The Decisive Role of the Manas

The eye faculty contacting form dust divides into the outer eye faculty contacting outer form dust, and the inner eye faculty contacting inner form dust. Only when the inner eye faculty contacts inner form dust can eye consciousness arise to discern form dust. Yet the eye faculty is material form, not mind—how could it actively contact form dust? For example, when there are trees, stones, grass, and fresh flowers before one's eyes, why does the eye faculty choose to contact only the fresh flowers, and then eye consciousness discerns only the flowers and not the other objects? How long does the eye faculty contact form dust, and how long does eye consciousness discern the fresh flowers—what determines this?

All of this is determined by the manas. The manas is the master of the five-aggregate body, the one who makes decisions. Of course, the manas is a false master, merely borrowing the tiger's might, relying behind the scenes on the true master—the eighth consciousness—without knowing it. When this false master, the manas, faces many inner form dusts, it alone selects the fresh flowers, because the mind delights in the flowers, and there is nothing else at present to attend to, so it only wants to admire the flowers. If there were important matters, it would have no time for the flowers.

The manas wants to look at the fresh flowers; the form dust of these flowers already falls upon the inner eye faculty. Once the manas decides, eye consciousness will arise. Thus the three—eye faculty, form dust, and eye consciousness—combine in contact, and eye consciousness discerns the form dust of the fresh flowers. How long eye consciousness discerns is determined by the manas. When the manas has admired enough and no longer wants to look at the flowers, eye consciousness disappears from the flowers and arises elsewhere. In this process seeds fall and are deposited into the eighth consciousness, producing the becoming of future lives. Moreover, the manas's craving and the mind consciousness's craving are also faithfully recorded by the eighth consciousness, becoming seeds. Eye consciousness also has slight craving; it has craving only by following along with the manas and mind consciousness. Eye consciousness cannot make decisions at all—it is completely involuntary.

If we wish to be liberated from worldly suffering, we must not let our actions deposit seeds, especially seeds of greed, hatred, and delusion. What should we do then? We must control the mental activity of the manas, not have afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, not let the six consciousnesses create unwholesome bodily, verbal, and mental actions—or at least create fewer bodily, verbal, and mental actions—and when creating them, not give rise to afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion. If seeds must be left behind, let them be pure karmic seeds.

Who decides whether to create fewer karmic actions? It is decided by the manas. The source of karmic actions lies in the manas. In "ignorance conditions volitional formations (avidyā-pratyayāḥ saṃskārāḥ)," it is the manas that, due to various reasons, various mental activities, and various ignorances, wants to create actions; only then do karmic actions appear and karmic seeds get deposited, and only then does the suffering of future lives appear. In this way, the source of the suffering of birth and death is found, and henceforth how one should conduct oneself in the world should be clear. Reduce contact, reduce the duration of contact. If contact is unavoidable, then during contact reduce or extinguish mental activity, let the mind be as empty as possible, and do not deposit seeds of affliction. Train yourself in this way gradually, and liberation will have hope.