Rebirth Is Governed by the Karmic Force or Vow Power of the Manas

The tathāgatagarbha never acts as a master; He does not think about going to be conceived in a womb. It is always the manas that decides to enter the womb, and only then does the tathāgatagarbha cooperate with the manas to enter the womb. When the manas decides to take rebirth, it does so entirely in accordance with the karmic force of its own habit energies, or in accordance with the power of its vows—at this point it depends on whether the karmic force or the power of the vows is stronger. If the manas has not eliminated the self-view and has not severed the three fetters, its karmic force is still very great, and it cannot avoid going to the three evil destinies; most go to the ghost destiny, because one hundred percent of people have greed that is not light. With greed, one must go to the ghost destiny; when the karma of the ghost destiny is exhausted, one is reborn in the animal destiny; and when the karmic conditions of the animal destiny come to an end, one returns to the human world to be a person again.

Therefore, the elimination of self-view and the awakening to the true mind—indeed, the realization of any dharma whatsoever—is attained jointly by the mind consciousness and the manas. If the manas does not realize it, the bonds of birth-and-death in the three evil destinies will drive the manas to be reborn in the three evil destinies, and then there will be the five aggregates and the six consciousnesses of the three evil destinies for the manas to make use of. Such five aggregates and six consciousnesses differ greatly from the five aggregates and six consciousnesses of a human being, because the karmic forces are different. As for the matter of taking rebirth, the mind consciousness is completely powerless: at the time of conception, the mind consciousness has ceased and can no longer serve as an advisor to the manas. The manas decides entirely on its own, which is equivalent to karmic force deciding everything. So if the manas has not eliminated the self-view and has not awakened to the true mind, how could it be liberated from the karma of birth-and-death?