What dharmas does the manas deliberate on?

The object-aspects (nimitta) transformed and manifested by the eighth consciousness include both material sense-objects (rūpa-dharma-viṣaya) and mental sense-objects (citta-dharma-viṣaya), and the manas deliberates upon all of them, including deliberation on the material sense-objects of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas, and deliberation on the mental sense-objects of the six consciousnesses and the mental factors (caittas). The manas can also deliberate upon itself; when it deliberates upon itself, that is the manas's self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana) manifesting and operating. After enlightenment, the manas gains great wisdom and can even deliberate upon the eighth consciousness. Many object-aspects that the six consciousnesses cannot discern or contact, the manas can also deliberate upon, without needing the mind consciousness to provide information and assistance. From this it can be seen that the range of what the manas attends to is extremely broad, and the objects and contents of its deliberation are extremely numerous; therefore, attaining meditative concentration (samādhi) with it involves considerable difficulty, and subduing it is far more difficult than subduing the mind consciousness.

The manas's deliberation on material sense-objects, for example its deliberation on the physical body: relying on the eighth consciousness, it can attend to the body faculty (kāya-indriya) and thereby discern the various states of the body faculty. Then it deliberates on how to make the body faculty act and change, how to keep the body in the most comfortable and pleasing state, how to eliminate discomfort and pain from the body, how to keep the body from dangers and accidents, how to let the body rest and recover from fatigue, how to lighten the body's burden, how to make the breathing smooth, and so on. It also deliberates during sleep on what posture the body should be in to be stable and comfortable; if it is uncomfortable, the manas will make the body turn over, scratch an itch, urinate or defecate, and so on. Regarding bodily discomfort or accidents, after deliberation, the manas will make the six consciousnesses wake up to discern and handle them, so as to prevent the body from being damaged or becoming abnormal.

The manas first makes a rough deliberation on the form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas it contacts; only after deliberating can it decide whether to let the six consciousnesses discern and act upon them in detail, or direct the six consciousnesses to avoid them, letting the body accept or evade them. Some mental sense-objects, after the manas deliberates on them, are beyond the six consciousnesses' capacity to contact and handle, and can only be handled with the eighth consciousness's cooperation; therefore, after some matters are concluded, the six consciousnesses do not know about them and have no awareness of them. As for the mental sense-objects the manas deliberates on, if the deliberation is not completed, it will not make a decision; it must keep deliberating, to the point that it manifests in dreams at night, though the mind consciousness does not necessarily know what significance it has.

This deliberative nature of the manas operates simultaneously with the six consciousnesses' bodily, verbal, and mental actions, without mutual obstruction; this is the seemingly mindless performance of bodily, verbal, and mental actions, which people call being absent-minded. Yet this deliberation of the manas is very deep, often with a persistent, unrelenting drive, and is not easily detected. The cultivation states of some Chan practitioners investigating a huatou are just like this: whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, abiding mindfulness of this very object, unrelenting, hanging a huatou deep within the mind's thought, reaching deep into the manas—not the shallow thinking and analysis of the mind consciousness.

When the manas's deliberative nature is engaged, deep realization becomes possible, thereby opening the treasure trove of wisdom. Once the manas accepts and realizes something, the mind's operations undergo a qualitative leap, and the body and mind change greatly—far more profound and clear than the views easily obtained by the mind consciousness. Because this is personally realized by the manas, not hearsay acquired by the six consciousnesses, not obtained from others or conjectured by the six consciousnesses, one believes it deeply without doubt; the mind is shaken, the mind's operations change, and this kind of cultivation solves the great problem at its root.

The manas's deliberation on mental sense-objects is deliberation on the six consciousnesses' discernment of the six sense-objects, and on whether that discernment has been completed, whether the six consciousnesses are fatigued, whether they need rest or should continue discerning, and whether the six consciousnesses like or are weary of the six sense-objects. After deliberating, the manas will decide whether to let the six consciousnesses cease their activity and stop their current bodily, verbal, and mental actions, or decide to switch the six consciousnesses to another realm of the six sense-objects, shifting to other objects and contents.

The manas also has a deliberative nature toward itself; this is part of its self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana). It will deliberate on whether its decision just now was correct and in accord with reason, whether it has been completed, and whether it needs supplementing or revision. After deliberating, the manas may change its decision, or become even more firm in its decision, determined to put it into action and to achieve the goal. Some people's manas has great inertial force; those called very stubborn are like this: the manas clearly knows its decision just now was wrong and should be changed, yet it persists to the end regardless of the outcome, and it lacks the wisdom to deliberate on and attend to the consequences of matters. Therefore, some people's manas has wisdom, while some people's manas lacks wisdom; their deliberative natures differ, their powers of decision differ, and the results vary in a thousand ways.

The manas's deliberation on the eighth consciousness can only proceed by relying on the mind consciousness's thinking and guidance; the manas cannot awaken to the eighth consciousness automatically on its own. Because the manas's ignorance is deeply rooted, having existed since beginningless kalpas; since beginningless kalpas it has been together with the eighth consciousness, yet does not know it, and even appropriates the eighth consciousness's functions as its own. After the mind consciousness studies the principles of the eighth consciousness, it constantly perfumes the manas, enabling the manas also to discern the nature of the eighth consciousness. The manas will then deliberate on and know the nature of the eighth consciousness, and if it wants to seek and realize the eighth consciousness, it will decide to investigate Chan (canchan).

After realizing the eighth consciousness, through the mind consciousness's observation and contemplation of the eighth consciousness, the manas will deliberate on the eighth consciousness's function of giving rise to all dharmas, deliberate on the selflessness of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha), deliberate on the selflessness of the six consciousnesses, and also deliberate on the selflessness of the manas itself; it can then give rise to great wisdom, increasingly accepting that the five aggregates, the six consciousnesses, and the manas itself are all not real, and thereby can eradicate the attachment to self. It also gradually ceases to regard the eighth consciousness's functions and operations as its own. The manas's wisdom becomes ever deeper, its selflessness ever greater, its ignorance ever fainter, and its mind's operations ever more pure and equanimous. After the manas achieves the transformation of consciousness into wisdom (āśraya-parāvṛtti), it can deliberate on the eighth consciousness independently, no longer being deluded about many dharmas as belonging to itself; its mind's operations are selfless, and its equanimity grows ever stronger.