Manas Acts with Purposefulness

People who have not studied Buddhism always act with a purpose in whatever they do for others; Buddhist practitioners who have not yet cultivated their minds to the state of non-action (wuwei) also generally act with a purpose when dealing with others. Which mind possesses this purposefulness? Sentient beings act driven by desire, and their minds all have purposefulness; those who act without desire or seeking, freely according to conditions, are as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.

The purposefulness and desires that exist before an action is undertaken belong to the manas. Sometimes, too, the manas' desires and purposefulness arise through the instigation and instruction of the mind consciousness. Only when the manas has desires does it drive the six consciousnesses to create bodily, verbal, and mental actions in accordance with its own desires. In the course of their operation, the six consciousnesses each also have their own desires, which in turn influence and transform the manas, causing it to extinguish its own desires or to give rise to new ones.

If someone is not a bodhisattva of vast mind-capacity, not a bodhisattva whose mind is partially or entirely in a state of non-action, and he claims that he acts with absolutely no desires or seeking, it is best not to believe him. When such a person comes over to make contact with you, he certainly already has something he seeks and has purposefulness; it is only a question of whether that purpose is right or wrong, wholesome or unwholesome.

If the manas had no purpose, He would simply rest and do nothing at all. Even the Buddha's manas has purposefulness — for the sake of sentient beings attaining liberation. When the Buddha came to the Saha world, He came with purposefulness; otherwise, why would the Buddha come at all? Some people have purposes but do not know it themselves, cannot detect it, or deliberately refrain from detecting it. When the mind consciousness is not subtle enough, it cannot know the manas' hidden desires and purposes.