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Manifestation Only 12
The object of Manas (the seventh consciousness) is a “self-image with substance,” arising from the intermingling between mind consciousness and Alaya. The main function of Manas is “mentation” – measuring, thinking, a kind of intuition but one that contains error. Manas both “reflects” and is “permanent,” is obscured (with afflictive coverings) but carries a neutral nature (neither wholesome nor unwholesome). At the same time, Manas serves as the “basis of purity or defilement,” meaning it determines the purity or pollution of the first six consciousnesses (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind).
Manas is associated with
- the five universal mental formations: contact, attention, feeling, perception, and volition
- the four afflictive mental formations: self-delusion, self-view, self-conceit, and self-love
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the eight secondary afflictions: anger, resentment, concealment, vexation, jealousy, stinginess, deceit, and flattery
all of which are “obscured and morally indeterminate.” This is also the mechanism of “self-preservation” (the instinct of craving) in Manas, from which the seed of “the wisdom of equality” is hidden. On the Bodhisattva path, when one attains the first bhumi, one is able to remove the obstacles of afflictions and knowledge; only upon reaching the eighth bhumi is one able to completely transform the innate attachment to self, so that Alaya can be liberated.