Manifestations of Manas' Attachment to the Material Body

Question: When a snake's head is severed, it can still bite. The nerves controlling conditioned reflexes are located in the snake's body; after decapitation, various organs can independently maintain their original motor functions for a certain period. Thus, a severed snake head will still bite when touched due to conditioned reflexes. How is this explained using the principles of Vijñapti-mātratā (Consciousness-Only)?

Answer: In a freshly severed snake head, the manas (the seventh consciousness) and the ālaya-vijñāna (the eighth consciousness) still cling to it. The neural connections between the brain and the body remain intact, allowing the manas to continue controlling the entire body, primarily focusing on the head. This is because the manas resides in the brain region, governing the central nervous system to control the whole body. At this stage, the six consciousnesses have not yet ceased; the activities of the head still involve the participation of body-consciousness and mental consciousness. If the nerves are severed, the manas can no longer command the body through the nervous system, rendering the snake body immobile, and it can only control the head.

Sentient beings within the six realms of saṃsāra exhibit profound attachment to the body, not just snakes. Some animals can still walk after losing their heads; some can survive for months with only half a head. Some humans remain in a vegetative state for a long time, unwilling to relinquish the body; others, extremely weak and unable to eat for an extended period, still cling tenaciously to life. What is commonly called the "will to live" is essentially the manas' attachment to the physical form (rūpa-kāya).

Is there any attachment from consciousness here? The manas utilizes the six consciousnesses as tools and assistants as long as it can; it only abandons them when they become utterly unusable, at which point it chooses to depart from the body, resulting in death.

The tenacious clinging to life until the very end stems from the manas' attachment to the body. It strives to prevent the six consciousnesses from ceasing, endeavors to employ them for discriminatory activities, and struggles to keep mental consciousness clear. Consequently, the six consciousnesses struggle to function and survive, despite immense suffering.

From this, it is evident that the so-called "self" refers to the manas. The manas represents the self of the five aggregates (skandhas) to an extent exceeding ninety percent. Therefore, severing the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) necessitates eliminating the manas' view of self; otherwise, the view of self is not truly severed. Mental consciousness alone lacks the power to sever the view of self; the manas will still cause mental consciousness to harbor self-view, as mental consciousness cannot escape the control of the manas.

The manas' discernment wisdom (viveka) is not weak. In various states devoid of the six consciousnesses, it distinguishes between sleep and coma, understands the difference between sleep and bodily incapacitation, and recognizes the distinction between coma and impending death. This is because the manas' emotional state and manifestations differ during sleep, coma, near-death, the attainment of non-perception (asaṃjñi-samāpatti), and the attainment of cessation (nirodha-samāpatti). Thus, the manas possesses non-trivial discernment wisdom, and this wisdom is considerable. Its functions and capabilities are complete and powerful, qualifying it to be the sovereign consciousness (adhipati-vijñāna) that governs all activities of the entire five-aggregate body. It is not, as some claim, that the manas is nothing, utterly lacking in function and weak; this is absolutely not the case.