How Is the Manaskāra (Intentional Attention) Mental Factor of the Manas Aroused?

Question: The manas' mental engagement (manaskāra) is the crux of cultivation. Understanding its meaning will greatly benefit one's practice. Especially in cultivating meditation (samādhi), the achievement lies in the manas; without knowing the manas, how can one speak of cultivating meditation? Ordinary beings' manas mental engagement always corresponds to greed and aversion, without exception. How does the pure manas of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas engage mentally? Without the driving force of greed, aversion, or desire, how does the manas engage mentally? Can the manas engage mentally in a state of neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā)? Can the manas engage mentally in an indeterminate (avyākṛta) state?

Answer: The manas' mental engagement is not only triggered by afflictive mental factors such as greed and aversion, but also by the mental factor of desire (chanda). Desire includes wholesome desire and unwholesome desire, as well as desire that is neither wholesome nor unwholesome. Wholesome desire is the power of great vows; unwholesome desire is the afflictions of greed, aversion, and delusion. Part of the manas' mental engagement is also habitual mental engagement, brought about by the manas' inertial momentum.

Original text of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra: 云何能生作意正起？由四因故﹕一由欲力。二由念力。三由境界力。四由数习力。云何由欲力？谓若于是处心有爱著。心则于彼多作意生。云何由念力？谓若于彼。已善取其相。已极作想。心则于彼多作意生。云何由境界力？谓若彼境界或极广大。或极可意正现在前。心则于彼多作意生。云何由数习力？谓若于彼境界。已极串习。已极谙悉。心即于彼多作意生。若异此者。应于一所缘境。唯一作意。一切时生。

This describes the conditions for the arising of the mental factor of mental engagement (manaskāra): desire, mindfulness, objective realm, and habituation. The reason the manas grasps at objects is precisely that it has desire and mindfulness; as Bodhisattva Maitreya has already explained very clearly, without desire and mindfulness, mental engagement cannot occur. Especially regarding the manas' desire and mindfulness: only after the manas engages mentally can the six consciousnesses be produced, and only then can the six consciousnesses engage mentally. By what does the manas grasp at objects? It is by the power of desire and the power of mindfulness. Without these two powers, He would have no mind, would not wish to grasp at any objective realm, would not give rise to mental engagement toward dharmas, and subsequent dharmas would not appear. If the manas lacked the mental factor of desire, by what would the six consciousnesses produce the mental factor of desire? Without the manas' desire, how could all dharmas appear? Even the Buddha's manas possesses the mental factor of desire, let alone ordinary beings. The five sense consciousnesses all possess determination (adhimokṣa); how could the manas lack determination? If so, how would the manas comprehend the discernment of the six consciousnesses, comprehend everything it has experienced, and how would it make responses and reactions?

The production of the five universally present mental factors still takes the power of desire and the power of mindfulness as its vanguard and foundation. The manas' power of desire and power of mindfulness are the fundamental driving force for the manifestation of all dharmas. There is also the manas' habitual inertial momentum: when He has no desire or mindfulness, habitual grasping mental engagement occurs, and we unconsciously see forms, hear sounds, smell scents, and feel tangibles, even though at times the mind consciousness does not wish to know these dharmas. The specific explanation is as follows:

First, the power of desire: this is the manas' craving and attachment toward objective realms. Only thus can the consciousnesses continuously engage mentally upon those realms, and can they continuously give rise to deliberation (manana) and decision-making, and the tathāgatagarbha must then continuously produce new realms and mental activities.

Second, the power of mindfulness: this refers to the manas continuously grasping the characteristics of objective realms and continuously knowing them. Only thus can the consciousnesses continuously give rise to the mental factor of mental engagement toward the realms, and ultimately continuously give rise to deliberation and decision-making, and the tathāgatagarbha must then continuously cooperate in producing subsequent mental activities and realms. This means that without desire and mindfulness, the consciousnesses cannot engage mentally—especially the manas' desire and mindfulness: only after the manas engages mentally can the six consciousnesses be produced, and only then can the six consciousnesses engage mentally.

Third, the manas' continuous mental engagement is also due to the objective realm's power being too strong, pulling the consciousnesses so that they cannot help but engage mentally upon the realm; thus the tathāgatagarbha cooperates in producing subsequent mental activities and realms.

Fourth, for realms that are frequently encountered and very familiar, the manas will engage mentally upon them abundantly; the mental factor of deliberation will be continuously produced, and the tathāgatagarbha must continuously produce subsequent mental activities and realms. The manas' power of habituation is extremely great: life after life, or for beginningless kalpas, it has been immersed in the same dharmas, so in later lives, upon encountering these dharmas and realms, it will continuously engage mentally and grasp at them, with tremendous force. If the mind consciousness is not strong enough, it cannot control this—such as the habits of craving for sensual desire, gluttony, sleep, wealth, and so on.

If it is not one of the above four situations, the manas can grasp at fewer objective realms, engage mentally with fewer dharmas, deliberate upon and discern a single dharma, and it can be so at all times. Therefore, the grasping nature also refers to the manas' habitual mental engagement. To cultivate meditation, one must control and change the manas' habitual mental engagement and subdue its grasping nature.

Whether karmic seeds have matured has no necessary relationship with the manas' mental engagement. Whether karmic seeds have matured, the tathāgatagarbha naturally knows it, and then the tathāgatagarbha begins to produce the corresponding conditions, giving rise to the corresponding dharmas in accordance with the operation of the karmic seeds.