On the Question of the Manas Grasping the Body

When a person is covered in wounds and faints from the pain, yet upon waking must continue to suffer the pain, why does the manas still choose to wake up? Because the manas is extremely attached to the body, always wishing for the five aggregates to be active and unwilling for the functions of the five aggregates to cease. When the causes and conditions for the arising of the six consciousnesses are complete, the manas will certainly exercise its role as the master and give rise to the six consciousnesses, producing the activities of the five-aggregate body. When the pain is especially severe, the damage to the physical body is relatively great, preventing the mind consciousness from continuing to discern and arise, so the mind consciousness has no choice but to cease. When the body recovers somewhat, the manas wants to discern the condition of the body, and thus the mind consciousness and the five sense consciousnesses arise. Alternatively, when other relatively intense sense-objects appear and the manas wants to discern them, the six consciousnesses also arise, and the person wakes from the coma. From this we can see how deeply attached the manas is to the five-aggregate body.

There are also people who die of extreme joy. Why can one die at the moment of great bliss? Bliss that the mind consciousness cannot control—the mind feels that one should not be so joyful, yet there is no way to stop it, it cannot be controlled; that is the bliss of the manas. When the mental activity of bliss becomes too intense, the blood supply of the heart falls far short, causing the body to be unable to function normally or to become damaged; then the six consciousnesses can no longer function normally and eventually cease. When the manas discovers that the body is damaged and unusable, and that the six consciousnesses can no longer arise, it decides to leave the body, abandoning it and departing from the physical form, and the five aggregates die. For those who die an accidental or violent death, the manas is unprepared and even more unwilling to leave the body; but when the body has been smashed to pieces and there is no longer an intact physical form, the manas can no longer hold onto the body and quickly abandons the physical form, entering the stage of the antarā-bhava.