If the manas is apart from the object-specific wisdom (prajñā) of the mind consciousness, would it be left with nothing to do?

If we look at concrete examples of states without the mind consciousness, we will know the answer to this question. States without the mind consciousness include, for example, dreamless sleep and dreaming. In such states, what is the manas doing? Is it idle and unoccupied, not contacting sense objects, not discerning states of experience? Clearly not. Because at all times the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to and manifests all dharmas, and the manas has the characteristic of silently containing all dharmas, it will certainly rely on the tathāgatagarbha to contact the dharmas that the tathāgatagarbha has secondarily illusorily manifested, taking the dharmas seen by the tathāgatagarbha as its own seeing, and regarding these dharmas as its own possessions, thereby giving rise to various mental activities and thoughts, to the point of causing dreams to appear. All the thoughts and concepts in a dream belong to the manas; all mental activities belong to the manas; the mind consciousness only plays an auxiliary role to the manas. Therefore, how a person is truly progressing in cultivation should be judged by their performance in dreams.

When one is in a coma, there is no mind consciousness, yet the manas is not resigned to remaining in the coma. When it notices that the body has improved slightly, it will struggle to wake up. This shows that when the manas is in a coma without the mind consciousness, it has mental activity; all the mental factors (caittas) are operating, constantly attending to the condition of the body faculty, able to discern the state of the body faculty, knowing that the coma is not good, and also seeking ways to wake up. Some people, while in a coma, will even seek out close relatives to rescue themselves, transmitting information to tell their loved ones where they are and what their situation is. Therefore, the manas can represent an independent person, possessing various mental activities and mental factors, with much inner activity; it is merely that when it comes to carrying out operations, it needs the cooperation of the mind consciousness and the five sense consciousnesses to accomplish them.