Manas - Verse Seventeen

With store consciousness as its support,
manas arises.
Its function is mentation,
grasping the seeds it considers to be a "self".

For manas to arise there must be a store consciousness. Manas is the link between store consciousness and the mind consciousness. Manas is the sense base for mind consciousness. The objects of the mind consciousness arise from the manas rather than the external world.

Manas clings to the store consciousness and perceives a portion of the store consciousness as the self.

Everything in the Vijñaptimātra tradition is based on logical reasoning, observations and carefully drawn inferences. So you will often find that new scientific findings on the mind and consciousness match the Vijñaptimātra beliefs.

In the BBC documentary, The Secret You, mathematician Marcus du Sautoy sets out to learn about the consciousness. He participates in various experiments to understand the nature of the mind and consciousness. In the last experiment, in Berlin, it is proven that our 'unconscious' mind makes all our decisions even before we are aware of it.

This 'unconscious' mind is the manas. We don't really need to go through the experiment to understand it. If we carefully observe some of our own activities, we will realize this.

Manas is always active, it discriminates, it perceives a separate self and sees the necessity to protect this self. Mind consciousness receives input from manas. Mind consciousness performs the actions.

A good understanding of these verses will also help us in our meditation practice. We can better observe our mind and understand its functioning.

(Based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh.)

#विज्ञप्तिमात्र #Vijñaptimātra #VijñaptimatraBuddhism #ThichNhatHanh #Vasubandhu #50Verses #50VersesOnVijñaptimātra #Vimshatika #Trimshika #VimshatikaKarika #TrimshikaKarika #Asanga #Yogacāra #Yogacara #ManifestationOnly #Vigyaptimatra #Xuanzang #India #Linji #Rinzai #Zen #Bodhidharma #Hinduism #Buddhism #Buddha #Mahayana  #Prajñapāramitā #Vijnaptimatra #IndianBuddhism #IndianPhilosophy #UttarPradesh #StoreConsciousness #Alayavijñana #Manas