Can the Manas and Mind Consciousness Take Only One Object?

The manas cannot attend to only one or two dharmas, but the dharmas it attends to must have priorities and points of emphasis—some it cares about, some it does not; some it applies effort to, some it does not. In this way the key points can be highlighted, allowing the six consciousnesses to discern the important parts. This is meditative concentration (samādhi).

The mind consciousness likewise cannot attend to only one dharma; in many cases it must attend to more than two or three dharmas. For example, when the mind consciousness is in the samādhi of recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti), it focuses primarily on the Buddha's name and the thought of the Buddha, yet the mind consciousness also knows whether it is day or night, knows about walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, knows east, west, south, and north, knows the surrounding circumstances, and knows what to avoid—it is not like a fool who knows nothing but reciting the Buddha's name. Yet the mind consciousness is in the samādhi of meditative concentration. When the eye consciousness is in concentration, it attends only to one object before it, but the eye consciousness also knows light and darkness and so on.

This shows that concentration is not called concentration only when attending to a single dharma; it is when attention is focused and the power of concentration is sufficient that one is in a state of concentration. Some people with strong meditative power have strong focus and can handle several things at the same time, without being distracted toward useless matters.

Although the manas has the characteristic of attending universally, it does not necessarily have to attend to all dharmas simultaneously. Since its energy is limited, it must make certain choices: whatever it currently feels is important and meaningful, it will attend to; dharmas it is habituated to attending to, due to the force of habit, it will certainly attend to, but not necessarily by allocating much energy and attention—just a light touch of the mind is enough.

For example, suppose I have the authority to manage five hundred people, but at any given moment I may not have the energy and interest to take care of all five hundred; at each moment, there will be some selection. The manas is the same: authority is one thing, capability is another, and interest is yet another. Because the manas lacks sufficient meditative power and energy, and its power of wisdom is also insufficient.

The eighth consciousness, however, is different. With its incomparable great samādhi of the Śūraṅgama and its supreme great wisdom, at one and the same time it can attend universally to all dharmas and also process all dharmas at the same time; whether far or near, ancient or modern, it can bless and handle them all without any obstruction of time and space. Therefore the eighth consciousness possesses both concentration and wisdom—absolutely incomparable to the concentration and wisdom of the seven consciousnesses—and it surpasses the imagination of pre-bhūmi bodhisattvas (pūrvabhūmika bodhisattva).

The manas is associated with the mental factor of concentration, but the manas of the vast majority of people has no concentration. Only those who have cultivated meditative concentration have the concentration mental factor in their manas; for those without meditative concentration, the manas has no concentration mental factor. If it were said that even a person with meditative concentration has no concentration mental factor in the manas, then how could his six consciousnesses be held steady in concentration?

For example, if the manas is interested in the violets before it and lets the six consciousnesses appreciate them, but at the same time is also interested in the birdsong nearby, the six consciousnesses must divide their attention to listen to the birdsong; then a moment later the manas becomes interested in a person, and the six consciousnesses must divide their attention to observe and appraise that person. In that case, how could the six consciousnesses possibly have concentration?