Material form arises prior to the six consciousnesses

The eleven kinds of material form—the five sense faculties, the five sense objects, and form subsumed under the Dharmāyatana (material form as mental sense-object)—must arise prior to the six consciousnesses; otherwise the six consciousnesses could not appear. After the six consciousnesses are born, they can propel the appearance of the Image-Only Object; the Image-Only Object also arises from the manas's delusive imagining, allowing the mind consciousness to discern it, and further propelling the continued arising and conjuring of the illusory Image-Only Object. When faculty and object make contact, the conscious mind is subsequently produced; the mind consciousness will not arise before the inner mental sense-object appears. When the manas conditions external mental sense-objects, it cannot give rise to the mind consciousness—no mind consciousness is born. Because the manas is obscured by ignorance, when it discerns all dharmas it does not know their substance, does not know their true characteristics, and cannot break through ignorance to give rise to wisdom; this causes the functions of the six consciousnesses to be obstructed and limited. When the mind consciousness studies and learns the Buddha's teachings, it continually perfumes the manas; after the manas understands the principles, it will come to realize that the worldly dharmas of the five aggregates are all subject to arising, ceasing, and change, unreal, empty, and without self, and further realize that the substance of the five-aggregate body and all dharmas is the nature of tathāgatagarbha.