The Decisive Role of the Manas

When the eye faculty contacts material sense-objects, this is divided into the outer eye faculty contacting outer material sense-objects, and the inner eye faculty contacting inner material sense-objects. Only when the inner eye faculty contacts inner material sense-objects can eye consciousness arise to discern material sense-objects. But the eye faculty is material form, not mind—how could it actively contact material sense-objects? For example, if there are trees, stones, grass, and fresh flowers before one's eyes, how does the eye faculty choose to contact only the fresh flowers, so that eye consciousness then discerns only the flowers and not the other objects? How long does the contact of the eye faculty with material sense-objects take, and how long does eye consciousness take to discern the fresh flowers—what determines this?

All of this is determined by the manas. The manas is the sovereign of the five-aggregate body, the one who makes decisions. Of course, the manas is a false master, merely a fox borrowing the tiger's might; behind it, it relies on the true master, the eighth consciousness, yet does not know it. When this false master, the manas, faces numerous inner material sense-objects, it alone selects the fresh flowers, because the mind delights in the flowers, and there is currently nothing else to attend to—it only wishes to admire the flowers. If there were important matters at hand, it would have no time for the flowers.

When the manas wishes to look at the fresh flowers, the material sense-object of the flowers has already fallen upon the inner eye faculty. As soon as the manas makes its decision, eye consciousness will arise; thus the three—eye faculty, material sense-object, and eye consciousness—come together in contact, and eye consciousness discerns the material sense-object of the fresh flowers. How long eye consciousness discerns is determined by the manas. When the manas has admired enough and no longer wishes to look at the flowers, eye consciousness then ceases upon the flowers and arises elsewhere. In this process, seeds fall and are deposited into the eighth consciousness, giving rise to future becoming. Moreover, the manas's craving and the mind consciousness's craving are also faithfully recorded by the eighth consciousness, becoming seeds. Eye consciousness also has slight craving; it has craving only by complying with the manas and the mind consciousness. Eye consciousness cannot make decisions at all—it is completely beyond its own control.

If we wish to attain liberation from worldly suffering, we should not let our actions deposit seeds, especially seeds of greed, hatred, and delusion. What should we do then? We must control the mental activity of the manas, not allowing afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, and not letting the six consciousnesses perform unwholesome bodily, verbal, and mental actions—or at least perform fewer of them—and when performing actions, not give rise to afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion. Even if seeds are left behind, let them be pure karmic seeds.

Who determines whether fewer karmic actions are performed? It is determined by the manas. The source of karmic actions lies in the manas. "Ignorance conditions volitional formations" (avidyā-pratyayāḥ saṃskārāḥ) refers to the manas: due to various reasons, various mental activities, and various ignorances, the manas wishes to act, and only then do karmic actions appear and karmic seeds get deposited, and only then does future suffering arise. Once the source of the suffering of birth and death is found in this way, how one should conduct oneself in the world hereafter should become clear. Reduce contact, reduce the duration of contact; if contact is unavoidable, then during contact reduce or eliminate mental activity, letting the mind be as empty as possible, so that no seeds of affliction are deposited. Train yourself in this way gradually, and liberation will have hope.