Does the manas only take as its objects significant and changing dharma objects?

Those who cannot observe the workings of the manas with direct perception as it truly is will harbor many misunderstandings about the manas. In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Buddha said that the manas silently encompasses all dharmas. The scope of "all dharmas" is extremely vast: whatever dharmas the tathāgatagarbha can manifest, it can simultaneously discern; and whatever dharmas the manas can condition by following the tathāgatagarbha. This is the meaning of the Buddhist sutra.

Some people say that the manas only conditions significant mental sense-objects, and moreover only those that are changing; if a mental sense-object is neither significant nor changing, the manas cannot condition it. Is this really so? If there were dharmas that the manas could not condition, then the six consciousnesses would be even less able to condition them. Whatever dharmas the mind consciousness discerns are all contacted and discerned by the manas. In fact, in daily life, regardless of whether a mental sense-object is significant or not, changing or not, the mind consciousness can discern it. For example, the buzzing of a mosquito, the sound of one's own heartbeat, the faint sounds inside one's ears, the sounds inside one's belly—when the mind consciousness knows such subtle sounds, it is because the manas has grasped at them and brought them forth. The manas must therefore have contacted and discerned them first; it is only that it cannot discern them in fine detail, so the six consciousnesses, including the mind consciousness, are brought forth to assist in the discernment. Thus, whether significant or minute, the manas can condition them all by following the tathāgatagarbha, and can discern them all. It is only when something is considered relatively important and useful, or when it is accustomed to discerning it, that the manas allows the six consciousnesses to arise and discern it. As for the parts that the six consciousnesses have not arisen to discern, the manas can still condition them and discern them; it is just that the mind consciousness does not know about them.

Even when a mental sense-object does not change, the manas can still discern it continuously. For example, when the mind consciousness and eye consciousness look at an unmoving scene, they can look at it for half a day or a whole day; then the manas will contact that scene for half a day or a whole day without shifting, and it does not only contact mental sense-objects that change frequently. Nor does it condition only mental sense-objects and not the five sense-objects. For example, the manas first contacts a large mass of colors; it is interested only in certain individual colors, and so it brings forth the eye consciousness and mind consciousness to discern together on those colors it is interested in, while not discerning the other colors.

Those who truly wish to study Buddhism and achieve attainment must rely on the truth and on the reality of facts, not on people or on authorities.