The Dharmas Contacted by the Manas That the Mind Consciousness Does Not Know

The manas is bound together with the tathāgatagarbha. Whatever dharma the tathāgatagarbha manifests, the manas contacts that dharma and sees that dharma. However, the manas's discernment also has points of focus and levels of depth. If the dharma it attends to is not clearly discerned by itself, it will direct its attention and make a choice, and the six consciousnesses will come forth to discern it. If the manas can discern a dharma clearly by itself but cannot handle it, it will direct its attention and make a choice to let the six consciousnesses come forth to discern and handle it.

There are an immense number of dharmas that the manas can discern clearly by itself and that require no handling, of which the mind consciousness knows nothing; likewise, there are an immense number of dharmas contacted by the manas that do not require discernment by the six consciousnesses, of which the mind consciousness also knows nothing. The dharmas that the manas contacts and discerns clearly are also extremely numerous, and those it wants the mind consciousness to know and handle are also extremely numerous; yet because the mind consciousness lacks sufficient wisdom, it cannot know them, remaining muddle-headed, and may even feel baffled by the manas's hints and suggestions, so that in the end the matter is left unresolved.

The tathāgatagarbha manifests the realms of the six sense objects. When the six sense objects first appear, it is the manas that contacts and discerns them first. If the manas cannot discern the six sense objects clearly, the six consciousnesses come forth to discern them carefully. When the six consciousnesses first begin to discern, they have nothing to compare the six sense objects against, and so they too cannot discern them clearly; the mind consciousness feels everything is vague and blurry. Only after several instants of discernment, when the earlier and later sense objects can be compared and the object-realms become connected into a continuum, does the mind consciousness know what the six sense objects are. For example, when writing a character: after the first stroke is written, no one knows what the character is; after the second stroke, still no one knows; after the third stroke, one can vaguely guess what the character is; and after the fourth stroke, one knows what the character is.