How Should the Mind Consciousness Guide the Manas?

The dharma objects that the mind consciousness and the manas attend to are the same; whatever the mind consciousness discerns is necessarily the dharma that the manas is grasping at, otherwise there would be no need to give rise to the mind consciousness. The mind consciousness arises in order to serve the manas, that is, to obey the manas; but after the mind consciousness arises and discerns the dharma, through thinking and analysis it develops its own views, and may then defy the manas, failing to accord with the manas' wishes. If the mind consciousness holds correct views and knowledge, it can gradually turn the manas around, but this still depends on how much the manas can accept; if the mind consciousness is too aggressive, it may enrage the manas, and then it will be unable to get the manas onto the Path.

Therefore, if the mind consciousness is clever and quick-witted, it will skillfully guide the manas; if the mind consciousness is dull, it will have no effect—perhaps it will even backfire, or perhaps it will be led around by the manas. A Buddhist practitioner's mind consciousness should hold this attitude toward the manas: "You lead me running around wildly, but I will not follow; you lead me into greed, anger, and delusion, but I will not follow." Gradually the manas will have no alternative and will stop taking the lead, and will instead be led by the mind consciousness.

If one wants the manas to attain meditative concentration (samādhi), the mind consciousness must attend to fewer dharmas, discern fewer dharmas, and be mindful of fewer dharmas, or else not attend to dharmas at all, not discern dharmas, and not be mindful of dharmas. In this way, the manas receives no feedback from the mind consciousness, and knowing that continuing to be mindful of dharmas is useless, it stops stirring up thoughts; thus the manas gradually settles down into concentration.