The Discriminating Wisdom of the Manas

The superficial cleverness and quick-wittedness are all the wisdom of the mind consciousness; it is relatively shallow, giving people a feeling of being somewhat restless and ostentatious, not profound, not steady, not reliable. Because it is not the wisdom of the manas, it is not true wisdom. The wisdom of the manas can manifest as profound, persistent, composed, reliable, and trustworthy, giving people a sense of steadiness. The manas is relatively inferior in wisdom regarding the fine discrimination of the six sense objects; its power of discrimination is weak, and it has a kind of foolish nature: it does not know wholesome from unwholesome, does not know good from bad, does not know superior from inferior, does not know east, west, south, or north, does not know long or short, square or round, and cannot distinguish male from female. Without the guidance of the mind consciousness, it always discriminates in a confused way, taking east for west and this for that. However, in the general, overall, holistic power of discrimination, the manas is beyond the reach of the mind consciousness, because the manas holds the overall situation and full picture of all dharmas. It can make rapid judgments and decisions about major matters, directing the six consciousnesses to make rapid emergency responses, and can prevent the occurrence of many disasters.

The manas's discriminative wisdom regarding the six sense objects still exists; it is just not as specific and minute as the discrimination of the mind consciousness. Because their scopes of responsibility differ, the manas handles overall planning and overall wisdom; it is impossible for it to attend to every detail and cover everything. Its minute, minor matters are all completed by its subordinates, the six consciousnesses. The manas does not have this energy; otherwise, it would be unable to grasp the major matters.

The division of labor between the manas and the mind consciousness can be illustrated with a concrete example. For instance, while sleeping, the blanket is kicked off, and the body, uncovered, feels somewhat cool. The manas discerns this situation but cannot handle it itself, and keeps this matter in mind. Then the tathāgatagarbha discerns the manas's mental factor of deliberation (manaskāra) and manifests a dream for the manas to resolve this matter. The mind consciousness dreams that it is in a cold environment and feels very cold. The manas knows the body feels cold, and so decides to cover the body with the blanket. At this point, the manas cannot distinguish between inside the dream and outside the dream; it takes the dream state as being outside the dream and makes the decision. The mind consciousness also does not know whether it is inside or outside the dream; it takes the dream state as real and obeys the manas's decision to cover the body with the blanket. However, the mind consciousness that can cover the body with the blanket is no longer the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) but the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna); then the body consciousness also arises and together covers the body with the blanket. The manas's inability to distinguish between inside and outside the dream is a lack of wisdom, but being able to think of a way to handle the matter is wisdom. Being able to discern that the body has developed an unusual condition is also the manas's discriminative wisdom. The analysis and handling of specific situations belong to the responsibility of the mind consciousness. Such is how the two divide the labor and cooperate.