The Volition of the Manas and the Knowing of the Manas

The manas, like the mind consciousness, is a consciousness; both possess the mental factor of volition (cetanā), and both can deliberate, think, and ponder. Because the vast majority of people cannot observe the manas's volition, they believe there is a difference between the manas's volition and that of the mind consciousness: they call the mind consciousness's volition "deliberation" and the manas's volition "pondering," holding that deliberation is not pondering and pondering is not deliberation. If one says the manas deliberates and thinks, they consider it wrong, saying that deliberation and thinking belong to the mind consciousness; if one speaks of the manas's mental activities, many say that is wrong too, that those are the mind consciousness's mental activities. So if one cannot observe the manas's mental activities yet still wants to study Consciousness-Only, and remains stubbornly obstinate at heart, it becomes very troublesome.

Why do so many people say that the manas's volition is very deep and hidden, difficult to observe? The reason is that sentient beings take the mind consciousness's knowing as their knowing: whatever the mind consciousness knows, sentient beings know; whatever the mind consciousness does not know, they do not know. If the mind consciousness lacks sufficient wisdom, does not know the manas's mental activities, and does not know what the manas knows, then sentient beings will not know the manas's mental activities or what the manas knows, and will feel that the manas's mental activities are very deep, hidden, and subtle. In fact, it is the mind consciousness's ignorance that should be blamed. When the mind consciousness has wisdom, when its wisdom is unobstructed and it can directly observe the manas's mental activities, one no longer finds the manas profound and hard to understand, no longer finds it hidden and hard to know, and will no longer misunderstand the manas's mental factors.

What would happen if sentient beings all took the manas's knowing as their knowing? If sentient beings all took the manas's knowing as their knowing, then whatever the manas does not know, they would not know. If the manas does not know what the mind consciousness knows—no matter what the mind consciousness knows or how many dharmas it knows—the manas does not know it, and thus sentient beings would not know it. So those theories learned by the mind consciousness would be of little use; moreover, the manas does not know the eighth consciousness, and enlightenment would become even more difficult. At that point, sentient beings would say: the mind consciousness's mental activities are deep, subtle, and hard to know, very concealed and hard to fathom, and the eighth consciousness is even deeper, more hidden, and harder to know, with extremely subtle modes of activity. In reality, whether dharmas are hidden or evident depends on the consciousness's wisdom, not on the dharmas themselves. When there is wisdom, any dharma is evident, easy to know and easy to understand; without wisdom, even the most evident dharma feels deep and hidden. Therefore, after the sixth and seventh consciousnesses are transformed into wisdom, the mind consciousness can directly observe the mental activities of the manas as well as those of the eighth consciousness, and does not find it very difficult at all. The Buddha observes all dharmas with ease, and can even know all dharmas without observing—every dharma is perfectly clear in His mind.

If sentient beings took the manas's knowing as their knowing, they would have supernatural powers, and perhaps there would be no secrets among them; past lives and future lives would all be perfectly clear. In that case, they could know causes and recognize effects, and perhaps, in order to suffer less evil retribution, they would commit fewer evil deeds. Yet still many people have heavy grasping at self: they clearly know they have suffered greatly for committing evil deeds, yet they keep committing them—those who repeatedly end up in prison are like this, refusing to reform until death. But because the manas lacks the mind consciousness's obvious guiding function, being simple and naive, its emotional attachments would be even heavier, its self-nature even stronger; the mind consciousness would find it hard to restrain Him, the probability of committing evil deeds would be even greater, and the elimination of self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) would be even more difficult.

What would it be like if sentient beings all took the eighth consciousness's knowing as their knowing? The eighth consciousness does not know or see worldly dharmas; it does not know self, others, or gender; it does not see forms or hear sounds, and does not know the objects of the six sense-objects. In that case, sentient beings could not survive: the six faculties would be closed off, and they would be in a state of nirvāṇa. Would that be good or not? Some would say that then bodhisattvas could not deliver sentient beings—but at that time, what sentient being would not already be in a state of nirvāṇa and still need to be delivered by Buddhas and bodhisattvas? If sentient beings all took the eighth consciousness's knowing as their knowing, there would be no need to study Buddhism or the Dharma, and there would be no distinction between Buddhas and sentient beings.

If sentient beings all took the knowing of the five sense consciousnesses as their knowing, they could not survive, and the world of the five aggregates could not function. Because the five sense consciousnesses only discern the coarse five sense-objects, not the subtle ones, much less understand mental dharmas: they do not know the mind consciousness, do not know the manas, do not know the eighth consciousness—apart from the coarse five sense-object realms, they know nothing. If they do not even know the mind consciousness, how could they know the coarse objects of the five sense-objects? The five sense consciousnesses must cooperate with the mind consciousness in discernment in order to know the coarse marks of the five sense-objects. But knowing only the coarse marks of the five sense-objects, not their subtle marks, not knowing mental sense-objects, not knowing mental dharmas—one absolutely could not survive. In short, if one wishes to know all dharmas, whichever consciousness's knowing is to be primary, that consciousness must possess great wisdom—transformed into wisdom—so that with wisdom-consciousness one can know all dharmas.