The mind consciousness, in association with the three karmas, turns in accordance with the manas

Question: In the stage before transformation, the manas is perpetually conjoined with defiled dharmas, and since the manas is an ever-operating consciousness, the eighth consciousness, being dragged along by the manas, is forever conjoined only with defiled seeds; as soon as the mind consciousness becomes active, it is conjoined with defiled seeds. So as long as the manas has not been transformed into the undefiled, the mind consciousness cannot possibly be transformed into the undefiled, right?

Answer: This precisely proves that the manas is the master consciousness. The six consciousnesses arise and operate in dependence upon the manas, and the manas contains all afflictions, not just a portion of them. If the manas has not severed the afflictions, the mind consciousness cannot sever the afflictions; if the manas has not shattered ignorance, the mind consciousness cannot shatter ignorance—it can only subdue and suppress them. Therefore, cultivating solely at the level of the mind consciousness is not ultimate: it can still be destroyed, and it still shifts along with the manas, especially in later lives.

Although the manas is conjoined with defiled dharmas, it also possesses wholesome mental factors; it also directs the six consciousnesses to create wholesome karma and stores seeds of wholesome karma. Consequently, the eighth consciousness also contains seeds of wholesome karma, not merely seeds of unwholesome karma and defiled karma. Thus, once the mind consciousness and the five sense consciousnesses become active, they too, in accordance with the manas, create wholesome karma and are conjoined with seeds of wholesome karma, not only with seeds of unwholesome karma and defiled seeds. The manas and the mind consciousness are conjoined with three kinds of karma—sometimes wholesome, sometimes unwholesome, and sometimes neither wholesome nor unwholesome.