The World of Black Boxes
Chapter 7 The Relationship Between the Manas and the Black Box
1. The Manas Is the Commander-in-Chief and General Dispatcher Inside the Black Box
The manas is the consciousness that takes charge, exercising sovereignty over the body of the five aggregates. Most of the dharmas within the body of the five aggregates are concentrated in the black box of the supreme faculty (indriya). The inner five faculties, the inner six sense-objects, plus the six consciousnesses—all of these are subordinates of the manas, all belong to the manas, and all obey the manas's arrangements and dispatch. If the manas wishes to see forms, it dispatches the eye consciousness and mind consciousness to come out and see forms, and the manas sees along with them, but this does not guarantee that it will not see wrongly; if the manas wishes to hear sounds, it dispatches the ear consciousness and mind consciousness to listen, and the manas listens along with them, but this does not guarantee that it will not hear wrongly;
If the manas wishes to smell scents, it dispatches the nose consciousness and mind consciousness to smell, and the manas smells along with them, but this does not guarantee that it will not smell wrongly; if the manas wishes to taste flavors, it dispatches the tongue consciousness and mind consciousness to taste, and the manas tastes along with them, but this does not guarantee that it will not taste wrongly; if the manas wishes to feel touch, it dispatches the body consciousness and mind consciousness to feel, and the manas feels along with them, but this does not guarantee that it will not feel wrongly. If the manas wishes to engage in far-reaching mental wandering, it dispatches the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) to roam freely far and wide, and the manas journeys along with it, but this does not guarantee that what it thinks is correct, nor does it guarantee that it corresponds to actual reality.
There are many reasons for errors: (1) The supreme faculty has problems, causing the images of the six sense-objects that fall into the supreme faculty to be distorted and deformed, so the six consciousnesses cannot correctly recognize them, and the manas consequently misperceives; (2) The six consciousnesses are scattered and coarse, their discernment is not meticulous or clear, and the manas consequently misperceives; (3) The manas itself has heavy afflictive obstructions (kleśāvaraṇa), so the six consciousnesses cannot discern clearly and without error, and misperception easily occurs; (4) The manas is mentally deranged and frenzied, dwelling in deluded states and refusing to come out, so its recognition of all sense objects is entirely erroneous; (5) The five coarse material faculties have problems, so the sense-object realm transmitted through the five coarse material faculties becomes deformed and unreal, the six consciousnesses discern erroneously, and the manas consequently misperceives.
2. The Manas's Rapid and Sensitive Reactions in Special Situations
When encountering urgent, special situations and major events, why can the manas react so quickly that the mind consciousness has no time to consider anything before the response is already complete? Because the manas can not only know the six sense-objects that fall into the supreme faculty, but can also know the six sense-objects outside the supreme faculty that are about to enter it. Before these six sense-objects enter the five coarse material faculties, the manas already knows them along with the tathāgatagarbha; after entering the five coarse material faculties, while they are being transmitted through the nerves, the manas can still know them; when they enter the cerebral cortex, the manas can still know them; and finally when they enter the supreme faculty, the manas knows them even better. The manas also controls the cerebral cortex tissue outside the supreme faculty, so the manas can know the six sense-objects passing through the cerebral cortex.
Since the manas can know the six sense-object realms during the transmission process, it will be alert to certain special and major six sense-object realms. If it discovers a special situation and knows from experience that it is harmful to itself, it should avoid it and handle it urgently. When the six sense-objects enter the supreme faculty, the manas immediately decides how to handle them, and then the six consciousnesses arise instantly, handling and responding according to the manas's instructions, without letting the mind consciousness do much weighing and consideration—the six consciousnesses finish handling it, and afterwards the solitary consciousness recalls and deliberates on the occurrence and outcome of the entire event.
3. What Sense-Object Realms Do the Manas and Mind Consciousness Each Correspond To?
The manas is both an internal consciousness and an external consciousness; it can discern all of the internal perceived-aspects (nimitta) within the supreme faculty and the external perceived-aspects outside the supreme faculty. As long as they are dharmas manifested by the eighth consciousness based on the underlying objective realm, the manas, relying on the eighth consciousness, can condition on and discern them all, including the realms of the five sense-objects. But the mind consciousness is only an internal consciousness; it can only condition on the mental sense-objects (dharma-viṣaya) within the supreme faculty, and cannot condition on other sense-object realms, except when it possesses supernatural powers.
When the eighth consciousness conditions on the underlying objective realm, it takes in the particles of the four great elements from the underlying objective realm and immediately transforms them into a sense-object realm resembling the underlying objective realm, which is then transmitted all the way into the supreme faculty to become the internal perceived-aspect. In between, it must pass through the transmission of many media, transmitted all the way to the five coarse material faculties. Before being transmitted to the five coarse material faculties, this portion all belongs to external sense-objects, external realms, external perceived-aspects. So how many levels of perceived-aspects are there in total in the external realm? Passing through one medium forms one level of external realm perceived-aspect, and then this sense-object realm perceived-aspect changes once; passing through another medium, the sense-object realm perceived-aspect changes once again—the more media it passes through, the more it changes. So how many layers of external perceived-aspects are there? As many layers of media as there are, that many layers of external perceived-aspects there are.
Then when the perceived-aspect is transmitted to the five coarse material faculties, it passes through the transmission nerves of the five coarse material faculties and is transmitted inward toward the supreme faculty. The perceived-aspect before it reaches the supreme faculty still belongs to the external perceived-aspect, or when it is half external perceived-aspect and half internal perceived-aspect, the transmitting medium is the five coarse material faculties, and the external sense-objects change once again. Before this, the manas has all along been conditioning on and discerning all the perceived-aspects manifested by the eighth consciousness, which shows that the manas can discern this continuously transmitted and changing external perceived-aspect sense-object realm along the way, while the six consciousnesses have not yet arisen and certainly cannot discern it. So how far from the supreme faculty is the external perceived-aspect that the manas discerns? As far as from the faculty to the underlying objective realm—very close to the underlying objective realm.
The internal perceived-aspect that the mind consciousness discerns is relatively far from the underlying objective realm, and also at some distance from the five coarse material faculties; it can only discern the perceived-aspects within the supreme faculty. The perceived-aspect sense-object realms prior to the supreme faculty are unknown to the six consciousnesses. What the six consciousnesses know is extremely narrow, while what the manas knows is very much and very broad, and it knows things much earlier than the mind consciousness. Therefore, when encountering special events, we have sudden reactions and responses before we have time to think—this is the decision made by the manas after its prior discernment. At this time, even though there is no mind consciousness, the manas, discerning on its own, knows the general situation and can also judge what impact the event will have on itself; if there will be a relatively large impact, the manas will react first.
After the reaction is made, the perceived-aspect sense-object realm has already been transmitted to the supreme faculty, the six consciousnesses immediately appear, and they handle the sense-object realm according to the manas's intentions; only afterwards does the mind consciousness realize what just happened. This is the result of the manas discerning the external six sense-objects first. When the manas discerns the external perceived-aspects, perhaps it discerns all of the external perceived-aspects entirely; the manas knows the entire process of the transmission of the external sense-object realm, so its decision has long since been made, and only afterwards do the six consciousnesses appear, making extremely rapid reactions and responses according to the manas's decision.
4. The Manas's Emergency Reactions
For example, while driving, one suddenly encounters a car rushing head-on from ahead, about to collide with one's own; the driver suddenly swerves sharply and avoids the oncoming car, and they do not collide. Then when the mind consciousness recalls, it understands what happened, and breaks out in a cold sweat. Just now, while the mind consciousness did not know what was happening, the manas decided to swerve sharply to avoid it.
Why could the manas make this decision so quickly? Because the sense-object realm of the car rushing over from the opposite direction was already discerned by the manas before it was transmitted into the supreme faculty, and a choice had already formed in its mind. When the sense-object realm of the oncoming car was transmitted into the supreme faculty, the manas immediately decided to turn; the mind consciousness had no time to deliberate or discern in detail, and while still not understanding the situation, it was mobilized by the manas to perform the turning operation together with the body consciousness. If the manas had not discerned the six sense-object realms outside the supreme faculty, then it would only discern them when the six sense-objects were transmitted into the supreme faculty, and then deliberate and choose—there would be no time to avoid that car, and a collision would be certain.
For example, when boiling water suddenly scalds one's hand, the mind consciousness has no time to think anything, and the hand is flung away instantly. The manas's discernment of the boiling water and the scene of the water droplets splashing out begins at the cerebral cortex, or even begins just as it enters the five coarse material faculties, or even begins before it has entered the five coarse material faculties. So as soon as the sense-object realm of the boiling water enters the supreme faculty, the body consciousness and mind consciousness are immediately made to dodge and fling away, avoiding scalding the skin.
Also, the sense-object realm of the body faculty must be transmitted into the supreme faculty, including the touch-object of the scalding heat. Thus when the hand contacts the touch-object of the boiling water's heat, these marks all enter the supreme faculty, and the body consciousness and mind consciousness immediately arise to handle this matter. There are many such examples; the general process is similar, and the principle is the same. All of them show that the manas's scope of control is very large, far exceeding the scope that the mind consciousness and the six consciousnesses can reach.
5. The Manas's General Headquarters
The manas is a special faculty: it is both a faculty and a consciousness. As a faculty, it differs from the previous five material faculties—He is a formless faculty; as a consciousness, He is the consciousness that takes charge, possessing the nature of constant, attentive deliberation (manasikāra), engaging with everything, and taking charge everywhere, having coexisted with the eighth consciousness since beginningless kalpas. Since the manas can take charge and command at all times and in all places, where is His general headquarters?
When the manas moves one thing, the whole body is affected; the general headquarters from which He moves one thing affecting the whole is located in the cerebrum and cerebellum. The various important internal organs of the body are not the manas's headquarters; they are held and operated solely by the tathāgatagarbha. Although the manas can contact them, it cannot directly play a role in regulating and taking charge of them. For example: heartbeat, breathing, blood pressure, pulse, body temperature, gastrointestinal peristalsis, secretion of digestive glands, and so on are all not controlled by the manas, so the internal organs of the body are not the manas's headquarters.
However, the emotional changes of the manas and mind consciousness can indirectly affect the operation of these organs. For example, phenomena such as anger harming the liver, joy harming the heart, worry harming the lungs, overthinking harming the spleen, and fear harming the kidneys; also, when the manas is emotionally agitated, it can cause blood pressure to spike suddenly and heart rate to accelerate; when the manas deliberates too heavily, it can inhibit gastrointestinal peristalsis and antagonize the secretion of digestive fluids, leading to gastrointestinal diseases. In the peripheral nervous system, the human organs connected with the cranial nerves are governed by the manas, such as rolling the eyeballs, blinking, sniffing, sticking out the tongue, wiggling the ears, making faces, smacking the lips, whistling, puffing in and sucking in the belly, expanding and contracting the chest, stretching the limbs, and so on.
The manas mainly controls the operation of the six consciousnesses. The six consciousnesses arise depending on the six sense-objects in the black box; the five sense-objects in the black box are respectively located in five different regions of the supreme faculty, the five sense consciousnesses arise in their respective corresponding five regions, the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna) arises respectively in the five material-form bases included in the mental-object bases, and the manas takes charge, regulates, and commands at the cerebrum and cerebellum. The manas uses the various perception areas and functional areas of the cerebral and cerebellar cortex as its command posts, exerting regulatory functions over seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touch, as well as language, thinking, movement, balance, and other functions. It is evident that the black box is the manas's general headquarters. The manas also regulates at the cerebral cortex, the forehead area, and the forebrain area. The cerebral cortex is at the outermost layer and first receives material signals and information; the manas receives the information first and reacts first, and only then does the mind consciousness react. Therefore the manas is the most sensitive, and also the most subtle and difficult to detect, surpassing the mind consciousness.
The six sense-objects outside the supreme faculty are called external sense-objects. Apart from the underlying objective realm, the manas can contact them all along with the tathāgatagarbha. When the external sense-objects enter the cerebral supreme faculty and become internal sense-objects, the manas can still contact them; the manas can contact both internal and external sense-objects, and can make choices about whether detailed discernment is needed, thereby regulating the six consciousnesses. But the mind consciousness can only contact the internal mental sense-objects (inner dharma-viṣaya); its scope is very limited, so the dharmas it knows are limited. Therefore the mind consciousness's knowing cannot compare with the manas's knowing; there are many dharmas the manas knows that the mind consciousness cannot know, so its knowledge of what the manas knows is very limited, and there is much it does not know. Yet sentient beings insist on taking the mind consciousness's knowing as knowing; what the mind consciousness does not know but the manas knows is all said to be unknown—this is the ignorance of the mind consciousness. Therefore, while using the black box as its general headquarters, the manas can also command the first six consciousnesses for its own use.
