What does it mean for the manas to internally grasp the Ālayavijñāna as self?

This means that the manas grasps the functions and operations of the Ālayavijñāna as its own functions and operations, without knowing that these are the functions and operations of the Ālayavijñāna. It follows along with the dharmas perceived by the Ālayavijñāna and believes that all these dharmas are "I" and "mine," not knowing that they are produced by the Ālayavijñāna and belong to the Ālayavijñāna, and that in essence they are all of the nature of the Ālayavijñāna. Therefore, it craves the functions and operations of the Ālayavijñāna, delights in the functions and operations of the Ālayavijñāna, and takes pleasure in and grasps the functions and operations of the Ālayavijñāna. Because of these graspings and craving attachments, the manas is bound and cannot attain liberation, and thus there is birth and death that cannot be relinquished. The manas fundamentally does not know what dharma the Ālayavijñāna is, so it is not grasping at the Ālayavijñāna itself; rather, it mistakenly believes that all the functions produced by the Ālayavijñāna are its own functions, and that all dharmas belong to itself, and thus grasping arises.

What are the functions and operations of the Ālayavijñāna? They are nothing other than the functions and operations of the five aggregates and eighteen realms, nothing other than the functions and operations of all worldly dharmas. The manas takes these functions and operations as "I" and "mine." This misunderstanding only begins to be gradually dissolved after one realizes the Ālayavijñāna. When the manas realizes the Ālayavijñāna, it will, together with the mind consciousness, observe that the functions and operations of the five aggregates and eighteen realms are all produced by the Ālayavijñāna, are the functions and operations of the Ālayavijñāna, and are not the functions and operations of the manas-self. Thereupon, the grasping of self is gradually eradicated. Then, as one successively realizes that all other dharmas are also the functions and operations of the Ālayavijñāna, and not the functions and operations of the manas-self, the grasping of dharmas is gradually eradicated, ignorance is gradually exhausted, one accomplishes the supreme nirvāṇa, and attains great liberation.

Animals all have the grasping of self and the grasping of dharmas—which of them can know that there is an Ālayavijñāna? They merely take those functions produced by the Ālayavijñāna, those dharmas that are born forth, as their own. What the manas grasps is only those dharmas born of the Ālayavijñāna—how could it be grasping at the Ālayavijñāna itself?

Studying the Dharma is not about dissecting words; one cannot go around in circles on the literal surface. One must deeply engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of its profound meaning and ultimate meaning. Most people's study of the Dharma consists only of shallow intellectual deliberation by the mind consciousness; they never cultivate meditative concentration to think deeply and engage in contemplative practice. That is why so many people who cultivate and study the Small Vehicle's teachings on suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self end up concluding that "the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness yet are not different from the eighth consciousness"—a conclusion that is not even logically coherent. How could an ordinary being hold the notion that the five aggregates are the eighth consciousness? Anyone who holds this notion would no longer be an ordinary being, and would not need to engage in contemplative practice to eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) or to personally realize the eighth consciousness at all.