Why can the manas cognize the outer six sense-objects beyond the supreme faculty (rūpa-prasāda)?

The essential object is a shared object-aspect; it is the common object-aspect of all tathāgatagarbhas, created and transformed by the real four great seeds, and it is the most real thing among material forms. Afterward, each individual tathāgatagarbha, like a mirror manifesting an image, further manifests the essential object through its perceiving-aspect, turning it into the outer representation, which the manas can then condition upon; this image differs greatly from the essential object. The outer representation of the six sense objects is an object bearing essence, while the shadow manifested by the tathāgatagarbha in dependence on the essential object is a mirror image. What the seven consciousnesses can condition upon is always only the result of the manifestation of seeds, never the seeds themselves.

The manas can condition upon the six sense objects, rather than only upon the mental sense objects appearing on the five sense objects. First, because the manas is the master consciousness: for the arising of all dharmas, the manas must first decide and choose as the master before the dharma can arise. If the manas could not condition upon the five sense objects, how could the five sense consciousnesses arise and discern the five sense objects? Who decides as master to let the five consciousnesses arise and discern the specific five sense objects? If the manas does not decide to discern the appearances of the five sense objects, the tathāgatagarbha could not bring forth the eye consciousness to see forms, the ear consciousness to hear sounds, and so on, nor could the eye faculty, ear faculty, and the rest approach their objects. That is to say, the five sense consciousnesses are not autonomous consciousnesses; they cannot decide their own arising and existence by themselves. Only with the decision of the master consciousness can the five consciousnesses arise to discern the specific five sense-object appearances conditioned by the manas. Therefore the manas must condition upon the five sense objects in order to know their appearances.

The manas has a leading and driving role toward the six consciousnesses. If the manas does not wish to discern the six sense objects, the six consciousnesses cannot arise. When asleep, the inner six sense objects continuously appear in the supreme faculty, but because the manas does not wish to discern them, sentient beings cannot wake up. As long as the five faculties exist, the tathāgatagarbha must, in dependence on the five faculties, transmit the outer six sense objects and manifest the inner six sense objects in the supreme faculty. It is the same in a coma, and the same in samādhi; otherwise one could not emerge from samādhi or wake up. First there are the faculties and the objects, then consciousness arises. Where there is consciousness there must be objects, but where there are objects there is not necessarily consciousness.

Since the manas can condition upon the bones of past lives, can condition upon that lotus flower in the land of bliss (Sukhāvatī) in the West, and can condition upon the people, events, and things of past lives, it should be said that the manas can condition upon the outer six sense objects beyond the supreme faculty. If the manas could only condition upon the outer six sense objects after they had been transformed into the inner six sense objects within the supreme faculty, then with so many dharmas existing beyond the supreme faculty, none of them could be conditioned upon by the manas, and the manas would no longer be the consciousness that silently contains all dharmas. This would contradict the noble teachings of the Buddha and would also not accord with the facts.

When the tathāgatagarbha conditions upon the essential object, its perceiving-aspect can see the essential object; afterward it must manifest the same mirror image. The manas conditions upon it, and in dependence on the seeing of the tathāgatagarbha, the manas has its own seeing nature and can also see the appearances of the outer six sense objects. But this appearance of the outer six sense objects is a mirror image conjured by the tathāgatagarbha after it has seen the essential object, so what the two see differs. If the manas wishes to discern the mirror image, it will prompt the tathāgatagarbha to bring forth the six consciousnesses to discern the mirror image; but what the six consciousnesses discern is the mirror image manifested once again by the tathāgatagarbha within the supreme faculty, which differs from the mirror image of the outer six sense objects.