What Does It Mean That Manas Internally Grasps Ālaya-vijñāna as the Self?

This means that the mental faculty (manas) clings to the functions of the ālaya-vijñāna as its own functions, unaware that these are actually the functions of the ālaya-vijñāna. It accompanies the phenomena perceived by the ālaya-vijñāna, considering all such phenomena to be "self" and "belonging to self," not realizing that they are produced by the ālaya-vijñāna, belong to the ālaya-vijñāna, and are fundamentally of the nature of the ālaya-vijñāna. Consequently, the mental faculty becomes attached to the functions of the ālaya-vijñāna, delights in them, takes pleasure in them, and clings to them. Due to these attachments and cravings, the mental faculty becomes bound and fails to attain liberation, thereby being unable to relinquish the cycle of birth and death. The mental faculty fundamentally does not know what the ālaya-vijñāna is; thus, it is not clinging to the ālaya-vijñāna itself. Rather, it mistakenly believes that all the functions produced by the ālaya-vijñāna are its own functions and that all phenomena belong to itself, thereby generating attachment.

What are the functions of the ālaya-vijñāna? They are none other than the functional operations of the five aggregates and the eighteen elements, none other than the functions of all worldly phenomena. The mental faculty takes all these functions to be "self" and "belonging to self." This misunderstanding only begins to gradually dissolve after realizing the ālaya-vijñāna. When the mental faculty realizes the ālaya-vijñāna, it will, together with consciousness, observe that the functions of the five aggregates and eighteen elements are all produced by the ālaya-vijñāna; they are the functions of the ālaya-vijñāna, not the functions of the mental faculty as "self." Thereby, the attachment to self is gradually eradicated. Subsequently, upon realizing that all other phenomena are also the functions of the ālaya-vijñāna, not the functions of the mental faculty as "self," the attachment to phenomena is gradually eliminated, ignorance is progressively exhausted, and supreme nirvana is attained, achieving great liberation.

Animals possess both self-attachment and attachment to phenomena; which among them could know the existence of the ālaya-vijñāna? They merely take the functions produced by the ālaya-vijñāna and the phenomena born from it as their own. The mental faculty clings only to the phenomena produced by the ālaya-vijñāna; how could it be clinging to the ālaya-vijñāna itself? Studying the Dharma is not about dissecting words; one cannot merely circle around the literal meaning. One must deeply contemplate and investigate its profound and ultimate meaning. Most people study the Dharma with very superficial conscious thinking, never cultivating concentration to engage in deep contemplation and investigation. That is why so many people study the Hinayana teachings of suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self, yet end up concluding that the five aggregates are not different from the eighth consciousness. This is logically inconsistent. How could an ordinary person hold the view that the five aggregates are the eighth consciousness? Anyone holding such a view would not be an ordinary person; fundamentally, there would be no need for them to further contemplate to eradicate the view of self or to realize the eighth consciousness.