Is the manas only neutral feeling, without painful or pleasant feelings?

If the manas had neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā) like the tathāgatagarbha, it should also, like the tathāgatagarbha, remain suchness is immovable (tathatā-acalita) toward all states of experience: no matter what states manifest, it would not grasp at good states nor reject bad states; the mind would not discriminate whether states are good or bad, wholesome or unwholesome, and thus it would not impel the six consciousnesses to engage in greedy, angry, and deluded actions of liking and disliking, much less act impulsively. When encountering matters, it would neither fly into a rage with fists and kicks, nor show joy on its face dancing with delight; everything would be plain and bland, indifferent to everything.

If the manas were indifferent in whatever situation it found itself, always in neutral feeling, then it could never be the master and impel the six consciousnesses to engage in karmic actions of greed and anger, nor give rise to thoughts and emotions of joy, delight, craving, and so on, nor to thoughts and emotions of anger, jealousy, resentment, and so on. Then the manas would possess equality; its mind toward all states would be even and unbiased, treating enemies and loved ones with perfect impartiality, with no distinction between foes and kin in the mind—fair and just. The mind would neither yearn for the pure land of bliss (sukhāvatī) nor loathe the defiled Saha world; it would neither delight in becoming a Buddha or patriarch, nor weary of the three realms and enter nirvāṇa.

If the manas were in neutral feeling, it should itself be liberated just like the tathāgatagarbha; neither wholesome nor unwholesome states could bind it, and it would not experience any states at all—that would be a liberated mind. But the actual situation is not like this: the manas has very heavy afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion; its greed is inextricable, its anger cannot save itself, and it is bound tightly by the dharmas of the three realms, especially the three evil paths, unable to escape. Therefore it is said that the manas does not merely have neutral feeling; it has all three kinds of feeling, with neutral feeling being rare.

With some matters, the mind consciousness very much wants to endure, but in the end cannot hold back, and emotions erupt. It cannot control itself—what kind of feeling is this? Whose feeling is it? It is the feeling of suffering and pleasure, the feeling of the manas. At this time the mind consciousness is rational, constantly suppressing the manas, restraining the manas, telling the manas to bear it and not erupt; but the manas ultimately cannot bear it and erupts anyway. If the manas were in neutral feeling at such a time, the mind consciousness would have no need to restrain and suppress; things would pass by plainly and blandly, with no emotions, no extreme events would occur, and no unthinkable consequences would appear.

Very often there are inexplicable emotional episodes—whether happy or unhappy, the mind consciousness does not know why, where the happiness or unhappiness came from. Sometimes the mind consciousness tries to figure out the reason, and sometimes no matter how it ponders, it cannot understand, because the manas is truly hard to fathom.