Does the manas have only neutral feeling, without painful feeling or pleasant feeling?

If the manas had neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā) like the tathāgatagarbha, it should also, like the tathāgatagarbha, remain immovably such toward all states of experience: no matter what states arise, it would not grasp at wholesome states nor abandon unwholesome states, and its mind would not discriminate the good or bad, wholesome or unwholesome nature of any state. Then it would not prompt the six consciousnesses to engage in greedy, hateful, and deluded actions of liking and disliking, much less act impulsively. When encountering situations, it would neither fly into a rage with fists and kicks, nor show delight on its face and dance with joy; everything should be flat and bland, indifferent to everything.

If the manas were indifferent in whatever situation it found itself, always having neutral feeling, then it could never act as the sovereign or prompt the six consciousnesses to engage in karmic actions of greed and hatred, or give rise to thoughts and emotions of joy, delight, and craving, or thoughts and emotions of anger, jealousy, and resentment. Then the manas would possess the nature of equality: its mind toward all states should be equanimous, without deviation, treating enemies and loved ones with perfect equality alike, with no distinction between foe and friend in its mind—fair and impartial. It would neither delight in the Pure Land of Bliss (Sukhāvatī) nor loathe the defiled land of the Saha world; it would neither wish to become a Buddha or patriarch, nor be weary of the three realms and enter nirvāṇa.

If the manas had neutral feeling, it should in itself be liberated just like the tathāgatagarbha; neither wholesome nor unwholesome states could bind it. Not receiving any state at all—this would be a liberated mind. But the actual situation is not like this. The manas has extremely heavy afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion; its greedy mind cannot extricate itself, its hateful mind cannot save itself, and it is bound tightly by the dharmas of the three realms—especially the three evil destinies—unable to escape. Therefore it is said that the manas does not merely have neutral feeling; it has all three kinds of feeling, with neutral feeling being the least frequent.

With some matters, the mind consciousness very much wants to endure, but in the end it cannot hold back, and emotions erupt uncontrollably. What kind of feeling is this? Whose feeling is it? It is the feeling of suffering and happiness—the feeling of the manas. At this moment the mind consciousness is rational, constantly suppressing the manas, restraining the manas, telling it to endure and not to erupt. But the manas ultimately cannot endure, and it erupts anyway. If the manas had neutral feeling at such a moment, the mind consciousness would have no need to restrain and suppress it; things would pass blandly without emotion, no extreme things would happen, and no unthinkable consequences would appear.

Very often there are inexplicable emotional reactions—whether happy or unhappy, the mind consciousness does not know why, where the happiness or unhappiness came from. Sometimes the mind consciousness tries to figure out the reason; sometimes no matter how it deliberates, it cannot understand, because the manas is truly hard to fathom.