The manas of Sentient Beings Corresponds with Karmic Seeds

The manas of sentient beings necessarily corresponds to karmic seeds. When reborn in hell, the manas manifests the habits of hell beings. When reborn among hungry ghosts, sentient beings necessarily manifest the habits of hungry ghosts. When reborn among animals, sentient beings necessarily manifest the habits of animals. In the human realm, one has human habits; as a deva, one has deva habits; asuras have asura habits. Likewise, bodhisattvas have the habits of bodhisattvas. Having taught and transformed sentient beings across kalpas, bodhisattvas necessarily possess the habit of teaching and transforming sentient beings. This habit of bodhisattvas is of course a wholesome habit; when a sentient being's habits correspond to those of a bodhisattva, that being is a bodhisattva.

If one has spent a long time in a certain realm in a previous life, one will have the habits of beings of that realm, and when reborn in other realms, the manas will correspondingly manifest the former habits. For example, the Buddha's great disciple Gavāmpati was an arhat of the fourth fruit; having been a cow for five hundred lifetimes in previous lives, he retained the habit of rumination, so that even as a human and an arhat, he still ate the way a cow chews grass. Some people have the habits of hungry ghosts because they spent a long time as hungry ghosts in previous lives. Some people have the combative habits of asuras because they spent a long time as asuras in previous lives, with extremely firm anger and habitual anger; even after becoming bodhisattvas, they may still display some of the asura's habitual anger.