In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the World-Honored One Explains the Origin of the World

All the ignorance of sentient beings is beginningless; it is all called beginningless ignorance (anādi-avidyā), all of it having existed since beginningless kalpas ago. Since that is so, with which mind-entity does beginningless ignorance primarily correspond? It corresponds to the seventh consciousness, the manas. In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the World-Honored One taught that before beginningless kalpas, when all was chaos and undifferentiated, only the eighth consciousness and the manas existed; there was no threefold world, no world of the five aggregates, and no six consciousnesses. At that time all ignorance already existed; no kind of ignorance came into being after birth. Therefore it is said that all ignorance is the ignorance of the manas. This passage in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra explains the origin of the world; before this, there was no world. Because of ignorance, the manas reached outward in grasping, and thus the world was formed. When there was no world, there could be no body of the five aggregates and no six consciousnesses, for the body of the five aggregates must have a place of dwelling to rely upon. When the world arose, it also took countless kalpas of time.

Why is empty space "the same"? If there were different empty spaces—one empty space per world—then empty space would have boundaries, and what has boundaries is not empty space. This is the process by which the world of the five aggregates was initially formed. Before this, there was a state of chaos. Who was in chaos? The manas was in chaos, because at that time there was no universe, no empty space, no heaven and earth, no world—only two conscious minds. When the manas gave rise to thoughts and reached outward in grasping, it did so imperceptibly and extremely subtly. Thereupon, in accordance with the manas, the eighth consciousness gradually evolved empty space and the world, and afterwards the world of the five aggregates.

Since there was no empty space and no world before beginningless kalpas, did the eighth consciousness and the manas then have concepts of time and space? Was there a manas here and a manas there? Do the eighth consciousness and the manas come and go? Can they move from one place to another? Since the eighth consciousness and the manas have nothing to do with time and space, we should then understand what the supernormal power of unimpeded bodily movement (ṛddhi-vidyā) is really about. We should also understand why rebirth in the lands of the various Buddhas can be reached in an instant.