The Principle and Process of Manas' Discernment

When a large cluster of colors appears, if the manas chooses purple, it will let the six consciousnesses remain focused on appreciating it; upon seeing a pink flower, it will never take a second look. Since the manas has such a capacity for choice, it shows that the manas knows the differences among the various colors. Thus the manas can contact the entirety of the six sense objects, and it also has a certain power of determination (adhimokṣa) regarding the six sense objects; that it can enable the six consciousnesses to focus and appreciate shows that the manas is also constantly in contact, and therefore the manas also has meditative concentration (samādhi). If the manas lacked concentration and ran off to other sense-object realms, the six consciousnesses would immediately vanish from the original sense-object realm.

Searching among a large bunch of fresh flowers for the violet that one is very fond of shows that the manas has desire, has the mental factor of desire (chanda). If the manas did not want to see the violet, it would not give rise to the six consciousnesses to search for the violet. Where the manas does not reach, the six consciousnesses will not appear.