Proving through the Origin of the World as Expounded in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra That the Manas Is Not Indeterminate (Avyākṛta)

In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the World-Honored One explained the origin of the world. Countless eons ago, when all was chaos and undifferentiated, only the eighth consciousness and the manas existed; there was no threefold realm of the world, much less any five-aggregate body or the six consciousnesses. The manas together with the eighth consciousness constituted the life-body of sentient beings. At that time, due to ignorance, the manas gave rise to mental activity and reached outward in search of something, and only then did the eighth consciousness, following the manas' mental activity, gradually form the world. This process was extremely long, because the world was not formed by the mental activity of a single sentient being's manas, but by the mental activity of the manas of many sentient beings.

After the world had formed for a number of great eons, the five-aggregate bodies of sentient beings came into existence because there was an environment suitable for survival. Before the world formed, all ignorance already existed; there was no kind of ignorance that was generated later. Therefore it is said that all ignorance is the ignorance of the manas. Since the manas possesses all ignorance, hidden within this ignorance are all the factors of afflictions, which will give rise to afflictions when conditions are encountered. The ignorance and afflictions of the manas then perfumed the mind consciousness, and the mind consciousness was gradually perfumed with afflictions as well—this too was a long process. Thus, the earliest afflictions all belonged to the manas; the mind consciousness merely followed along with the manas' afflictions. Only after the mind consciousness had been thoroughly perfumed did afflictions appear in it.

Ignorance means not understanding—the manas mind does not understand principle, remaining muddled and confused. What does this principle refer to? According to what the Śūraṅgama Sūtra points out, it is the true reality of the dharma realm. The manas does not understand the principle of the eighth consciousness, the true reality of the dharma realm; it does not understand that it itself is a dharma within the eighth consciousness, generated and held by the eighth consciousness, and that apart from the eighth consciousness there are no dharmas and no dharma realm. This is the manas' beginningless ignorance (avidyā), and also its fundamental ignorance. From this beginningless ignorance arises the mental activity of seeking outside the eighth consciousness, which caused the world to form. This was formed gradually over long eons, not something that could be accomplished within a short eon.

Only after the world had formed for a number of great eons did the five-aggregate bodies of sentient beings appear, and the mind consciousness and the five sense consciousnesses were born along with the five-aggregate bodies. Only after the five-aggregate bodies appeared did the six consciousnesses have bodily, verbal, and mental actions to cooperate with the manas in creating karma. Therefore, because of ignorance, the manas came to have the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, directing the six consciousnesses to create afflicted and unwholesome karma. The seeds of unwholesome karma were thereby left behind, giving rise to the causes, conditions, and retributions of birth-and-death and saṃsāra in the six realms—this is the origin of the dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination. From this it can be seen that the mind consciousness appeared very late, far later than the manas. It is impossible that the moment the mind consciousness appeared it already had ignorance and afflictions—there would be no cause for that. The origin of the mind consciousness's later afflictions is that they were perfumed by the manas, the sovereign consciousness that dominates the mind consciousness; or, the ignorance and afflictions manifested by the mind consciousness all belong to the manas, being the result of the manas' manipulation. Therefore the manas truly has afflictions; it is not merely indeterminate (avyākṛta) in nature—it possesses all three natures: wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate.

Ignorance is an unwholesome dharma, not a wholesome dharma, nor a neutral dharma that is neither wholesome nor unwholesome. Therefore one must, through studying Buddhism and cultivating practice, eliminate all ignorance and afflictions, and become a perfectly luminous Buddha of permanence, bliss, self, and purity. Surely no one would regard ignorance as a wholesome dharma or an indeterminate dharma? The afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion of sentient beings arise from ignorance, that is, from the manas. If the manas had no ignorance, it would not create the karma of greed, hatred, and delusion afflictions. It is ignorance that causes the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion to manifest; therefore the manas is not indeterminate in nature. Then, is the manas after buddhahood indeterminate in nature? The manas after buddhahood is even less indeterminate in nature—it is of a purely wholesome nature without unwholesomeness, of a nature of great loving-kindness and great compassion, of a nature of compassion and mercy toward all sentient beings. From this, the nature of the manas should be easy to judge, and one should no longer misapprehend or misunderstand it.