Why Are the Mental Factors of the Manas Not Fewer Than Those of the Mind Consciousness?

In the cultivation and realization of Yogācāra, the manas is the core, because the tathāgatagarbha needs no guidance from anyone and needs no change; in practice one can only apply one's mind to the manas. Change the manas, and you change the person—from an ordinary being to a Buddha at the stage of fruition. And only by changing the manas can all dharmas be changed. All ignorance resides in the manas; when the ignorance of the manas is completely eradicated, one becomes a Buddha. Changing the manas changes the seeds; when all the seeds are purified and transformed, one becomes a Buddha. The ignorance of the mind consciousness all comes from the manas; it is only by relying on the manas that there is the mind consciousness and the ignorance of the mind consciousness. The mind consciousness and its ignorance are easy to eradicate—it is not difficult at all. The difficulty lies in the manas. Therefore, the mental factors of the manas cannot be fewer than those of the mind consciousness; they should be roughly the same as the mental factors of the mind consciousness. If both the power of meditative concentration and the power of observation are severely insufficient, one cannot realize the manas, let alone observe the operation of the manas's mental factors. Not knowing and not realizing the state of the manas's operation in any given dharma, one then dares to rashly deny the various mental activities of the manas, insisting that they are the mental activities of the mind consciousness.

If the manas does not realize the Dharma, it cannot eradicate ignorance; even eradicating the ignorance of the mind consciousness is useless and cannot change anything. It now appears that no matter what one does with the mind consciousness, it is useless; the cultivation and realization of all dharmas must penetrate deep into the manas before the fundamental problem can be solved. Once this line of thinking is clearly understood, there should be nothing more to say about the cultivation and realization of the Buddha's teachings.

The Relationship Between the Mental Factors of the Mind Consciousness and the Mental Factors of the Manas

Question: "After the consciousness seeds give birth to and form the seven consciousnesses, the mental factors operate alongside them, and only then do the consciousness-minds have the three natures of wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral (avyākṛta)." These mental factors belong to the mental factors of the manas, right? Because the manas contains both innate and discriminating habitual tendencies, whereas when the first six consciousnesses are born and formed from consciousness seeds, they should all be pure; it is only after being influenced by the mental factors of the manas that they acquire the three natures. Is this understanding correct?

Answer: Whichever consciousness is operating, the mental factors of that consciousness operate alongside it. Because the mind consciousness is regulated and directed by the manas, once the mind consciousness begins to operate, the arising of its own mental factors is inevitably influenced by the mental factors of the manas and regulated by the manas. When the manas wishes to do good, after the wholesome mental factors arise, they inevitably lead the wholesome mental factors of the mind consciousness to be born, in order to carry out the manas's instructions. It is the same when unwholesome mental factors and neutral mental factors arise.

When the manas wants to practice generosity (dāna), it must direct the six consciousnesses to carry out the specific operations; thus the birth of the six consciousnesses is meant to cooperate with the manas, to execute this wholesome deed of giving. Therefore, the mental factors of the mind consciousness, as soon as they are born, are necessarily wholesome, consistent with the mental factors of the manas. When the manas wants to practice generosity, it must direct the six consciousnesses to carry out the specific operations; thus the birth of the six consciousnesses is meant to cooperate with the manas, to execute this wholesome deed of giving. Therefore, the mental factors of the mind consciousness, as soon as they are born, are necessarily wholesome, consistent with the mental factors of the manas. If the manas does not want to give, then with regard to this wholesome deed of giving, there is no birth or operation of the mind consciousness and its mental factors. That is to say, as long as the mental factors of the consciousness-mind operate, the three natures will appear. Therefore, to purify the consciousness-mind, one need only purify the mental factors of the manas at the root, and the other consciousness-minds will be purified accordingly.

When the manas wants to kill and set fires, it will give birth to the six consciousnesses to accomplish this evil deed, because the specific operations of killing and arson can only be completed with the six consciousnesses—the manas cannot perform them. Therefore, as soon as the six consciousnesses are born, their mental factors are necessarily unwholesome, consistent with the mental factors of the manas. Thus the manas must possess all wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral mental factors in order to enable the six consciousnesses to possess all mental factors to carry out bodily, verbal, and mental actions. It is not as some people say, that the manas has only a portion of the mental factors. If the mental factors of the manas were incomplete, the manas would be unable to make decisions and create in many matters; and in matters where the manas does not make the decision, how could the six consciousnesses carry them out?

The mental factors of the mind consciousness are at first consistent with those of the manas, but after deliberation (manasikāra), if it feels something is not right, it will also change its mental factors and turn back to persuade and influence the manas. There are times when the mind consciousness goes against the manas. For example, the manas may want to do something bad, but the mind consciousness hesitates and does not carry it out; after changing its ideas, it can also change the manas's ideas—this is the influencing role of the mind consciousness. Changing the manas is always done through the influence of the mind consciousness. Whenever it experiences something, the mind consciousness will ponder the pros and cons; in this way the manas will come to know the pros and cons, and in future actions it will know what to accept and what to reject. The only difference is that the mind consciousness's influence may be fast or slow, depending on the wisdom and skillful means of the mind consciousness.