The Advancement of Arhats

The manas also has self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana). During observation, it is the mind consciousness that observes first; based on the mind consciousness's observation, the manas then makes its own observation, then deliberates (manasikāra), and thereby forms its own views and knowledge, arriving at its own conclusions. Everything is governed by the manas's conclusions. The manas relies on the eighth consciousness to perceive all the dharmas illusorily manifested by the eighth consciousness, and then forms its own views and perspectives regarding all these dharmas. As for dharmas that the manas cannot understand, it must come to understand them through the six consciousnesses, and then, based on what the six consciousnesses have understood, it deliberates and judges, arriving at its own views and knowledge.

The manas's concepts of self and what belongs to self are not clear; indeed, it has no concrete concepts of them at all. It values only functions and operations, grasping (upādāna) at the functions and operations of the five aggregates and the eighteen realms, including grasping at the functions and operations of the manas itself, without having any concept of the manas itself. This differs greatly from the mind consciousness. When the manas does not recognize the five aggregates as self, this also includes not recognizing the functions and operations of the manas itself. However, at the stage of the srotāpanna, the realization of no-self is not as clear and penetrating as at the stage of the sakṛdāgāmin; the sakṛdāgāmin's is not as clear and penetrating as the anāgāmin's; and the anāgāmin's is not as clear and penetrating as the arhat of the fourth fruit's. Therefore, at the stage of the first fruit, one obtains the pure dharma eye, and one's grasping nature is reduced and lightened, but it is not as slight as at the stages of the second and third fruits; at the fourth fruit, the grasping nature is simply gone—one no longer grasps at the five aggregates and the eighteen realms, including no longer grasping at the functions and operations of the manas itself.