How to Truthfully Understand the Functions and Roles of the Manas

Why do some people always think that the seventh consciousness, the manas, is incapable of anything? Because the vast majority of people can only see the surface-level functions and roles of the mind consciousness, and cannot see the functions and roles of the manas, they take all the functions and roles of the five aggregates to be those of the mind consciousness, ignoring and erasing the functional role of the manas as the master consciousness. They do not know that the manas is the forerunner of all dharmas. The reason all dharmas arise, and the reason the mind consciousness can contact, discern, and process them, is entirely the result of the manas's choices and decisions. The manas is the head of the household of the five-aggregate body.

If a good-for-nothing incapable of anything were put in charge as the master of the house, one can imagine what that household would be like. Yet in the world there are extremely many people of great merit and great wisdom, whose five-aggregate bodies have performed a great deal of wholesome karma and wise karma—all of which is the result of the manas's leadership. Even in animals, the functions and roles of their manas are quite remarkable, beyond what the six consciousnesses can compare with. Think about it: in a group, large or small, why would its members follow the arrangements and directives of the leader? Apart from power, is there nothing else? If the leader were incompetent and good at nothing, yet the members obeyed his every command, would these members not be even weaker and more incompetent?

It is impossible for a nation's president or head of state to be as proficient as his subordinates in every specific matter and every specific skill, nor can he take on all the work of a secretary. He stands at the commanding height overseeing the whole situation, and cannot do specific work himself. You cannot say that just because the head of state does not come out to deal with the masses directly, does not do specific work, and is not versed in technology, he has no work to do. He is the leader, taking charge of the overall situation and making overall arrangements. His division of labor differs from that of the six consciousnesses; each bears its own responsibility, and only through harmonious cooperation can the entire nation be governed well. The same is true of a five-aggregate body: the manas stands at the commanding height, commanding the whole situation. He cannot, like the mind consciousness, deeply and minutely discern specific sense objects, thinking, reasoning, organizing, summarizing, tallying, analyzing, and deliberating—finely and ever more finely, with everything in place. His energy does not permit him to do this. Only when meditative concentration (samādhi) reaches a certain level, when the energy becomes great and the vitality abundant, can He substitute for the six consciousnesses and dispense with them. The manas of ordinary beings can only use the six consciousnesses to handle specific matters and respond to specific sense objects; otherwise, there would be no need for the six consciousnesses to exist at all.