The Attention of the Manas and the Arising of the First Six Consciousnesses

Question: Are the five faculties and the five sense objects always in contact, as a matter of suchness (dharmatā), regardless of whether the manas attends to them or not? As long as there is contact, does the eighth consciousness unconditionally give rise to the five consciousnesses? Does the manas only attend to the mental sense object, or does it attend to all six sense objects?

Answer: The gross physical faculties (the five faculties as physical sense organs) are constantly in contact with the five sense objects, and the tathāgatagarbha constantly relies on the five faculties to transmit and transform the five sense objects into the supreme faculties (indriya), giving rise to the inner five sense objects and the mental sense object. Thus the inner five sense objects and the mental sense object constantly appear in the supreme faculties at the back of the brain, and the five sense objects and the five supreme faculties are also constantly in contact. However, the five consciousnesses do not arise at all times; in many instances, there is no five-consciousness discernment of the inner five sense objects, and we are not aware of the states of the five sense objects. That is to say, the arising of the five consciousnesses is conditional. What are the conditions? The arising of the eye consciousness requires nine conditions, the arising of the ear consciousness requires eight conditions, the arising of the nose consciousness requires seven conditions, the arising of the tongue consciousness requires seven conditions, and the arising of the body consciousness requires seven conditions. If the five consciousnesses arise, the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna) must also arise, and the five consciousnesses together with the mind consciousness jointly discern the five sense objects (including the mental sense object).

So the six consciousnesses sometimes appear and sometimes do not. The most important prerequisite for their appearance is certainly the manas's attention (manaskāra). If the manas does not attend, the mind consciousness definitely cannot appear, and of course the five consciousnesses cannot appear either. Thus the manas's attention is crucial. The manas certainly attends to the mental sense object, so that the mind consciousness can arise. But does the manas attend to the inner five sense objects? If the manas does not attend to the inner five sense objects, the tathāgatagarbha will not comply and cooperate to give rise to the five consciousnesses, and in that case the mind consciousness will not arise either.

Some people will ask: When sitting in meditation cultivating meditative concentration (samādhi), or in ordinary times, even when one has no intention at all to discern the five or six sense objects, why do the six consciousnesses still arise to discern the six sense objects, so that one cannot avoid them no matter how one tries? This is because the manas's tendency toward grasping engagement is too heavy, its habitual tendencies are hard to change, and the mind consciousness's restraining power over Him is not strong enough; at such times the mind consciousness is helpless. Only after the manas has been tamed and subdued will His grasping tendency weaken, and only then can the six consciousnesses become concentrated; the contents one does not wish to discern will no longer appear, and one can devote oneself single-mindedly to focused contemplation, or eliminate initial application and sustained examination (vitarka-vicāra).

By this reasoning, for the six consciousnesses to arise and for the six consciousnesses to discern form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharma, there must be the manas's attention and the operation of the mental factor of volition (cetanā); only then can the six consciousnesses arise. Otherwise, it would be impossible for the six consciousnesses and their discerning activities to exist. The six consciousnesses all obey the manas's command; it is the manas that decides which states are to be discerned. If the manas does not decide to discern, if the manas does not wish to know, there will certainly be no six consciousnesses to discern it. There has never been a case of the six consciousnesses disobeying the manas's intent and decisions—this is absolutely impossible. Therefore, to summarize: the contact between the five faculties and the five sense objects does not require the manas's attention, but the discernment of the five and six sense objects by the five and six consciousnesses definitely involves the manas's attention.