Why are the mental factors (caittas) 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 one's guidance and needs no change; in practice one can only apply the mind to the manas. When the manas is transformed, a person is transformed—from an ordinary being to a Buddha at the stage of fruition. And only by transforming the manas can all dharmas be transformed. All ignorance resides in the manas; when the ignorance of the manas is utterly exhausted, one becomes a Buddha. Transforming the manas transforms the seeds; when all the seeds are completely 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 the mind consciousness and its ignorance exist. The mind consciousness and its ignorance are easy to eliminate—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 meditative concentration and the power of observation are severely lacking, one cannot realize the manas, let alone observe the operation of the manas's mental factors. Then the state of the manas's operation in any given dharma is neither known nor realized, and yet one dares to rashly deny the various mental activities of the manas, insisting on describing them as mental activities of the mind consciousness.

If the manas does not realize the Dharma, it cannot eliminate ignorance; even eliminating the ignorance of the mind consciousness is useless and changes nothing. It now appears that no matter what one does with the mind consciousness, it is of no use; 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.

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 intends to do good, after the wholesome mental factors arise, they inevitably bring about the birth of the mind consciousness's wholesome mental factors, 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 operation. Thus the birth of the six consciousnesses serves to cooperate with the manas, to execute this wholesome act of generosity. Therefore, the mental factors of the mind consciousness, upon arising, 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 operation. Thus the birth of the six consciousnesses serves to cooperate with the manas, to execute this wholesome act of generosity. Therefore, the mental factors of the mind consciousness, upon arising, are necessarily wholesome, consistent with the mental factors of the manas. If the manas does not wish to practice generosity, then with regard to this wholesome act of generosity, there is no birth or operation of the mind consciousness and its mental factors. That is to say, whenever the mental factors of a consciousness-mind operate, the three natures will appear. Therefore, to purify the consciousness-minds, one need only purify the mental factors of the manas at the root, and the other consciousness-minds will thereby be purified as well.

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 carry them out itself. 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 the 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 claim, that the manas has only a portion of the mental factors. If the manas's mental factors were incomplete, the manas would be unable to make decisions and create karma in many matters. For matters in which 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 if, after deliberation (manana), it feels something is wrong, it can also change its mental factors and then 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 thoughts, it can also change the manas's thoughts—this is the influencing role of the mind consciousness. Changing the manas is always accomplished through the mind consciousness's influence. Through experiencing something, the mind consciousness will ponder the pros and cons, and thus the manas will come to know the pros and cons, and in future actions will make choices accordingly. It is only that the mind consciousness's influence may be fast or slow, depending on the wisdom and skillful means of the mind consciousness.