Evidence that the Manas Has Three Kinds of Vedanā (1)

Both the seventh and sixth consciousnesses have feeling toward their corresponding states; the first five consciousnesses also have feeling toward the states of the five sense-objects, and this feeling is often non-emotional, a relatively simple sensation, simply receiving the states of form, sound, smell, taste, and touch. The feeling of the mind consciousness begins as simple receiving and accepting, but after knowing, there arises feeling tinged with emotion—joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness will all manifest, and the mental activities become very numerous and complex.

The manas also has feeling. Whatever the six consciousnesses discriminate and know must be transmitted to the manas, and the manas receives the detailed information transmitted by the six consciousnesses and thus has its own feelings. The manas also relies on the eighth consciousness and can perceive the images of all dharmas that the eighth consciousness takes as object; it can discern all dharmas, and therefore it has various feelings that the mind consciousness does not have, and feelings that are not known by the mind consciousness. For example, when the manas, relying on the eighth consciousness, discerns that oneself or a family member is about to have an accident, it will feel anxious, fearful, worried, agitated, terrified, and uneasy, and various painful feelings will arise; this will then impel the six consciousnesses to do some inexplicable things contrary to common sense, and the mind consciousness will also display emotions such as terror and unease without knowing why. If the manas discerns that a happy event will soon occur, there will be pleasant feelings such as delight and joy within, and the mind consciousness will experience inexplicable happiness—pleasant feelings will arise.

There are also feelings that arise in the manas based on what the six consciousnesses have discerned. For example, having experienced something during the day, in the evening when one is free, the mind consciousness carefully recalls and analyzes it and realizes it was not as it appeared on the surface; the more the mind consciousness thinks about it, the angrier it becomes. When the manas learns of this, it too becomes angry, and then it will manifest as physical discomfort in the heart, an increasingly unpleasant facial expression, or it will make a new decision.

Some people say that the feeling of the manas is simply neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā), without painful or pleasant feelings. But if the manas had no painful or pleasant feelings and only neutral feeling, it should, like the eighth consciousness, be able to tolerate all dharmas, being neither interested in nor avoiding or rejecting any dharma; it would not drive body and mind to perform emotional actions such as joy, sorrow, anger, or happiness, there would be no excessive behaviors or emotions appearing, and body and mind should remain placid, quiet, and steady. It is evident that the manas is not like this—especially in people who have not subdued their afflictions and lack cultivation, who are even more severely emotional, and much of the time the mind consciousness does not know why this is so. Those who are melancholy like Lin Daiyu, or irritable like an asura, are the result of the manas having painful feelings that it cannot bear. When the habitual tendencies of the manas are too strong, it is very difficult for the mind consciousness to control the arising of these emotions. This shows that the manas does not have neutral feeling: due to painful feelings, the manas has corresponding afflictions, and due to pleasant feelings it also has corresponding afflictions.