The Combined Operation of the Seven Consciousnesses in Discriminating the Six Sense Objects

Question: When the manas is about to discern a certain object, do the first five consciousnesses simultaneously carry out discernment, and is the information discerned by the five consciousnesses transmitted directly to the manas? After the manas receives the information transmitted by the five consciousnesses, does it then decide whether to discern more deeply, and decide whether the mind consciousness arises?

Answer: The five sense objects and the mental sense objects together constitute a complete object-realm, and discerning the complete object-realm requires the five consciousnesses and the consciousness accompanied by the five senses to jointly discern in combination; they cannot discern separately. Therefore, the information received by the manas is transmitted jointly by the five consciousnesses and the mind consciousness.

When sentient beings discern at the same moment, the five consciousnesses and the mind consciousness operate simultaneously. For example, when the manas knows there is a person in front and wants to look at this person carefully, the eye consciousness and mind consciousness arise upon the form object of this person's physical body, discerning this person's appearance; at the same time, the ear consciousness and mind consciousness arise, discerning this person's voice as well as the surrounding sounds. But at this time the nose consciousness also appears and can smell scent objects; the body consciousness can also exist, having some feeling about the temperature and one's own body.

The five consciousnesses and the consciousness accompanied by the five senses all exist, and all discern. But discernment must have a focus, because the manas's attention is limited, its energy is limited, and its power of meditative concentration is also limited. Therefore, the manas has a focus of attention; it does not give key attention to all six sense objects, but has primary and secondary ones. The primary dharmas receive focused and special discernment, while the secondary dharmas are lightly passed over. If the manas focuses its attention on the person in front, the eye consciousness, ear consciousness, and mind consciousness will devote more attention to discerning, while the surrounding odors may go unsmelled or unnoticed, and the bodily sensations may be forgotten or felt only faintly.

Why is it that when the manas's attention has degrees of emphasis, the discernment of the six consciousnesses manifests discernment of varying degrees of emphasis? Because the arising of the five consciousnesses and the mind consciousness is determined by the manas, and the discernment of what is emphasized and what is not is also determined by the manas, not by the mind consciousness, and even less by the five consciousnesses. Whatever dharma the manas focuses its attention on, the six consciousnesses will discern that dharma with emphasis; the six consciousnesses are completely deployed by the manas, and attention is allocated by the manas. Therefore, the six consciousnesses act involuntarily. Although the mind consciousness, while discerning, also has its own propositions, the manas may adopt or may not adopt the mind consciousness's propositions and opinions.