The Meanings of the Five Names of the Manas

Original text of the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna (Mahāyāna-śraddhotpāda-śāstra):生灭因缘者谓诸众生依心意识转。此义云何？以依阿赖耶识，有无明不觉起，能见、能现、能取境界分别相续，说名为意。 此意复有五种异名：一名业识，谓无明力不觉心动；二名转识，谓依动心能见境相；三名现识，谓现一切诸境界相。犹如明镜现众色像，现识亦尔，如其五境对至即现，无有前后，不由功力；四名智识，谓分别染净诸差别法；五名相续识，谓恒作意相应不断，任持过去善恶等业令无失坏，成熟现未苦乐等报使无违越，已曾经事忽然忆念，未曾经事妄生分别。 

Explanation: The arising and ceasing of all dharmas are manifested through causes and conditions, among which the manas is the most important condition for the manifestation of all dharmas; all sentient beings transmigrate in dependence upon the manas. This means that the manas, relying on the Ālayavijñāna, follows the ignorance of its own mind and thus sees all the realm-dharmas born of the Ālayavijñāna, manifests all the realm-dharmas born of the Ālayavijñāna, grasps at all the realm-dharmas born of the Ālayavijñāna, and discriminates them in continuous succession, without the slightest awakening to the fact that it has such ignorance.

This manas has five different names. The first name is karmic consciousness (karma-vijñāna): the manas is the master of karma-creation; because it has ignorance and does not awaken to its own ignorance, the force of ignorance impels the manas' mind to move, to give rise to intention, to apply attention (manaskāra); subsequently contact, feeling, perception, and volition appear, and once the mind has become resolved, the karmic actions of body, speech, and mind are carried out, leaving behind karmic seeds, with retribution received in later lives, and birth-and-death continues without interruption. Therefore the manas is called the karmic consciousness, corresponding to ignorance and karmic force, corresponding to birth-and-death; of course, through cultivation it will correspond to purity, correspond to tranquility (praśama), and correspond to liberation. Therefore cultivation means cultivating the manas: eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), seeing the mind and seeing the nature, transforming consciousness into wisdom, possessing the seed-wisdom of Consciousness-only, and attaining buddhahood. 

The second name of the manas is the transforming consciousness (pravṛtti-vijñāna): when the manas' mind stirs, the Ālayavijñāna will accordingly give birth to realms, and the manas will see the realm-marks; when the mind stirs again, the six consciousnesses will arise and create karmic actions, and the functions of the five aggregates will become manifest, and birth-and-death in later lives will be unceasing. Both realms and the five aggregates appear following the movement of the manas' mind, and birth-and-death likewise appears following the movement of the manas' mind; hence the manas is called the transforming consciousness. 

The third name of the manas is the manifesting consciousness (darśana-vijñāna): the manas relies on the Ālayavijñāna; whatever realm the Ālayavijñāna transforms and manifests, the manas can cognize that realm, and the mind can present that realm—like a bright mirror manifesting all realm-marks. At the very moment the Ālayavijñāna gives birth to a realm, the manas can almost simultaneously present that realm in the mind, without any deliberate effort.

The fourth name of the manas is the discriminating consciousness (vicaya-vijñāna): it can discriminate all defiled and pure dharmas, such as wholesome and unwholesome, true and false, good and bad (kuśala-akuśala, satya-mithyā, śubha-aśubha), and can distinguish the differentiated marks of all dharmas. It is absolutely correct that the Awakening of Faith says the manas is the discriminating consciousness. A master-consciousness represents the root of sentient beings and determines everything about them; if the master-consciousness of the five-aggregate body lacked such wisdom, then the five aggregates would have no wisdom, and there would be no wise people in the world. To say that the manas has inferior wisdom is not entirely correct. When discriminating dharma-objects that are excessively specific and subtle, the manas is indeed inferior to the mind consciousness, which is why the mind consciousness is needed. But once the manas has the ability to discriminate subtle dharma-objects, the mind consciousness and the five sense consciousnesses become useless; the manas itself directly replaces the functions of the six consciousnesses—relinquishing consciousness and using the faculties—and then there are not so many troublesome affairs, not so many obstructions, and great supernatural powers manifest. 

The fifth name of the manas is the continuing consciousness (saṃtāna-vijñāna): the manas is called the continuing consciousness because the five universal mental factors of the manas operate in continuous succession without interruption, and the Ālayavijñāna will accordingly, following the manas, constantly produce all dharmas and operate all dharmas, so that the five-aggregate world continues without interruption. In this way, all wholesome, unwholesome, defiled, and pure dharmas will continuously manifest following the manas; wholesome and unwholesome karma will never cease, and the retributions of wholesome and unwholesome karma will not be lost. The events the manas has experienced life after life throughout beginningless kalpas will suddenly be recollected when conditions permit, and events not yet experienced will also be falsely discriminated. 

Here the Awakening of Faith says the manas has the function of recollection and mindfulness; this statement is extremely correct, because the manas is also a mind, and an extremely important mind, playing an extremely important role. A master, of course, has the function of recollection and mindfulness, possessing the mental factor of mindfulness (smṛti), and will be mindful of and recollect all dharmas. Only the master of all dharmas will be concerned with and mindful of them; when wanting to handle something, the master will summon the envoy to handle it in detail. The envoy does not appear constantly; it can only appear when the master needs it, and when the master does not need it, it will not manifest. Among the Consciousness-only treatises, the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna written by Bodhisattva Aśvaghoṣa is of extremely high realization; it can truthfully observe the mental factors of the manas. Its translator, Bodhisattva Śikṣānanda, also had very high realization, and the translation is precise, in accord with reason and truth. This is a Consciousness-only treatise worthy of trust.