How Should the Mind Consciousness Guide the Manas?

The dharma objects that the mind consciousness and the manas attend to are the same; whatever the mind consciousness discerns is necessarily the dharma that the manas is grasping at, otherwise there would be no need to give rise to the mind consciousness. The mind consciousness arises to serve the manas, and it must obey the manas; but after the mind consciousness arises and discerns the dharmas, through thinking and analysis it forms its own views, and may then defy the manas, not conforming to the manas's wishes. If the mind consciousness holds correct views, it can gradually turn the manas around; but it also depends on how much the manas can accept. If the mind consciousness is too radical, it may enrage the manas, and then it will be unable to get the manas onto the Path.

Therefore, if the mind consciousness is clever and quick-witted, it will skillfully guide the manas; if the mind consciousness is dull, there will be no effect—perhaps it will even backfire, or perhaps it will be led around by the manas. A Buddhist practitioner's mind consciousness should hold this attitude toward the manas: "You lead me running wildly about, but I will not follow; you lead me into greed, anger, and delusion, but I will not follow." Gradually the manas will have no choice and will stop leading the way, and will instead be led by the mind consciousness.

If you want the manas to attain meditative concentration (samādhi), the mind consciousness must attend to fewer dharmas, discern fewer dharmas, and be mindful of fewer dharmas, or else not attend to dharmas at all, not discern dharmas, not be mindful of dharmas. In that case, the manas receives no feedback from the mind consciousness, and knowing that continuing to be mindful of dharmas is useless, it will no longer stir up mental activity; in this way, the manas will gradually settle into concentration.