Several Situations in Which Sentient Beings Do Not Give Rise to Discriminating Consciousness

When the manas faces many states of objects, it is selective—this is its deliberative and discerning nature. On what basis does it make its choices? Of course, it chooses whatever is beneficial to itself; it has the capacity for recognition and can discern whether a dharma is important or not. The manas has different degrees of attachment toward different dharmas. Why is that? Because it knows which dharmas are beneficial to itself and which dharmas are important.

Seeds cannot force the manas to be attached. For example, after an arhat's manas has eliminated attachment, it no longer has interest in worldly dharmas. Even though the seeds all flow forth, He still does not look, listen, or think—there are no thoughts or longings. Why does the manas allow the mind consciousness to clearly discern some dharmas? It is still because the manas has intention and interest; only then does the tathāgatagarbha cooperate by giving rise to the mind consciousness, so as to discern those dharmas with emphasis and in detail.

Sentient beings, in the following several situations, have only a bodily shell without discrimination:

1. When asleep and dreamless, the manas knows the physical body needs rest, and since there is nothing to grasp at, the six consciousnesses do not manifest.

2. In the fetal stage, there are likewise no fully developed gross physical sense organs or supreme faculties, so the six sense bases cannot form; the eighth consciousness has not manifested the inner representations, and the manas does not contact material sense-objects, so it cannot receive and discern them. Therefore the first six consciousnesses cannot arise.

3. When unconscious, the brain's supreme faculty is damaged, the six sense bases cannot enter the supreme faculty, and the conditions for the arising of the six consciousnesses are not complete.

4. In the samādhi of no perception (asaṃjñā-samāpatti), although the supreme faculty is intact, the manas does not wish to discern form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas in a deep and detailed way, so the six consciousnesses do not arise.

5. In the samādhi of cessation (nirodha-samāpatti), the manas's feeling mental factor and perception mental factor have both ceased; the manas does not grasp at the six sense-objects, so there are no six consciousnesses to receive the six sense-objects.

As long as the manas exists, there is mental engagement (manaskāra); it has mental engagement toward the states of the six sense-objects. Even in unconsciousness and in the samādhi of no perception there is still mental engagement, and it also relies on the eighth consciousness to have mental engagement toward the body faculty. Therefore one can wake up from unconsciousness and emerge from samādhi; otherwise one could not wake up, nor could one emerge from the samādhi of no perception or the samādhi of cessation.

When you are asleep at midnight and an earthquake suddenly occurs, the manas also wants to run, so why can it not run? Because the six consciousnesses cannot arise quickly, the manas can only fret helplessly. When a nightmare demon presses down on the body, the manas also wants to shake it off, so why can the body not move? When pinned down by the demon, one also wants to wake up but just cannot; the mind still knows the chest feels heavy, yet one cannot move. Because the six consciousnesses are very weak, their strength is insufficient to deal with the nightmare demon.