The Deliberative and Decisive Nature of the Manas

The manas relies on the discerning nature and the content of the discernment of the six consciousnesses to deliberate (manasikāra) upon various dharmas. Whether it is all the dharmas discerned by the six consciousnesses through direct perception, or all the dharmas discerned not through direct perception, the manas can come to know them. While the six consciousnesses are discerning, they discern on one hand and transmit the content to the manas on the other, and the manas simultaneously comes to know it. Based on the content discerned by the six consciousnesses, He deliberates. Whatever the six consciousnesses discern, He deliberates upon; whatever He deliberates upon, He may thereby confirm, and consequently He must take charge, make decisions, and adopt countermeasures; then the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses will be carried out.

Even in the absence of the six consciousnesses, the manas still deliberates upon all dharmas and deliberates upon the realms of the six sense objects. When the six consciousnesses cease—during unconsciousness or sleep—the manas is still deliberating. As long as the manas exists, it must continuously deliberate. He deliberates on how to come to know more about people, affairs, things, and principles, on how to make the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) become active, and on how to let the six consciousnesses continue discerning the six sense objects, so that He too can thereby know more dharmas.

When asleep without dreams, the six consciousnesses have all ceased—does the manas deliberate or not? He still deliberates. What does He deliberate upon? There are very many dharmas He deliberates upon: deliberating on whether the body of the five aggregates has rested well, deliberating on when it is time to wake up, deliberating on the affairs of the daytime, deliberating on matters from childhood, deliberating on matters from past lives, deliberating on matters of the future. Whatever situation arises in the body, He may deliberate upon it, and then He decides how to handle it. He may also deliberate upon the realms of the six sense objects that the mind consciousness discerned during the day, as well as problems that were not resolved before. After taking up Buddhist study, when the mind consciousness is diligent, the manas will also deliberate upon the Buddhist teachings the mind consciousness has learned. Therefore, in dreams, He will let the mind consciousness repeatedly study the Buddhist teachings or apply them. Only then does such Buddhist practice and cultivation have a certain effect, penetrating deep into the mind.

The mental objects (dharma-objects) discerned by the six consciousnesses during the day all settle into the manas, and the manas, while asleep, also deliberates upon the events experienced during the day. When He deliberates rather stubbornly, dreams appear. He also deliberates upon other realms of the six sense objects manifested by the eighth consciousness. Although His wisdom of discernment is not strong enough, He still possesses the nature of deliberation. If His wisdom were very high, He could give rise to determination and take charge and make decisions without excessive and deep deliberation. Because His wisdom of discernment is not sufficiently refined, His deliberative nature must be correspondingly strengthened, and there is a process of continuous weighing involved. When wisdom is inferior and one cannot discern clearly for a while, one must deliberate back and forth, and only when one believes one has deliberated and understood will one make a determination and take charge of how to act.

The manas possesses this constant deliberative nature, and "examining and certifying" (śamana) certainly means examining and pondering. During sleep, the manas is also deliberating on whether it is time for the activity of the body of the five aggregates, and whether one should wake up. If the manas did not examine and assess, it would not take charge or make decisions; therefore the manas has the nature of examination and deliberation. Only after examining, assessing, and deliberating can He make determinations, adopt countermeasures, take charge as the master, and decide how the bodily, verbal, and mental actions are to be carried out—this is the deliberative nature and the examining-and-deciding nature of the manas.