Consciousness, vijnana, also called the primary mind, is comprised of the six consciousnesses proper. The first five are the consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue and body. Their functions are purely that of recognition or perception—the ability to discern and distinguish phenomena. They are not colored by the ideas and attachments of a self, and are neither wholesome nor unwholesome. The sixth consciousness, or mental consciousness, has a corresponding sense organ, the parts of the brain and nervous system related to sensory awareness. It also includes, to some extent, the moment-to-moment awareness, which is actually part of the seventh consciousness.

Mana, the faculty of mind, discriminates and makes sense of what the sixth consciousness recognizes. In a sense mana is like a manager who makes decisions based upon deeply rooted ideas of what is, and is not, beneficial to the self. It can be considered the seventh consciousness, although the seventh consciousness is too interconnected with the sixth and eighth consciousnesses to be so clearly distinguished. The functioning aspect of mana is reasoning or thinking that is grounded in self-grasping and self-identity. Mana is mental continuum itself, produced by an ever-changing physiological process, as well as the moment-to-moment awareness caused by successive thoughts. For these reasons, the faculty of mind has no fixed, unchanging existence. It is directly influenced by wholesome and unwholesome mental objects, and it can be either conceptual or perceptual in its function. Furthermore, it can function as the delusion of ordinary mind, or the true suchness of enlightened mind.