Manas (early Buddhism)
Encyclopedia
Manas is one of three overlapping terms used in the nikayas to refer to the mind
Mind
The concept of mind is understood in many different ways by many different traditions, ranging from panpsychism and animism to traditional and organized religious views, as well as secular and materialist philosophies. Most agree that minds are constituted by conscious experience and intelligent...

, the others being citta
Citta
Citta was one of the chief lay disciples of the Buddha. He was a wealthy merchant from Savatthi. His life and character were so pure that near his death, had he wished to be a chakravartin, it would've been granted. However, he turned down this wish as it was temporal...

and viññāṇa. Each is sometimes used in the generic and non-technical sense of "mind" in general, and the three are sometimes used in sequence to refer to one’s mental processes as a whole. Their primary uses are, however, distinct.

Manas often indicates the general thinking faculty. Thinking is closely associated with volition
Volition (psychology)
Volition or will is the cognitive process by which an individual decides on and commits to a particular course of action. It is defined as purposive striving, and is one of the primary human psychological functions...

s, because mental activity is one of the ways that volitions manifest themselves: "Having willed, one acts through body, speech, and thoughts." Furthermore, willing is described in terms of deliberate thinking.

Undeliberate thought is often an expression of latent tendencies (anusaya), which are conditioned by the volitional nexus of the past.

The term is not used in the description of the cognitive process in the early texts, aside from the preliminary role of manodhātu. The discursive activities of the cognitive process are rather the function of saññā
Sanna
The Sanna is a tributary of the Vistula in Poland. Its source is in the village of Wierzchowiska II in Lublin Voivodeship, Galicia. It flows westward through a rural area. Then, it turns northward for a few kilometers until flowing into the Vistula near the city of Annopol. It is about 50 km...

, together with "reasoning" and "making manifold". This suggests that the "thinking" done by manas is more closely linked to volition than to the discursive processes associated with apperception
Apperception
Apperception is any of several aspects of perception and consciousness in such fields as psychology, philosophy and epistemology.-Meaning in psychology:...

. Manas is mainly the mental activity which follows from volitions, whether immediately, or separated by time and caused by the activation of a latent tendency.
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