The Power of Introspection of the Manas

Whether the manas can introspect itself or cannot introspect itself—if his mind consciousness lacks wisdom, it cannot observe it, nor can it judge what the manas has done or is doing; when the mind consciousness has no wisdom, it simply does not know. So for so many people to trust their own judgment so much is simply unreasonable.

It is like how, over beginningless kalpas, our tathāgatagarbha has done countless things for the world of the five aggregates, yet our mind consciousness, being ignorant, does not know it at all, and because of this ignorance it denies the existence of the tathāgatagarbha and the merits He has performed. That your mind consciousness does not know does not mean He does not exist. Likewise, that ignorance prevents one from observing the operations of the manas does not mean the manas lacks those functions and capacities, or that it cannot operate in this way or that way.

When asleep, the mind consciousness may not know that it is asleep, because when asleep there is no mind consciousness; but does the manas know that you are asleep? The manas absolutely knows that it is asleep, and therefore the manas does not want this five-aggregate body to be active. If the manas did not know it was asleep, it would want to fabricate and do everything; however, the manas knows it is asleep and also knows it is dark, so it does not want to know too much or too finely about the objects of the six sense-objects; the six consciousnesses, being well-behaved, do not arise at all, and the body, likewise well-behaved, does not move. The manas knows that it is itself sleeping, so the manas does possess the power of introspection (pratyavekṣā-bala); it is only that the mind consciousness cannot observe the manas, and so it says the manas does not know it is asleep and has no power of introspection. In the state of deep sleep, the mind consciousness not knowing does not equal the manas not knowing—this shows that one has still confused these two consciousnesses, taking the mind consciousness's knowing and not-knowing as the manas's knowing and not-knowing.

Likewise, when unconscious, the manas certainly knows that it is unconscious, so when the conditions for wakefulness appear, it struggles hard to wake up and get up to be active. When in meditative concentration (samādhi), the manas also knows it is in concentration; at death it also knows death; in a vegetative state, the manas likewise knows it, and so in these special states His mental activities and manifestations are all different from normal. Therefore there is a conclusion: only the ignorant would say that the manas knows nothing, does nothing, and can do nothing. If the manas were nothing at all, then what would you yourself be? You would also be nothing at all! Because you—you are the manas!