The Attention of the Manas Is One of the Conditions for the Functioning of Mind Consciousness

In the seventh consciousness's discernment of all dharmas and in the study and practice of the Buddhadharma, the mental factor of attention (manasikāra) arises, and in all cases it is dominated by the attention of the manas, which triggers the attention of the six consciousnesses. The attention of the manas has preconditions; it requires certain causes and conditions, and when the causes and conditions differ, its attention also differs. Toward what it is interested in, it will attend with greed and clinging; toward what it is not interested in or finds repulsive, it will attend with the intention to immediately distance itself; toward what it considers unimportant, after attending, it will no longer make contact.

The manas is attending at all times and in all places, and its attention differs in weight and duration, which has a certain influence on the arising of the mind consciousness. The preconditions for the arising of the mind consciousness are: the eighth consciousness, the attention of the manas, karmic seeds, the seeds of its own consciousness, and mental objects (dharma-āyatana). When the manas makes contact with mental objects and the mental factor of intention (cetanā) arises, wishing to specifically discern the mental objects, only then does the eighth consciousness give rise to the mind consciousness to discern them. If the manas does not attend, meaning it pays no attention and attaches no importance to the mental objects, then the mental factor of intention will not arise with the wish to discern them, and the eighth consciousness will not actively give rise to the mind consciousness to discern them.

The manas pervasively conditions on all dharmas; it can condition on all of them. The mental factors of attention, contact, feeling, perception, and intention also follow the manas moment by moment. However, the manas can make choices: some mental objects it does not attend to, while others it must attend to. For important mental objects, the duration of attention must be long, with repeated attention and focused attention, followed by repeated contact, feeling, perception, and intention, with focused deliberation, repeated deliberation, and prolonged deliberation. Then the mind consciousness must repeatedly and continuously discern, attend, contact, feel, perceive, and intend for a long time.

The activities and mental activities of the mind consciousness must all revolve around the manas, submit to the manas, and be directed by the manas. What the manas considers important, the mind consciousness must discern as a priority; what the manas is interested in, the mind consciousness must continuously discern. What the manas does not pay much attention to, the mind consciousness discerns lightly; what the manas wishes to avoid, the mind consciousness will inevitably avoid discerning, and the eighth consciousness will not give rise to the mind consciousness. However, because the inertial force of the manas is too strong, even if the mind consciousness very much wishes to avoid certain mental objects and does not want to discern them, and the manas also wishes to avoid them, due to the inertial force, it cannot avoid them after all, and the mental objects will certainly appear in the mind consciousness.

There are some objects of the six sense spheres that the six consciousnesses fundamentally do not wish to discern, yet they still enter the minds of the six consciousnesses. This is because of the manas's pervasive tendency to grasp at objects, a habit that is deeply ingrained; even wishing not to grasp and striving to avoid grasping cannot be accomplished. Sometimes, the more one deliberately tries to avoid, the more one cannot avoid, and discernment is even intensified. This is precisely because the inertial force of the manas is too powerful; it can unconsciously make contact with mental objects and attend to them. In many cases, it is not that one is interested in the six sense objects, but rather that one grasps and attends aimlessly. Habitual, aimless attention is the scatteredness of the manas, which leads to the scatteredness of the mind consciousness, making it impossible to collect body and mind, and impossible to settle into concentration and bring peace to the mind. Such a manas requires the mind consciousness to continuously guide it, continuously rebuke it, and transform it, only then can the manas gradually be tamed.