The Relationship Between Manas and the Five Skandhas

The mental faculty is neither independent of the five aggregates nor dependent on them; it neither merges with the five aggregates nor separates from them; it can both detach from the five aggregates and remain undetached from them. Why is this so? The mental faculty is not independent of the five aggregates because all its thoughts, ideas, and intentions must be realized and fulfilled through the five aggregates. Thus, the mental faculty regards the five aggregates as itself. Meanwhile, the functioning of the five aggregates enhances and stimulates the thoughts of the mental faculty, causing the five aggregates to revolve around the mental faculty, and the mental faculty to revolve around the five aggregates, becoming mutually entangled and inseparable.

The mental faculty can be completely independent of the five aggregates because: (1) Before the initial establishment of the world, there were no five aggregates; only the eighth consciousness and the mental faculty existed; (2) At the moment of death, when the five aggregates cease, only the eighth consciousness and the mental faculty exist; (3) At the fertilized egg stage, before the five aggregates arise, only the eighth consciousness and the mental faculty exist; (4) In the state of cessation, only the subtle form aggregate exists among the five aggregates, while the aggregates of feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness of the six consciousnesses do not exist; the eighth consciousness and the mental faculty remain present; (5) During unconsciousness and other periods, only the subtle form aggregate and consciousness aggregate exist among the five aggregates, while the eighth consciousness and the mental faculty remain unaffected; (6) When an Arhat first emerges from the state of non-residual Nirvana, only the eighth consciousness and the mental faculty exist, and the five aggregates have not yet manifested. Thus, the mental faculty can be completely independent of the five aggregates but cannot be independent of the eighth consciousness. (7) Even when the five aggregates exist, the mental faculty can still have its own independent mental activities, which do not arise due to the five aggregates.

In the continuous operation of the five aggregates, the mental faculty also possesses an independent dimension. The mental faculty regards the five aggregates as itself, or as its possessions, or as tools to realize its ideas and intentions, which implies independence from the five aggregates. The five aggregates possess the attributes of the eighth consciousness because they are transformed by the seven fundamental seeds of the eighth consciousness, everywhere revealing the information of the eighth consciousness; in fact, the entire five aggregates are the eighth consciousness. However, if it is said that the five aggregates possess the attributes of the mental faculty, it is because the five aggregates align with the mental faculty’s habits and tendencies, being the result of the mental faculty’s ignorance.