Does the manas have the ability to judge?

Question: Does the manas have the power of judgment?

Answer: The manas definitely has the power of judgment, because He is the master consciousness (the consciousness that takes the lead), governing the operation of the entire five-aggregate body. Without the power of judgment, He could not govern the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the five-aggregate body, and then He could not be the master consciousness at all — then who would take charge? It is merely a matter of whether the power of judgment is greater or lesser, whether it is accurate or not, and in which dharmas the power of judgment is greater and in which dharmas it is lesser — such differences exist. On dharmas that the manas discerns clearly, the power of judgment is greater, because only with clear discernment can judgment be made well, quickly and accurately; if the manas does not discern clearly, He cannot make judgments, or cannot make them quickly and accurately. Toward dharmas that the manas cannot understand, He is either hesitant and indecisive, or His judgments miss the mark; in that case, the decisions made by the manas are blind and mistaken. When the manas's choices are mistaken, the execution by the six consciousnesses will also be mistaken.

But we can observe: in worldly matters, are the choices made by sentient beings all mistaken and blind? Obviously not — there are quite a few instances of being correct and error-free, and most of the time they should be reasonable and appropriate. This shows that the manas does have the power of judgment, and it is not a small power. There do exist cases where judgment cannot be made, cases of hesitation and indecision, and even more so cases of erroneous judgment. This is related to the manas's own wisdom, and to the manas's power of determination (adhimokṣa).

In the manas's judgment, on the one hand, He judges directly based on the dharmas themselves: the more familiar the dharma is to the manas, the more experience He has with it, the more easily He makes judgments independently; the more significant and urgent the dharma, the more easily He makes independent and rapid judgments, and then makes a choice, after which the six consciousnesses arise to carry it out. If the manas cannot comprehend with determination (adhimokṣa) the states and dharmas He encounters, He will be unable to make quick and accurate judgments. On the other hand, the manas's discernment is coarse; to discern in detail, He must rely on the discernment of the six consciousnesses, relying on the mind consciousness's thinking, analysis, study, reasoning, and judgment, and then, based on the information transmitted by the six consciousnesses, He makes His own independent deliberation (manasikāra) and judgment, and the six consciousnesses arise to execute it. If the manas cannot comprehend with determination the content discerned by the six consciousnesses, or the content that the mind consciousness has thought through, analyzed, understood, and judged, He also cannot make judgments and choices, or His judgments and choices are mistaken, and the six consciousnesses then execute them mistakenly.

If the head of a household had no power of judgment, the whole family would either die outright or be left at death's door, unable to survive.