Evidence that the Manas has the Mindfulness Mental Factor and the Afflictive Mental Factors.

A person keeps thinking about a certain question in his mind. Suddenly, when he becomes aware of the thought in his mind, he feels startled, and may even feel as guilty as a thief caught in the act; he quickly shakes his head to shake off the thought, wondering, "How could I have such an idea?"

From this example, we can see that a person has two mental processes. One mental process arises autonomously and operates covertly—this is the mental process of the manas. The other mental process is at first unaware of the first one, and when it suddenly becomes aware of it, it feels surprised—this is the mental process of the mind consciousness. This shows that the two mental processes are not in agreement; the thoughts and views of the mind consciousness and the manas are not entirely identical, and the two minds are not always in a state of mutual communication and coordination. This also shows that the mental processes of the manas can arise at any time; they can be free from the control of the mind consciousness, and they can also be controlled by the mind consciousness. After the mind consciousness discovers it and feels it is wrong, it feeds back to the manas, and the manas temporarily cuts off that mental process. As for whether it will arise again later, it depends on the controlling power of the mind consciousness and the effect of its persuasion and perfuming.

Ordinary people's mind consciousness lacks sufficient meditative concentration and wisdom, and it is not easy to become aware of the mental processes of the manas; one does not even know what thoughts one has, yet one is unknowingly driven by these thoughts, muddled through doing certain things and saying certain words, and after awakening one will regret it. If a thought of killing arises in the manas's mind, and the mind consciousness becomes aware of it, it will suddenly be startled, feeling fear and doubt. This shows that the manas has a mind of anger (krodha) that the mind consciousness does not know about; once it becomes aware of it, it will think, "Do I myself have such a thought?" Afterwards, the two communicate and mutually perfume one another. When the manas's mental process gains the upper hand and the mind consciousness decides to obey, they will then collude as partners in crime, formulating and carrying out a plan to kill.

The formulation and implementation of a plan to steal is the same: the manas takes the lead, and the mind consciousness obeys and assists. All evil karmic actions of greed, anger, and delusion (kleśa) that are created arise in this way. If the mind consciousness gives rise to mental processes of greed, anger, and delusion, but the manas is pure, the mental processes of the mind consciousness will not last long before disappearing, and may even be forgotten. These are wrong thoughts (mithyā-dṛṣṭi) that the mind consciousness has been perfumed with from the external environment; if the manas firmly holds to its original mind, the mental processes of the mind consciousness are like floating clouds, scattering as soon as they are said to scatter. If the mind consciousness persistently and continuously contacts defiled environments, and wrong thoughts keep arising, reaching a certain accumulation in quantity, the manas may perhaps be perfumed and led astray, with the result that it joins the mind consciousness in creating defiled karma of greed, anger, and delusion. Therefore, the environment a person is in plays a great role in his growth and has a great influence on his thoughts and views; only by choosing to dwell among the good can one follow goodness and avoid evil.