The Relationship Between the Manas and the Five Aggregates

The manas is neither independent of the five aggregates nor not independent of the five aggregates; it is neither conjoined with the five aggregates nor not conjoined with the five aggregates; it can both depart from the five aggregates and not depart from the five aggregates. Why is this so? The manas is not independent of the five aggregates because all of the manas's deliberation (manasikāra), all of its thoughts and intentions, must be realized and carried out through the five aggregates, while the operation of the five aggregates in turn strengthens and inspires the manas's deliberation, so that the five aggregates revolve around the manas, and the manas revolves around the five aggregates, entangled with one another and inseparable. 

The manas can be entirely independent of the five aggregates because: first, before the world was initially established, there were no five aggregates; only the eighth consciousness and the manas existed. Second, at the moment of death (the stage of correct dying), the five aggregates are gone, and only the eighth consciousness and the manas exist. Third, at the stage of the fertilized egg, when the five aggregates have not yet arisen, only the eighth consciousness and the manas exist. Fourth, in the cessation meditation (nirodha-samāpatti), among the five aggregates only a faint aggregate of form remains, while the eighth consciousness and the manas also exist. Fifth, during unconsciousness and in other such periods, among the five aggregates only a faint aggregate of form and aggregate of consciousness remain, while the eighth consciousness and the manas exist unaffected. Sixth, when an arhat has just emerged from Nirvāṇa without remainder (Anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa), only the eighth consciousness and the manas exist, and the five aggregates have not yet appeared. Therefore, the manas can be entirely independent of the five aggregates, but it cannot be independent of the eighth consciousness.

In the continuous operation of the five aggregates, there is also a level on which the manas is independent of them. When the manas takes the five aggregates as itself, or takes the five aggregates as its possessions, as instruments for realizing its own thoughts and intentions, this already implies independence from the five aggregates. 

The five aggregates possess the attributes of the eighth consciousness, because they are transformed and manifested by the eighth consciousness through the seeds of the seven great elements; everywhere they display the information of the eighth consciousness—in fact, the five aggregates in their entirety are the eighth consciousness. But if one says that the five aggregates possess the attributes of the manas, it is because the five aggregates accord with the manas's habitual tendencies, being the result of the manas's ignorance.