Can the Manas Independently Perceive and Mentate in the Absence of Consciousness?

The mental faculty possesses the characteristic of perpetual examination and deliberation. "Perpetual" signifies constant, always, everlasting, and uninterrupted; "examination" means to scrutinize, investigate, and deliberate; "deliberation" refers to pondering, measuring, weighing, and contemplating. This nature of the mental faculty indicates that it is a decision-maker, a sovereign consciousness, having the final say over all dharmas. How, then, is this function of the mental faculty activated? It is activated through the five universal mental factors, the five particular mental factors, and the wholesome and unwholesome mental factors.

Since the mental faculty is a sovereign consciousness that has the final say over all dharmas, it must possess considerable judgment to make sovereign decisions and choices. How does the mental faculty judge, and upon what does it rely for judgment and choice? The mental faculty relies on its own deliberative nature to judge and choose. If the mental faculty alone cannot deliberate, it would be incapable of forming its own judgments, unable to make choices, incapable of exercising sovereignty, and thus not a sovereign consciousness. While the mental faculty's independent deliberation sometimes depends on information transmitted by the six consciousnesses, relying on the thinking, analysis, and logical reasoning of the mental consciousness (manovijñāna), regardless, once the mental faculty receives information from the six consciousnesses, it must personally deliberate, examine, and make judgments.

Sometimes, the mental faculty receives a large amount of information during the day, insufficient time for thorough consideration or deliberation. Then, at night, free from the disturbance of the six consciousnesses, it continuously filters that information, continuously deliberating. Sometimes dreams emerge, allowing the mental consciousness to assist within the dream. If the mental faculty resolves matters and reaches conclusions during the night, upon waking the next morning, the mental consciousness understands, and one might even recall the events of the dream.

It is said that the periodic table was deciphered in a dream, and many scientific puzzles have been solved in dreams. Often, when the mental consciousness cannot figure something out, it stops considering it. Then, without knowing when, one suddenly understands. This is the result of the mental faculty's deliberation, resolved without employing the mental consciousness, independently.

Some scientists, driven by their passion for research, explore day and night, forgetting food and sleep. Even when asleep, they might wake up in the middle of the night to continue pondering, or generate dreams for contemplation. This is the mental faculty investigating, deliberating, and probing, ceaselessly day and night, wholly absorbed. This is the mental faculty applying effort; it is the diligence (vīrya) of the mental faculty.

If the mental factors (caitasika) of the mental faculty were incomplete or deficient, it would be utterly incapable of accomplishing so much, producing so many inventions and discoveries, or investigating so many profound problems. With incomplete mental factors, it would be powerless.