Is the manas indeterminate (avyākṛta)?

The neutral/indeterminate nature (avyākṛta) refers to a mental nature that belongs neither to the wholesome nor to the unwholesome, being of a character that is neither good nor evil. Because the manas is the consciousness that takes charge, governing the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of sentient beings, if the manas lacked a wholesome nature, the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of sentient beings could not include wholesome conduct, there would be no good people in the world, the heavenly realms would not exist, and sentient beings who study Buddhism could not become wholesome—studying Buddhism would be useless. If the manas lacked an unwholesome nature, it would not direct the six consciousnesses to commit unwholesome bodily and verbal actions, there would be no evil people in the world, and the three evil destinies would not exist in the world. In fact, this is not the case. The cycle of the six destinies exists precisely because the manas has wholesome and unwholesome mental conduct, prompting the six consciousnesses to commit wholesome and unwholesome actions; only thus are there good people and evil people in the world, and only thus do sentient beings transmigrate through birth and death in the wholesome and unwholesome destinies.

If the manas were neither wholesome nor unwholesome, then the manas would have no afflictive mental factors, nor would it have the eleven wholesome mental factors; then sentient beings would originally have no afflictions, and in studying Buddhism there would be no need to eliminate afflictions; sentient beings would originally be unwholesome, and through studying Buddhism they could not become good people, let alone attain buddhahood. If the manas had no wholesome or unwholesome nature and were of a neutral nature, then all the good people in the world would have transformed from neutral people of neither good nor evil into good people, and all the evil people in the world would have transformed from neutral people into evil people; then there would be no innately good or innately evil people—all would have become so through the postnatal impregnation of the mind consciousness by wholesome and unwholesome dharmas. However, this is impossible.

Moreover, such good people would merely be false good people whose mind consciousness is wholesome, and such evil people would merely be false evil people whose mind consciousness is unwholesome; there would be no true good people or true evil people. If, no matter how the mind consciousness is impregnated by wholesome and unwholesome environments so as to become wholesome or unwholesome, the manas is never impregnated by the mind consciousness so as to become wholesome or unwholesome, then there would be no wholesome or unwholesome people, because the manas would not correspond with wholesome and unwholesome mental factors, would have no good or evil, would be neutral, and would remain neutral forever. Then no matter how sentient beings cultivated, they could not attain buddhahood, could not store karmic seeds of good and evil, and could not transmigrate through birth and death in the six destinies.

If that were so, the manas would not be the consciousness that takes charge; the activities of the five aggregates would not be decided by the manas, the manas and the mind consciousness would each act on their own authority, and the five aggregates would fall into chaos. The manas, taking charge, would create one kind of neutral karma, while the mind consciousness, taking charge, would create wholesome and unwholesome karma; the manas would want to go east while the mind consciousness wanted to go west—where would the physical body ultimately go? The mind consciousness wants to study Buddhism while the manas does not want to study Buddhism—how should the five-aggregate body act? Should it split in two? Schizophrenia and split personality are both caused by severe inconsistency and disharmony between the mind consciousness and the manas, with the two deadlocked against each other, the manas suffering in every way and on the verge of collapse. If the mind consciousness and the manas each had their own karmic seeds, there would be two sets of karmic retribution: the mind consciousness ascending to heaven while the manas descends into hell—would the five-aggregate body ultimately ascend to heaven or descend into hell? Therefore, the manas has a wholesome and unwholesome nature and has wholesome and unwholesome mental factors; it is not merely of a neutral nature.