Are bodily, verbal, and mental actions created by the mind consciousness or by the manas?

Bodily, verbal, and mental actions are all fabricated by the mind consciousness, driven and compelled by the ignorance of the manas. If the manas had no ignorance, it would not prompt the mind consciousness to fabricate ignorance-defiled karma. This is what is taught in the twelve links of dependent origination: the ignorance of the manas prompts the arising of the manas's mental factor of deliberation (manana), giving rise to the decision to fabricate bodily, verbal, and mental actions; after the manas makes its decision, the mind consciousness and the five sense consciousnesses arise and fabricate bodily, verbal, and mental actions that accord with the manas's mental activity and decisions. Among these, the manas is the dominant one; the mind consciousness merely obeys the manas's regulation and control. For example, when a five-year-old child goes out to buy soy sauce, it is at the direction of the adults; the adults at home take charge of managing the daily necessities, and when something runs short, they send the child out to buy it. For example, an employee's work is arranged and assigned by the leader, and the employee must obey the leader's management. For example, the operation of all trades and professions in society is deployed by the nation's top leadership core; the subordinate units must carry out their work according to the deployment of the higher leadership departments and may not defy orders.

On the surface, sentient beings' bodily, verbal, and mental actions are all fabricated by the mind consciousness and the five sense consciousnesses, but in essence they manifest the manas's intentions and positions, manifesting the manas's habitual tendencies and habits. Only when the master and the servant operate in harmony can the five-aggregate body be coordinated; if they cannot operate in harmony, it may lead to the manas's mental fragmentation and collapse, resulting in mental illness. Of course, sometimes when the manas does not understand certain dharmas, it has no ideas or positions of its own and will defer to the mind consciousness's opinions and views—sometimes even blindly deferring, without really understanding whether what the mind consciousness proposes is actually right. At such times, the mind consciousness appears powerful. If the manas has wisdom, the mind consciousness cannot be stronger than the manas; it is always the manas itself that makes the decisions and takes charge.