All Activities of the Physical Body Are Driven by the Attention of the Manas

Every day, how do we move from east to west, from south to north? How do we shift this physical body to any location? All of this is driven by the manas's attention (manaskāra), driven by all of the manas's thoughts and purposes. And the manas's thoughts are, in turn, influenced and guided by the mind consciousness's thoughts and plans.

Then some people say: "Clearly, my mind consciousness does whatever it wants to do—how could it be the manas that makes the decisions?" On the surface, it seems as though the mind consciousness does whatever it wants, but in reality, the mind consciousness's ideas must be approved and accepted by the manas, and then the manas makes the decision, after which the mind consciousness's ideas and purposes are manifested.

For example, when driving a car, at every instant it is the manas that decides how to drive and where to drive. Within this, the manas is also, moment by moment, directed by the mind consciousness's thinking, analysis, planning, and judgment. After the mind consciousness gives its directions, if these do not accord with the manas's ideas, the manas may not follow the mind consciousness's guidance. Only when the manas deems the mind consciousness's ideas reasonable will it accept the mind consciousness's guidance.

In this process, the mental activities of the mind consciousness are relatively obvious, while the mental activities of the manas are relatively hidden. Therefore, people with insufficient wisdom cannot observe the manas's mental activities and can only roughly observe the mind consciousness's mental activities. When wisdom is insufficient, one's cognitions, views, and opinions are not reliable as evidence, so do not assume that your own views are absolutely correct.