The Five Aggregates and the Six Consciousnesses Are All Tools of the Manas

Repentance is divided into true repentance and false repentance, and the actions and deeds of body, speech, and mind are likewise divided into two kinds: true and false. Whatever is false—not genuinely intended, not arising from the heart—is merely superficial performance by the mind consciousness. Whatever is genuine and sincere arises from the heart; it is what the manas intends to do.

Therefore, true repentance is the sincere repentance of the manas, flowing outward from the heart; it is not pretense. When the manas wants to repent, it must express its intention of repentance through the mind consciousness and the five sense consciousnesses, through the five-aggregate body. Apart from the five-aggregate body, apart from the mind consciousness and the five sense consciousnesses, the manas has no tools, cannot work, and cannot fulfill its own wishes. From this perspective, the manas can accomplish nothing apart from the mind consciousness. But the manas absolutely has its own wisdom and cognition; innate intelligence and wisdom refer precisely to the manas, which the manas has carried from past lives and countless lifetimes into this present life.

This wisdom does not need to be taught by the mind consciousness; it is innately possessed. The manas possesses much wisdom that the mind consciousness does not have; there are many dharmas that the mind consciousness does not understand, but the manas understands them all. Moreover, the mind consciousness must rely on the manas for its cultivation and influence; when the mind consciousness cannot judge human affairs and the principles of things through analysis, deliberation, and reasoning, it must rely on the intuitive function of the manas to judge and decide. That is why many things get done while the mind consciousness still does not know what happened—the matter is completed in a muddled way, and sometimes it is done quite well.

Very often, after bodily, verbal, and mental actions have been carried out, the mind consciousness still does not know what happened; the mind consciousness simply does not understand, and it is impossible for it to have analyzed, deliberated, and judged. Therefore, all of these were decided and directed by the manas itself. Even afterward, the mind consciousness still does not know and does not understand the reason. Where is there even the slightest participation of the mind consciousness's wisdom in this?

The five-aggregate body, the mind consciousness, and the five sense consciousnesses are all tools used by the manas. Apart from these tools, not a single one of the manas's ideas within the six sense objects can be realized. The manas must make use of the six consciousnesses to carry out bodily, verbal, and mental actions and to express its own ideas and thoughts; otherwise, it would be like a deaf-mute or a disabled person, able to accomplish nothing. This shows that the manas itself has its own unique views, perspectives, wisdom, and cognition, which it possesses innately without needing the mind consciousness. When the mind consciousness is present, it can conveniently rely on the mind consciousness to express itself; without the mind consciousness, it cannot be expressed. Therefore, one must not attribute the wisdom of the manas and all the merits of the manas to the mind consciousness, burying the manas's innate, unique capabilities accumulated over immeasurable kalpas, life after life. That is unfair, and it is a manifestation of the lack of wisdom among worldly people.

In many major matters, especially urgent and critical ones, matters concerning life and death and survival, where would the mind consciousness still have the opportunity and ability to deliberate, analyze, think, and judge? Yet the manas takes charge and decides, adopting emergency measures, dodging calamity after calamity, disaster after disaster, and ultimately turning misfortune into fortune. Even afterward, the mind consciousness still does not understand what exactly happened.

Every one of us sentient beings truly ought to be grateful to the manas for this ability to turn misfortune into fortune. Without the manas's innate wisdom and decision-making, our lives would end in premature death shortly after birth, and we would never live to old age at all.

When it comes to judging other people in the world—especially people one is meeting for the first time and does not yet know—the mind consciousness is often powerless; it all relies on the manas's experience accumulated over countless kalpas. This is intuition, and this is wisdom.