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, and it becomes very difficult to observe; then 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 wisdom of the mind consciousness functions well, it can assist the manas in discerning and choosing. But if the manas itself already has wisdom, it does not need the assistance of the mind consciousness's wisdom, or it does not need the mind consciousness to assist in deliberation and analysis—only helping with discernment is enough. 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 so 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 choice may exceed the mind consciousness's expectations.

When the mind consciousness introspects its own mind, this is self-validating cognition (sva-saṃvitti-saṃvitti-bhāga); if what the mind consciousness observes is the mental activity of the manas, that is self-cognition (svasaṃvitti). However, when the mind consciousness lacks wisdom, it may not necessarily be able to distinguish clearly whether it is its own mental activity or the manas's mental activity, and will take both to be the mind consciousness's own mental activity. 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 discern clearly the differences and boundaries between the mind consciousness and the manas, lacking the wisdom of the varieties of paths. To distinguish the functions of the mind consciousness and the manas is indeed extremely difficult.