What Does It Mean That the Manas Inwardly Grasps the Ālayavijñāna as Self?

This means that the manas grasps the functions of the ālayavijñāna as its own functions, without knowing that these are the functions of the ālayavijñāna. Following along with the dharmas perceived by the ālayavijñāna, it takes these dharmas to be the self and what belongs to the self, not knowing that they are produced by the ālayavijñāna, belong to the ālayavijñāna, and are in essence all of the nature of the ālayavijñāna. Therefore, the manas craves the functions of the ālayavijñāna, delights in the functions of the ālayavijñāna, is attached to the functions of the ālayavijñāna, and grasps at the functions of the ālayavijñāna. Because of these grasping and craving attachments, the manas is bound and cannot attain liberation, and thus there is birth and death that cannot be cast off. The manas fundamentally does not know what kind of dharma the ālayavijñāna is, so it is not grasping at the ālayavijñāna itself; rather, it mistakenly takes all the functions produced by the ālayavijñāna as its own functions and takes all dharmas as belonging to itself, and thereby grasping arises.

What are the functions of the ālayavijñāna? They are nothing other than the functions of the operation of the five aggregates and the eighteen realms, nothing other than the functions of all worldly dharmas. The manas takes all these functions as the self and what belongs to the self. This misunderstanding only begins to be gradually dispelled after one realizes the ālayavijñāna. When the manas realizes the ālayavijñāna, it will, together with the mind consciousness, come to observe that the functions of the five aggregates and the eighteen realms are all produced by the ālayavijñāna, are the functions of the ālayavijñāna, and are not the functions of the manas, the self. Thereupon, the grasping at self is gradually eliminated. Then, as one successively realizes that all other dharmas are likewise the functions of the ālayavijñāna and not the functions of the manas, the self, the grasping at dharmas is gradually eliminated, ignorance is gradually exhausted, and one accomplishes the unsurpassed nirvāṇa and attains great liberation.

Animals all have grasping at self and grasping at dharmas—which of them can know that there is an ālayavijñāna? They merely take those functions produced by the ālayavijñāna, those dharmas that are born, as their own. What the manas grasps is only those dharmas produced by the ālayavijñāna—how could it be grasping at the ālayavijñāna itself? Studying the Dharma is not about dissecting words; one cannot circle around on the literal surface, but must deeply engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on its profound meaning and ultimate meaning. Most people's study of the Dharma is very shallow mental consciousness deliberation; they never cultivate meditative concentration to think deeply and engage in contemplative practice. That is why so many people cultivate and study the Small Vehicle's teachings on suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self, yet in the end arrive at the conclusion that the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness and are not different from the eighth consciousness—a conclusion that is not even logically coherent. What ordinary being would hold the notion that the five aggregates are the eighth consciousness? Anyone who holds this notion is no longer an ordinary being, and would not need to engage in contemplative practice to eliminate self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) or to personally realize the eighth consciousness at all.