How Attachment to Self and Attachment to Dharmas Arise and Are Eliminated

Countless eons ago, there were only the manas and the tathāgatagarbha; there were no six consciousnesses and no body of the five aggregates, nor was there a world. At that time, the manas already had ignorance, but this ignorance carried no karmic seeds, because there were no six consciousnesses to create karma for the manas. Therefore, the manas is said to be neutral/indeterminate (avyākṛta); on its own, it cannot create karma—it must have the tools for creating karma in order to do so. The manas stays behind the scenes, ruling from behind the curtain, needing only to hold the baton and direct; the fighting and killing on the front lines are left to the six consciousnesses. On the surface, it appears that the six consciousnesses create karma, but in reality it is the manas that sits in command and directs everything. Those who do not understand the inner workings attribute the merits and faults to the six consciousnesses.

Moreover, the self-grasping (ātma-grāha) and dharma-grasping (dharma-grāha) also belong to ignorance and carry no karmic seeds; they have existed since beginningless eons and were not produced by creating karma. However, the mind consciousness's later conditioning by the environment can also increase the manas's self-grasping and dharma-grasping, reinforcing the manas's attachment to self. These ignorances can only be gradually eradicated through cultivating the path. Because ignorance has existed since beginningless eons, due to ignorance, karmic actions are created without any reason; without ignorance, there would be no desire to create karmic actions—except for the pure great vows of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

The karmic seeds formed through actions created out of ignorance are called the karma of ignorance, and this karma of ignorance can in turn condition and reinforce the manas's ignorance. These karmic actions of ignorance can be eliminated through receiving retribution, but ignorance itself must be eliminated through realizing the path: whatever degree of the path is realized, that degree of ignorance is eliminated.