How to Truly Understand the Functions and Roles of the Manas

Why do some people always believe 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. Therefore, they attribute all the functions and roles of the five aggregates to the mind consciousness, ignoring and erasing the manas' function as the decision-making consciousness. They do not know that the manas is the forerunner of all dharmas. The reason all dharmas appear at all, and the reason the mind consciousness can make contact, discern, and process them, is entirely the result of the manas' choices. 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 of the household, one can imagine what that household would look 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' leadership. Even in animals, the functions and roles of the manas are extremely remarkable, incomparable to those of the six consciousnesses. Think about it: in an organization, large or small, why do members follow the arrangements and directives of the leader? Apart from power, is there nothing else? If the leader is incompetent and good at nothing, yet the members obey his every command, are those members not even weaker and more incompetent?

A nation's president or head of state cannot possibly, like his subordinates, be proficient in every specific matter and every specific skill, nor can he take on the work of a secretary. He stands at the commanding height, overseeing the whole situation; he cannot possibly do the concrete 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 concrete 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 his own responsibility, and only through harmonious cooperation can the entire nation be governed well. It is the same with a five-aggregate body. The manas stands at the commanding height, commanding the whole situation. He cannot possibly, like the mind consciousness, deeply and minutely discern specific sense objects—thinking, reasoning, organizing, summarizing, tallying, analyzing, deliberating, with ever finer detail, everything perfectly in place. His energy does not permit this. Only when meditative concentration (samādhi) reaches a certain level, when the energy becomes great and vitality abundant, can he substitute for the six consciousnesses and dispense with them. The manas of an ordinary being can only rely on the six consciousnesses to handle concrete affairs and respond to specific sense objects; otherwise, there would be no need for the six consciousnesses to exist at all.