The Discriminative Scope of Manas

The scope of the mental faculty's discrimination is extremely broad; it can discriminate all dharmas, regardless of whether these dharmas are changing or not. Some dharmas remain unchanged for a long time, yet the mental faculty can still discriminate them; even subtle, unchanging dharmas can be discriminated. If there were dharmas that the mental faculty could not discriminate, it would be impossible to give rise to the six consciousnesses to subsequently engage in subtle and specific discrimination. Why insist that the mental faculty only discriminates changing and significant sense objects? Unchanging sense objects within the six dusts can all be discriminated; otherwise, the function of awareness and illumination would be lost, and the six consciousnesses could not arise. The mental faculty can even discriminate the faint sound of a mosquito; otherwise, the ear consciousness and mental consciousness would not hear the mosquito's sound.

The mental faculty not only discriminates dharmas within the subtle material faculty but also discriminates dharmas outside the subtle material faculty. It can discriminate all objects within the six dusts; otherwise, it would be unable to give rise to the six consciousnesses. After discriminating a form dust, if there is a desire to specifically discriminate what color it is or what object it is, the eye consciousness and mental consciousness will arise. After discriminating a sound dust, if there is a desire to know what sound it is, the ear consciousness and mental consciousness must arise to discriminate it specifically. The same applies to the other dusts: forms, sounds, smells, tastes, and tangible objects.

It can also discriminate coarse and heavy five dusts. For example, if there are colorful flowers before it, and the mental faculty is interested in the purple flowers, it will cause the eye consciousness and mental consciousness to arise focusing on the purple flowers for discrimination. The more interested the mental faculty is, the longer the discrimination lasts, and the more focused it becomes. The fact that the eye consciousness and mental consciousness can focus on appreciating violets for one or two hours indicates that the mental faculty is very interested in the violets, continuously contacting the violets and continuously discriminating the violets. Otherwise, the eye consciousness and mental consciousness would vanish and cease appreciating the violets. The same applies to the other dusts.

When a multitude of colors appear, the mental faculty selects the purple flowers, causing the six consciousnesses to remain focused on appreciating them, while upon seeing pink flowers, it does not give them a second glance. Since the mental faculty makes such choices, it demonstrates that it knows the distinctions between various colors. Therefore, the mental faculty can contact all six dusts and five dusts, and it possesses a certain power of decisive understanding regarding the six dusts. The fact that it can cause the six consciousnesses to focus on appreciation indicates that the mental faculty is also continuously contacting [the object]; thus, the mental faculty also possesses concentration. If the mental faculty lacked concentration and wandered to other sense objects, the six consciousnesses would immediately vanish from the original sense object.

Searching for the violets one particularly likes amidst a multitude of flowers indicates that the mental faculty has desire, the mental factor of volition. If the mental faculty did not wish to see the violets, it would not give rise to the six consciousnesses to search for them. Where the mental faculty does not reach, the six consciousnesses do not appear.