What Is a Subconscious Reaction

The subconscious reaction is completed extremely quickly, leaving no opportunity for the conscious mind's deliberation and analysis; the mind consciousness and the five sense consciousnesses immediately obey the manas's instructions.

Because people neither know nor understand the manas, they call this function of the manas the "subconscious" and "subconscious reaction." When the manas's habitual tendencies are very heavy, upon encountering something one likes, a phenomenon resembling a conditioned reflex will appear, giving the mind consciousness no opportunity at all to reason with it, train it, or regulate it; it responds entirely according to its habitual tendencies.

Every bodily, verbal, and mental action involves the mind consciousness; without the mind consciousness, the manas alone cannot produce bodily, verbal, and mental actions. Otherwise, when a person falls unconscious, they would simply remain unconscious, and the manas would not struggle to wake up. The mind consciousness and the body consciousness along with the five sense consciousnesses exist in a parallel, coordinate relationship: they arise simultaneously and jointly accomplish bodily, verbal, and mental actions, and neither can command the other—both are directed by the manas.