The Six Consciousnesses as Subordinates and Advisors to Manas

Does a commander need to think, analyze, and deliberate upon receiving intelligence information through his Manas? Does he need to conduct research and processing? Does he need to make strategic arrangements and deployments? Even if he fully agrees with the suggestions from the Six Consciousnesses acting as his staff, must he still go through his own thinking, research, analysis, and judgment, engaging in his own mental activities, before finally agreeing and making a decision? Should staff subordinates and the commander each have their own mental activities, their own wisdom and strategies, their own methods, their own experiences, and so forth? The same applies to Manas and the Six Consciousnesses.

Outsiders can only see the investigative role of the subordinate staff but cannot observe the commander's process of thinking through and processing intelligence before making a decision. Thus, they attribute all credit for combat command to the subordinate staff. Is such a claim reasonable?

Ninety-nine percent of us, or even more, can only see the achievements of the subordinates and completely fail to perceive the commander's hard work. Because they cannot interact with the commander or witness his decision-making process, they assume all the work was done by the subordinate staff, and the commander merely agreed, nodded, and made the final decision.

Buddhist practitioners often deny doctrines they neither know nor realize. Not seeing something, they claim it does not exist, trusting only themselves while refusing to acknowledge their own lack of wisdom. This is a common phenomenon, and it is how slandering the Dharma arises.

Proponents of the Six Consciousnesses theory are ubiquitous in the Saha World. Because they cannot realize the Eighth Consciousness, cannot realize Manas, and cannot observe the functions of these two transforming consciousnesses, they deny them.

There are also some who, while believing in the existence of the Eighth Consciousness or having slightly realized it, cannot realize Manas or directly observe its operation. Thus, they deny the various functions of Manas, becoming proponents of the Seven Consciousnesses theory, which is also highly problematic.