Why do the five sense consciousnesses arise before the mind consciousness?

The objects perceived by the five sense consciousnesses are directly perceived real objects (性境), formed from the combination of the five great real seeds, and are real objects. What the mind consciousness perceives is the object with essence (带质境), which manifests by relying on the real object; it is equivalent to a supplementary explanation of the real object, and is therefore an unreal, false object. Apart from the real object, there is no object with essence; the real object comes first, and the object with essence comes afterward. Therefore, the five sense consciousnesses are born first and discern the real object, and the manifesting-object appears in front of the eyes first; the mind consciousness is born afterward and discerns the object with essence, with visible form and expressive form appearing later, and the non-expressive form discerned by the solitary consciousness appearing last. If the five sense consciousnesses have not yet discerned the real object, upon what could the mind consciousness rely to discern the object with essence? The object with essence carries whose essence? If there is no essence, it does not constitute an object with essence. Therefore, the five sense consciousnesses must first be born and discern the real object before the mind consciousness can be born and discern the object with essence. After the two together discern the objects of the six sense objects, the solitary consciousness arises to perform thought, analysis, definition, consideration, summarization, and so forth upon the object with essence, carrying out information processing. Then it is uploaded to the manas, allowing the manas to make a decision.

If the manas merely wishes to simply discern the sense objects and has no other thoughts, and the mind is relatively pure, then the five sense consciousnesses and the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses (pañcavijñāna-sahagata-manovijñāna) together discern the sense objects, and it is enough to know what the objects are and upload that to the manas; there is no need for the solitary consciousness to appear, no need for all kinds of thought, analysis, and various speculations. The six consciousnesses simply discern and simply know, without additional thoughts and mental activities. In cultivating meditative concentration (samādhi), the first step is to remove the mental activities of the solitary consciousness, not letting the solitary consciousness appear, knowing the objects with indifference, and finally gradually not knowing, not discriminating, not discerning—then the mind becomes tranquil. Some people, in cultivating samādhi, close off the five sense consciousnesses and the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses, while the solitary consciousness drifts across five thousand years, refusing to stop, so the mind cannot become still; in the end, the six consciousnesses must contact sense objects and discern them, and samādhi cannot be established. Therefore, the solitary consciousness is harder to subdue than the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses and the five sense consciousnesses.