The Discriminating Wisdom of the Manas

Now we must establish one premise: the fact that the manas's discriminating wisdom is inferior is spoken of with respect to the objects of the six sense-dusts, and it is manifested when the manas alone faces the six sense-dusts. However, the manas's scope of discrimination is extremely broad, and its mode of discrimination is quite peculiar. The subtle aspects of the six dusts are discriminated by the six consciousnesses, so the manas naturally does not need this function; but the manas can rely on the six consciousnesses to discriminate the six dusts. That is to say, the results of the six consciousnesses' discrimination must all be reported back to the manas, to be processed by the manas. If there is even one dharma that the manas does not know, then that portion of the six consciousnesses' discriminating function is useless, because the six consciousnesses cannot make decisions on their own; their discrimination of the six dusts is ultimately discrimination for the manas, serving the manas, and is also directed and approved by the manas. The six consciousnesses are merely tools for the manas to discriminate the six dusts. Whatever the six consciousnesses discriminate, the manas can discriminate as well. In the final analysis, the object-aspect (nimitta) of the six consciousnesses is the object-aspect of the manas; the difference is that one is direct and the other is indirect.