The Discerning Wisdom of Manas

Now we must establish a premise: the fact that the manas's discriminative wisdom is inferior is spoken of with respect to the six sense objects, and it is manifested when the manas faces the six sense objects alone. However, the manas's range of discrimination is extremely broad, and its mode of discrimination is quite peculiar. The subtle aspects of the six sense objects are discriminated by the six consciousnesses, so the manas naturally does not need this function; but the manas can rely on the six consciousnesses to discriminate the six sense objects. In other words, the results of the six consciousnesses' discrimination must all be referred back to the manas, to be processed by the manas. If there is even one dharma that the manas does not know, then that portion of the six consciousnesses' discriminative function is useless, because the six consciousnesses cannot make decisions; their discrimination of the six sense objects is ultimately discrimination for the manas, serving the manas, and is also directed and sanctioned by the manas. The six consciousnesses are merely the manas's tools for discriminating the six sense objects. Whatever the six consciousnesses discriminate, the manas can also discriminate; in the final analysis, the object-aspect of the six consciousnesses is the object-aspect of the manas—the difference being that one is direct and the other is indirect.