Can the manas and the mind consciousness take only a single dharma as their object?

The manas cannot take only one or two dharmas as its object, but the dharmas it attends to must have priorities and points of emphasis—some it cares about, some it does not; some it applies its mind to, some it does not. In this way the key points are highlighted, allowing the six consciousnesses to discern the important parts. This is samādhi.

The mind consciousness likewise cannot take only one dharma as its object; in many cases it must take two, three, or more. For example, when the mind consciousness is in the samādhi of recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti), it focuses on the Buddha's name and the thought of the Buddha, yet it also knows whether it is day or night, knows walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, knows east, west, south, and north, knows the surrounding circumstances, and knows what to avoid. It is not like a fool who knows nothing but reciting the Buddha's name. Yet the mind consciousness is in the samādhi of meditative concentration. When the eye consciousness is in concentration, it attends to just one thing before it, but it also knows light and darkness and so on.

This shows that concentration is not called concentration only when one takes a single dharma as object. It is when attention is gathered and the power of focus is sufficient that this is the state of samādhi. Some people with strong meditative concentration have such powerful focus that they can handle several things at once without being distracted toward useless matters.

Although the manas has the nature of pervasively taking objects, it does not necessarily have to attend to all dharmas and every dharma simultaneously. When its energy is insufficient, it must make certain choices: whatever it currently feels is important and meaningful, it will attend to. Dharmas it is habituated to attending to, due to the force of habit, it will certainly attend to, but not necessarily by allocating much energy and attention to them—a light touch in the mind is enough.

For example, suppose I have the authority to manage five hundred people; yet at any given moment, I may not have the energy or interest to look after all five hundred. At each moment, there will be some selection. The manas is the same: authority is one thing, capability another, and interest yet another. Because the manas lacks sufficient energy in its power of meditative concentration, and its power of wisdom is also insufficient.

The eighth consciousness, however, is different. With its incomparable Śūraṅgama-samādhi and its unsurpassed great wisdom, at one and the same time it can pervasively attend to all dharmas and also process all dharmas simultaneously. Whether far or near, ancient or modern, whatever is not obstructed by space and time, it can bless and handle. Thus the eighth consciousness possesses both samādhi and wisdom—utterly beyond what the samādhi and wisdom of the seven consciousnesses can compare with, and beyond the imagination of pre-bhūmi bodhisattvas (pūrvabhūmika bodhisattva).

The manas corresponds to the mental factor of concentration, but the manas of the vast majority of people has no concentration. Only those who have cultivated meditative concentration have the mental factor of concentration in their manas; those without meditative concentration have no mental factor of concentration in their manas. If it were said that even a person with meditative concentration has no mental factor of concentration in the manas, then how could his six consciousnesses be held steady in concentration?

For example, suppose the manas is interested in the violets before it and lets the six consciousnesses appreciate them, but at the same time it is also interested in the birdsong nearby, so the six consciousnesses must divide their attention to listen to the birds; a moment later the manas becomes interested in a person, and the six consciousnesses must divide their attention to observe and appraise that person. In that case, how could the six consciousnesses possibly have concentration?