The Thinking of the Manas and the Knowing of the Manas

The manas, like the mind consciousness, is a consciousness; both possess the mental factor of volition (cetaskā-dharma), and both can deliberate, think, and ponder. Because the vast majority of people cannot observe the deliberation of the manas, they believe there is a difference between the deliberation of the manas and that of the mind consciousness, calling the deliberation of the mind consciousness "thinking" (cintana) and the deliberation of the manas "pondering" (manasikāra), holding that thinking is not pondering and pondering is not thinking. If one says the manas deliberates and thinks, they consider it wrong, saying that is the thinking of the mind consciousness; if one speaks of the mental activities of the manas, many people say that is wrong too, that those are the mental activities of the mind consciousness. Therefore, being unable to observe the mental activities of the manas while still wanting to study Yogācāra, and being stubborn at heart, is very troublesome.

Why do many people say that the deliberation of the manas is very deep and hidden, difficult to observe? The reason is that sentient beings take the knowing of the mind consciousness as their knowing; whatever the mind consciousness knows, sentient beings know, and whatever the mind consciousness does not know, they do not know. If the mind consciousness lacks sufficient wisdom, does not know the mental activities of the manas, and does not know what the manas knows, then sentient beings do not know the mental activities of the manas or what the manas knows, and thus feel that the mental activities of the manas are very deep, hidden, and subtle. In fact, it is the ignorance of the mind consciousness that should be blamed. When the mind consciousness has wisdom, when its wisdom is unobstructed and it can directly observe the mental activities of the manas, it will no longer feel that the manas is profound and hard to understand, no longer feel that the manas is hidden and hard to know, and will no longer misapprehend the mental factors of the manas.

What would happen if sentient beings all took the knowing of the manas as their knowing? If sentient beings all took the knowing of the manas as their knowing, then whatever the manas does not know would be unknown. If the manas does not know what the mind consciousness knows—no matter what the mind consciousness knows or how many dharmas it knows—the manas does not know it, and that means sentient beings do not know it. Thus those theories learned by the mind consciousness would be of little use; the manas moreover does not know the eighth consciousness, and attaining enlightenment would be even more difficult. At that time sentient beings would say: the mental activities of the mind consciousness are deep, subtle, and hard to know, very concealed and difficult to fathom, and the eighth consciousness is even deeper, more hidden, and harder to know, with extremely subtle modes of activity. In reality, whether dharmas are hidden or not, manifest or not, depends on the wisdom of consciousness, not on the dharmas themselves. When there is wisdom, any dharma is manifest, easy to know and easy to understand; without wisdom, even the most manifest dharma feels deep and hidden. Therefore, after the sixth and seventh consciousnesses undergo the transformation of consciousness into wisdom, the mind consciousness can directly observe the mental activities of the manas as well as those of the eighth consciousness, and does not find it very difficult. The Buddha observes all dharmas with ease, and can even know all dharmas without observing, having all dharmas perfectly clear in His mind.

If sentient beings took the knowing of the manas as their knowing, they would have supernatural powers, and perhaps there would be no secrets among one another; past lives and future lives would all be clearly known. In this way they could know causes and understand effects, and perhaps, in order to suffer less evil retribution, would create less evil karma. Yet there are still many people with heavy grasping at self who, even knowing clearly that they have suffered much because of creating evil karma, still continually create evil karma—like those who repeatedly go to prison, incorrigible to the end. Moreover, because the manas lacks the obvious guiding function of the mind consciousness, being simple and naive, its emotional attachments would be even heavier, its self-nature even stronger; the mind consciousness would find it hard to restrain Him, the probability of creating evil karma would be greater, and the eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) would be even more difficult.

What would it be like if sentient beings all took the knowing of the eighth consciousness as their knowing? The eighth consciousness does not know or see worldly dharmas, does not know self, others, he, or she, does not see forms or hear sounds, and does not know the realms of the six sense objects. In that case, sentient beings could not survive; the six faculties would be closed off, and they would be in a state of nirvāṇa. Would this be good or not? Some would say that then bodhisattvas could not deliver sentient beings; but at that time, what sentient being would not already be in a state of nirvāṇa and still need the Buddhas and bodhisattvas to deliver them? If sentient beings all took the knowing of the eighth consciousness as their knowing, there would be no need to study Buddhism or the Dharma, and there would be no distinction between Buddhas and sentient beings.

If sentient beings all took the knowing of the five sense consciousnesses as their knowing, they could not survive, and the world of the five aggregates could not function and operate. Because the five sense consciousnesses only discern the coarse five sense objects, not the subtle five sense objects, much less understand mental dharmas; they do not know the mind consciousness, do not know the manas, do not know the eighth consciousness, and apart from the coarse five sense-object realms, they know nothing. If even the mind consciousness were not known, how could the coarse realms of the five sense objects be known? The five sense consciousnesses must cooperate with the mind consciousness in discernment in order to know the coarse marks of the five sense objects; but knowing only the coarse marks of the five sense objects, not their subtle marks, not knowing mental sense-objects, not knowing mental dharmas—one absolutely could not survive. In short, if one wishes to know all dharmas, whichever consciousness's knowing is primary, that consciousness must possess great wisdom, transforming consciousness into wisdom; only with a consciousness of wisdom can one know all dharmas.