The Functioning of Mental Factors of the Manas

Grasping (upādāna) is the function of the perception-associated mental factor (caitta); its role is to discern marks, take up marks, and then assign names to those marks. Once there are names, designations (nāma) appear, and both the mark and the name are thereby acknowledged. Only after the manas has taken up a mark can it deliberate (manasikāra) and make the decision about how to act. Of course, the five universal mental factors must run over and over repeatedly before a final overall decision can be made, and only then can action be taken. Therefore, when one sees a person hesitating and unable to decide, one knows that the mind consciousness and the manas are deliberating, constantly engaging in attention (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), and volition (cetanā), with the mental factors operating in turn, and the five particular mental factors also participating in the operation—it is extremely complex. This is why the human brain is countless times more complex than a computer; a computer simply cannot compare with the human brain. What is called the human brain mainly refers to the functions and activities of the manas, with the six consciousnesses coming second.