Evidence that the Manas Has Three Kinds of Vedanā (1)

The sixth and seventh consciousnesses both have feelings (vedanā) toward their respective realms. The first five consciousnesses also have feelings toward the five sense-object realms. These feelings are often non-emotional, relatively simple sensations—simply receiving the realms of form, sound, smell, taste, and touch. The feeling of the mind consciousness is at first a simple receiving and apprehending; after cognition, there arises feeling with emotional coloring. Joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness all manifest, and mental activities are extremely numerous and complex.

The manas also has feelings. The contents discriminated and known by the six consciousnesses are all transmitted to the manas. The manas receives the detailed information transmitted by the six consciousnesses and thus has its own feelings. The manas also, relying on the eighth consciousness, is able to see the images of all dharmas that the eighth consciousness takes as objects. He can discern all dharmas, and therefore there are feelings that the various consciousnesses do not have, and feelings not known by the mind consciousness. For example, when the manas, relying on the eighth consciousness, discerns that oneself or a close relative is about to have an accident, the mind becomes anxious, afraid, worried, agitated, terrified, and uneasy, giving rise to various painful feelings. This then impels the six consciousnesses to do some unreasonable and inexplicable things. The mind consciousness also manifests emotions such as panic and unease, yet does not know why. If the manas discerns that a happy event will soon occur, there will be pleasant feelings such as joy and delight in the mind, and the mind consciousness will have inexplicable happiness and experience pleasant feelings.

The feelings that arise in the manas based on the situations discriminated by the six consciousnesses: for example, during the day one experiences an event; at night when free, the mind consciousness carefully recalls and analyzes it, and then realizes it was not as it appeared on the surface. The more the mind consciousness thinks about it, the angrier it becomes. At this time, when the manas knows it, it also becomes angry, and then one may manifest discomfort in the heart, an increasingly unpleasant facial expression, or make new decisions.

Some say that the feeling of the manas is simply neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā), without painful or pleasant feelings. But if the manas had no painful or pleasant feelings and only neutral feeling, it should, like the eighth consciousness, be able to tolerate all dharmas, being neither interested in nor avoiding and rejecting any dharma. It would not impel the body and mind to create emotional behaviors such as joy, sorrow, anger, and happiness, and no excessive behaviors or emotions would appear. The body and mind should remain plain, quiet, and stable. But we can see that the manas is not like this. Especially those who have not subdued their afflictions and lack self-cultivation are severely emotional. Many times the mind consciousness does not know why it is so. Those who are melancholy like Lin Daiyu, and those who are irritable like asuras, are the result of the manas having painful feelings that cannot be endured. When the habitual tendencies of the manas are too strong, the mind consciousness finds it very difficult to control the appearance of these emotions. This shows that the manas does not have only neutral feeling. Because of painful feelings, the manas has corresponding afflictions; because of pleasant feelings, it also has corresponding afflictions.