Mental Formations of Manas

When asleep in the middle of the night, the cold tactile sensation arises in the body, and then body consciousness and mental consciousness are born to resolve the issue of cold. When asleep in the middle of the night, the painful tactile sensation arises in the body, and thus body consciousness and mental consciousness appear to feel the painful sensation and handle it. Why must consciousness arise? If the manas (mental faculty) already knows whether it is cold, hot, or painful, why must consciousness still arise? It is because the manas cannot personally handle and resolve the problem.

In the absence of the six consciousnesses, those mental activities are all the mental activities of the manas. When the six consciousnesses are extremely weak, those mental activities are also almost entirely the mental activities of the manas. Observing the state of a comatose patient — whether they feel pain, whether they wish to be in a vegetative state, whether they wish to remain lying in bed, whether they wish to eat during meals, or how they react upon seeing their closest loved ones — all these can illustrate the mental activities and sensations of the manas.

During unconsciousness, whether the manas wishes to remain unconscious and what manifestations occur — from these manifestations, the mental activities of the manas can be observed. If during unconsciousness, the manas experiences a neutral feeling (upekkhā), then it should be indifferent like the tathāgatagarbha (Buddha-nature) and simply continue being unconscious. However, when the body improves slightly, the manas prompts the six consciousnesses to appear and prompts the functions of the five aggregates to manifest. This indicates that the manas does not wish to be unconscious, is unwilling to be unconscious, and dislikes being unconscious. Why does it not wish, refuse, or dislike being unconscious? Firstly, being unconscious is uncomfortable; secondly, without the activities of the five aggregates, one feels incapable of action and experiences boredom — boredom is also a form of suffering. If it felt comfortable while unconscious, the manas would certainly maintain the unconscious state. When entering deep concentration during meditation, the reluctance to emerge from it — does this not indicate that the manas finds it comfortable? Certainly, if the consciousness is relatively clear and also perceives the meditative state as very comfortable, one will become attached to the stillness of sitting and be unwilling to rise from the seat.