Manas and Vijñāna: Thinking and Knowing

Both the manas and consciousness are types of cognition, both possess the mental factor of deliberation, and both are capable of contemplating, thinking, and deliberating. However, since the vast majority of people cannot observe the deliberation of the manas, they assume there is a difference between the deliberation of the manas and that of consciousness. They call the deliberation of consciousness "thinking" and the deliberation of the manas "deliberation," believing that thinking is not deliberation and deliberation is not thinking. If someone says the manas thinks or contemplates, they consider it incorrect, insisting it is consciousness that thinks and contemplates; if someone mentions the mental activities of the manas, many say it's wrong, claiming those are the mental activities of consciousness. Therefore, attempting to study Consciousness-Only (Vijñapti-mātratā) while being unable to observe the mental activities of the manas and remaining stubbornly attached internally becomes very troublesome.

Why do many people say the deliberation of the manas is very deep, subtle, and difficult to observe? The reason lies in the fact that sentient beings take the knowing of consciousness as their knowing. What consciousness knows, sentient beings know; what consciousness does not know, they do not know. If consciousness lacks sufficient wisdom and does not know the mental activities of the manas or what the manas knows, then sentient beings will not know the mental activities of the manas or what the manas knows, and thus feel that the mental activities of the manas are very deep, subtle, and profound. In reality, it is the ignorance of consciousness that should be blamed. When consciousness possesses wisdom and that wisdom is unobstructed, it can directly observe the mental activities of the manas. Then, the manas no longer seems profound or difficult to understand, nor subtle and hard to know, and misunderstandings about the mental factors associated with the manas cease.

What would happen if all sentient beings took the knowing of the manas as their knowing? If sentient beings took the knowing of the manas as their knowing, then what the manas does not know, they would not know. If the manas does not know what consciousness knows, then regardless of what consciousness knows or how many dharmas it knows, the manas would not know them, meaning sentient beings would not know them. Consequently, the theories learned by consciousness would be of little use; the manas would know even less about the eighth consciousness (Alaya-vijñāna), making enlightenment far more difficult to attain. In such a case, sentient beings would say: the mental activities of consciousness are deep, subtle, and hard to know, very concealed and difficult to probe, while the eighth consciousness is even deeper, more concealed, harder to know, with its activities being extremely subtle.

In truth, whether dharmas are concealed or apparent, obscure or clear, depends on the wisdom of the consciousness, not on the dharmas themselves. When there is wisdom, any dharma is apparent, easy to know and understand. Without wisdom, even the most apparent dharma seems deep and concealed. Therefore, after the sixth and seventh consciousnesses transform consciousness into wisdom (jñāna), consciousness can directly observe the mental activities (citta-caitta) of the manas and the eighth consciousness, finding it not particularly difficult. The Buddha observes all dharmas effortlessly; He doesn’t even need to observe to know all dharmas, holding complete understanding of all dharmas in His mind.

If sentient beings took the knowing of the manas as their knowing, they would possess supernatural powers (ṛddhi). Perhaps there would be no secrets between them, and past and future lives would be fully known. This would enable understanding causes and recognizing effects. Perhaps, to suffer less karmic retribution, they would create less unwholesome karma. However, many would still have heavy self-attachment (ātma-grāha). Even knowing they suffer greatly due to creating unwholesome karma, they would still continuously create it, like those who repeatedly go to prison, dying unrepentant. Moreover, because the manas lacks the clear guiding function of consciousness, it is simpler and more naive. Emotional attachments would be heavier, self-nature would be stronger, consciousness would find it difficult to restrain it, the likelihood of creating unwholesome karma would increase, and eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) would become even harder.

What would it be like if sentient beings took the knowing of the eighth consciousness as their knowing? The eighth consciousness does not know or perceive worldly dharmas (loka-dharma); it does not know self, others, him, or her; it does not see forms or hear sounds; it does not know the objects of the six sense fields (ṣaḍ-viṣaya). In this case, sentient beings could not survive. Their six sense faculties would shut down, and they would abide in a state of Nirvāṇa. Would this be good? Some might say that then Bodhisattvas could not deliver sentient beings. But at that point, which sentient being would not already be in the state of Nirvāṇa, needing Buddhas or Bodhisattvas to deliver them? If all sentient beings took the knowing of the eighth consciousness as their knowing, there would be no need to study the Buddha or the Dharma, and there would be no distinction between Buddha and sentient beings.

If sentient beings took the knowing of the five consciousnesses (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body) as their knowing, they could not survive, and the world of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) could not function. This is because the five consciousnesses only cognize coarse objects of the five sense fields (rūpa, śabda, gandha, rasa, sparśa); they do not cognize subtle sense objects, nor do they understand mental dharmas (citta-dharma). They do not know consciousness, the manas, or the eighth consciousness. Apart from coarse objects of the five sense fields, they know nothing. If they don't even know consciousness, how could they still know the coarse objects of the five sense fields? The five consciousnesses must cooperate with consciousness to cognize the coarse aspects of the five sense objects. But knowing only the coarse aspects of the five sense objects, not their subtle aspects, not knowing the objects of the mental sense field (dharmāyatana), and not knowing mental dharmas, makes survival utterly impossible. In short, to know all dharmas, whichever consciousness is taken as the primary knower must possess great wisdom; consciousness must be transformed into wisdom (āśraya-parāvṛtti), and only by using wisdom-consciousness (jñāna) can all dharmas be known.