The Guidance and Perfuming of the Mind Consciousness on the Manas Are Not Necessarily All Based on Considerations of Benefit.

Question: The manas of an afflicted ordinary being should have very low discerning wisdom, dominated mainly by self-desire and the habit energies of self-grasping, yet lacking good analytical and judgmental ability. So-called determination is making a decisive directional choice based on the mind consciousness's analysis of what is beneficial or harmful to oneself. Is the manas's function mainly directional choice?

Answer: The essential nature, functions, and roles of the manas are numerous and very important. It possesses the five universally present mental factors: attention (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), and volition (cetanā). Therefore, the manas also has its own unique deliberative nature (manasikāra) and its own unique discerning ability, as well as its own unique analytical and judgmental power. At times, its discernment and judgment are extremely agile, swift, and accurate, and should not be belittled or overlooked. The mind consciousness's guidance of the manas is not entirely confined to the limited question of whether something is beneficial or harmful to itself; its scope is quite broad.

For example, in the contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), the mind consciousness must contemplate the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) as illusory, analyzing and deliberating on how the five aggregates are illusory, empty, and without self, and how they are suffering. The clearer and more thoroughly these principles are deliberated, and the more facts are presented, the more the manas is influenced and permeated, and the more readily the manas gives its assent. Likewise, in investigating Chan (参禅) and various kinds of contemplative practice, none of these involve benefit or harm to oneself, yet they can all influence and permeate the manas, transform the manas, and lead the manas to give its assent, thereby wisdom is attained.