Behind the Surface Phenomena of the Six Consciousnesses Is the Deep-Level Psychology of the Manas

Question: In summer, after falling asleep with the air conditioning on, I sometimes dream that I am walking in a world of ice and snow, feeling chilled to the bone with my whole body freezing cold. From the perspective of Yogācāra, what is going on here? 

Answer: In the middle of the night when you are asleep and your body is very cold, if there is no consciousness of the six consciousnesses to perceive the cold, the problem of the cold cannot be solved. The manas knows that the body is cold, yet it has no way to deal with the matter—it cannot pull up a blanket for itself or turn off the air conditioner. So it produces a dream about the body suffering from cold, in which the mind consciousness feels that the body is very cold, shivering in a world of ice and snow. If the mind consciousness is somewhat clever and alert, it will wake up; after waking, it knows that the body really is very cold, then observes why it is cold, realizes that it is because the air conditioner is on, and so turns off the air conditioner, covers itself with the blanket, and goes back to sleep. If the mind consciousness is less alert, it will continue to endure the cold until waking at daybreak, and may even catch a cold from the chill. 

This matter demonstrates that the manas can know many dharmas, but without the assistance of the six consciousnesses, it is powerless and cannot run the activities of the five aggregates. The six consciousnesses exist to serve the manas, to work for the manas, and to fulfill the manas' needs. Dreams are all deliberated (manasikāra) by the manas. The mental activities of the manas manifest in many ways: they manifest in dreams, in bodily, verbal, and mental actions, in all kinds of mental activities, in emotions, in the body's subconscious reactions, and in the body's involuntary reactions. It is the manas together with the tathāgatagarbha that controls and regulates the physical body and the five aggregates; the moment the manas' mind stirs, the body moves, and the five aggregates begin to operate. 

What ordinary people observe are only the surface phenomena of the six consciousnesses, or they classify the mental activities of the manas under the mind consciousness as well, unable to distinguish the mental activities of the manas from those of the mind consciousness. When the mind consciousness disappears or becomes weak and feeble, the manas very much wants there to be activity of the five aggregates and wants the five aggregates to operate normally, but the six consciousnesses do not appear—they are too weak—and there is no way to make the five aggregates run. That anxious, powerless feeling of the manas is something ordinary people cannot perceive; even if they are aware of it, they mistake it for the anxiety and powerlessness of the mind consciousness. Their thinking and cognition can only remain at the level of the mind consciousness, following the mind consciousness' lead, and they are unable to probe further into the deep psychological layers of the manas that lies behind the mind consciousness.