What Does It Mean That Manas Internally Grasps Ālaya-vijñāna as the Self?

This means that the manas (mind faculty) clings to the functions of the ālayavijñāna (storehouse consciousness) as its own functions, unaware that these are actually the functions of the ālayavijñāna. It accompanies the dharmas (phenomena) perceived by the ālayavijñāna, regarding all these dharmas as "self" and "what belongs to self," not knowing they are produced by the ālayavijñāna, belong to the ālayavijñāna, and are essentially of the nature of ālayavijñāna. Consequently, the manas becomes attached to the functions of the ālayavijñāna, delights in them, takes pleasure in them, and clings to them. Because of this clinging and craving, the manas becomes bound and fails to attain liberation, thus remaining trapped in the cycle of birth and death, unable to break free. The manas fundamentally does not understand what the ālayavijñāna truly is. Therefore, it is not clinging to the ālayavijñāna itself, but mistakenly believes that all functions produced by the ālayavijñāna are its own functions, and that all dharmas belong to itself, thereby giving rise to clinging.

What are the functions of the ālayavijñāna? They are none other than the functional operations of the five aggregates (skandhas) and the eighteen elements (dhātus), none other than the functions of all mundane dharmas. The manas takes all these functions to be "self" and "what belongs to self." This misconception only begins to gradually dissolve after realizing the ālayavijñāna. When the manas realizes the ālayavijñāna, it will, together with consciousness (manovijñāna), observe that the functions of the five aggregates and eighteen elements are all produced by the ālayavijñāna; they are the functions of the ālayavijñāna, not the functions of the manas as "self." Thus, the attachment to self (ātma-grāha) is gradually severed. Subsequently, by successively realizing that all other dharmas are functions of the ālayavijñāna, not functions of the manas as "self," the attachment to dharmas (dharma-grāha) is gradually eliminated. Ignorance (avidyā) is progressively exhausted, culminating in the attainment of unsurpassed nirvāṇa and great liberation.

Sentient beings all have attachment to self and attachment to dharmas, but which among them knows the existence of the ālayavijñāna? They merely take the functions produced by the ālayavijñāna and the dharmas born from it as their own. What the manas clings to is only those dharmas produced by the ālayavijñāna—how could it be clinging to the ālayavijñāna itself? Studying the Dharma is not about parsing words or getting entangled in literal meanings; one must delve deeply into contemplation and practice to comprehend its profound and ultimate meaning. Most people study the Dharma with very superficial mental deliberation, never cultivating concentration (samādhi) to contemplate deeply. That is why so many practitioners of the Śrāvaka vehicle, focusing on suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self, end up concluding notions like "the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness" yet "are not different from the eighth consciousness"—a logical inconsistency. How could an ordinary person (pṛthagjana) possibly hold the notion that "the five aggregates are the eighth consciousness"? Anyone holding such a notion would no longer be an ordinary person; fundamentally, there would be no need for them to continue contemplation to sever the view of self and to realize the eighth consciousness.