for them to further contemplate to sever the view of self or to realize the eighth consciousness.