The Dharmas Contacted by the Manas That the Mind Consciousness Does Not Know

The manas and the tathāgatagarbha are bound together. Whatever dharma the tathāgatagarbha manifests, the manas contacts that dharma and perceives that dharma. However, the manas's discernment also has priorities and levels. If the dharma it attends to is not clearly discerned by itself, it will direct its attention and make a decision, and the six consciousnesses will emerge to discern it. If the manas can discern a dharma clearly by itself but cannot handle it, it will direct its attention and make a decision to let the six consciousnesses emerge to discern and handle it.

There are an enormous number of dharmas that the manas can discern clearly by itself and that require no handling, of which the mind consciousness knows nothing. There are also an enormous number of dharmas contacted by the manas that do not require discernment by the six consciousnesses, of which the mind consciousness knows nothing. The dharmas that the manas contacts and discerns clearly are also extremely numerous, and those it wants the mind consciousness to know and handle are also extremely numerous; yet because the mind consciousness lacks sufficient wisdom, it cannot know them, remaining muddled and confused—it even finds the manas's hints and suggestions baffling, and in the end the matter is left unresolved.

When the tathāgatagarbha manifests the realms of the six sense objects, at the moment the six sense objects first appear, it is the manas that contacts them first and discerns them first. If the manas cannot discern the six sense objects clearly, the six consciousnesses emerge to discern them in detail. When the six consciousnesses first begin to discern, they have nothing to compare the six sense objects against, so their discernment is also unclear, and the mind consciousness feels everything is vague and hazy. After several instants of discernment, the sense objects can be compared with what came before, the object-realms become connected, and only then does the mind consciousness know what the six sense objects are. For example, when writing a character: after the first stroke is written, no one knows what the character is; after the second stroke, still no one knows; after the third stroke, one can vaguely guess what the character is; after the fourth stroke, one knows what the character is.