Who Grasps the Grasping in the Five Grasping Aggregates (pañca-upādāna-skandha)?

The five grasping aggregates are necessarily grasped by the manas. Because the manas exists life after life without perishing, and is the master consciousness that makes decisions, from beginningless kalpas it has always regarded itself as the master of all dharmas. Therefore it must grasp and cling to all dharmas, seizing upon every dharma, so that all dharmas can exist without perishing; if the manas no longer grasps them, all dharmas will certainly not manifest, and the self must vanish. Because the manas grasps the aggregate of form, the aggregate of feeling, the aggregate of perception, the aggregate of formations, and the aggregate of consciousness, the five aggregates arise and cease, cease and arise again, being born endlessly, never cut off, never disappearing. Why is this so? Because the tathāgatagarbha forever accords with and cooperates with the manas, knowing its mental activities and wishes; when the manas grasps and clings, the tathāgatagarbha will manifest [the aggregates], and the five aggregates will not vanish and perish. Of course, karmic seeds and karmic conditions are also required here; if the manas no longer grasps, the karmic seeds are extinguished, the karmic conditions do not arise, all dharmas do not manifest, and the five aggregates disappear.

The manas grasps the aggregate of form, clinging to appearances and seizing upon and craving the physical body; therefore it delights in a life of fine clothes and exquisite food, craving enjoyment in eating, clothing, dwelling, and daily use, and it painstakingly maintains and cares for the physical body.

The manas grasps the aggregate of feeling, craving sensations and clinging to feelings. For example, when drinking tea, if one finds the tea delicious, one reaches out to take the cup and pour tea, cup after cup, slowly savoring its flavor until fully satisfied. Who directs the conscious mind to crave the tea's flavor and these sensations in this way? It is the manas that directs and leads this. Because the manas clings to the tea's lingering charm and clings to feelings, it does not hesitate to waste precious time savoring tea; some people even crave the taste of alcohol, indulging their addiction to drink, not caring that it harms the body. Another example: when sitting in meditation, if body and mind feel comfortable, the body does not want to move, the mind becomes lazy, and one no longer likes to consider problems. This is because the manas does not want to move; craving the comfortable feelings, it will not let the body get up and move about. Because meditative concentration is comfortable, the manas grasps the feelings of sitting in meditation and does not want to move or leave concentration. The manas unknowingly grasps and craves many feelings without knowing it itself, because it is very difficult for the manas to introspect upon its own craving for these feelings. Only when the mind consciousness, after awakening through studying the Dharma, continually hints at and restrains the manas can the manas be subdued, so that it no longer craves and clings to feelings, and one can attain liberation, no longer bound by feelings.

The manas grasps the aggregate of perception: there is nothing in the world, great or small, that it does not want to know. It attends to all news, domestic and foreign; it is interested in everything about other people, whether related to oneself or not; regardless of whether one should know it, it wants to know everything. Both ears hear all the affairs of the world; both eyes behold all the scenery of the world; the mind is filled with people and events of the past, future, and present. Because the manas grasps the aggregate of perception, every day it must watch television and read newspapers, collecting all kinds of information and materials—all of this is the manas grasping the aggregate of perception and directing the six consciousnesses to create these activities.

The manas grasps the aggregate of formations: throughout the day it engages in ceaseless activity, unwilling to rest idly for a while or abide quietly for even a moment. If there is something to do in the east, it goes east; if there is something in the west, it goes west; wherever there is something to do, there it shows up—its bodily, verbal, and mental actions never cease. With the manas grasping the aggregate of formations like this, how can there be samādhi?

The manas grasps the aggregate of consciousness: eyes watching in all six directions, ears listening in all eight directions, the mind's thoughts churning, initial application and sustained examination (vitarka-vicāra) unceasing, fantasies of past and future arising in profusion, unwilling to let the mind settle down and be at leisure. Because the manas grasps the conscious nature of the six consciousnesses, it is unwilling to let them cease, so seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing continue without interruption. If the manas is pure and does not want useless activity, the six consciousnesses will become tranquil.