The Wisdom of the Manas and the Deliberation of the Manas

The manas itself has no language, words, or sound-marks; it does not think by means of language and words, and even when it exerts mental effort there is no sound. Therefore, the mental activities and operational characteristics of the manas are hidden and hard to observe, not easy to capture. When meditative concentration (samādhi) is insufficient, the mind is not subtle, making it very difficult to observe; thus misunderstandings about the manas are inevitable.

The mind consciousness sometimes has wisdom and sometimes lacks wisdom; the manas likewise sometimes has wisdom and sometimes lacks wisdom. When the mind consciousness's wisdom functions well, it can assist the manas's discernment and decision-making. But if the manas itself already has wisdom, it does not need the mind consciousness's wisdom to assist it, or it does not need the mind consciousness to assist with deliberation and analysis—only with discernment. As long as the manas discerns the coarse and subtle characteristics of a dharma, it will immediately know how to handle and deal with it. This is how it is when the manas itself has wisdom. When the manas lacks wisdom, the mind consciousness is needed not only to assist with discernment but also to assist with deliberation, analysis, reasoning, and judgment; then the manas deliberates (manana) based on the mind consciousness's judgment and makes its own decision—but not necessarily in agreement with the mind consciousness's judgment, and its decision may come as a surprise to the mind consciousness.

When the mind consciousness introspects upon its own mind, that is self-validating cognition (sva-saṃvitti-saṃvitti-bhāga); if what the mind consciousness observes is a mental thought of the manas, that is self-cognition (svasaṃvitti). However, when the mind consciousness lacks wisdom, it may not be able to clearly distinguish whether it is its own mental thought or the manas's mental thought, and will take both to be the mind consciousness's own thoughts. That is why many people say, "This is clearly a function of the mind consciousness—how can you say it is a function of the manas?" In fact, it is because one's own mind consciousness lacks the wisdom to clearly discern the differences and boundaries between the mind consciousness and the manas. Without the wisdom of the varieties of paths, it is indeed extremely difficult to distinguish the functions of the mind consciousness and the manas.