Disclaimer: This translation does not guarantee complete accuracy, please confirm with the original page text.
29
1. 24-25. Manah-paryaya: Its Nature and Distinction.
5. Just as a being carries with it the auspicious and inauspicious impressions of previous births, such as the 'purusha' in one life or many types of good and bad imprints in the next, so too, the knowledge that remains with the soul across births or until the emergence of perfect knowledge or remains throughout one’s life is called "avasthita."
6. The knowledge that sometimes decreases, sometimes increases, is revealed, and sometimes concealed, like water waves, is termed "anavasthita."
Although only Tirthankaras and some other humans are born with this knowledge, it should primarily be understood as a quality condition since without the necessary qualities, the knowledge does not persist throughout life, just as seen in beings in heavenly or hellish states.
21-23. The distinctions and differences of Manah-paryaya. Rujumat and Vipulamati Manah-paryaya. 24.
The distinction between the two lies in purity and the absence of downfall.
The sentient (cognizant) beings think about any object or substance through the mind. According to the distinctions of the object to be contemplated, the engaging mind takes on different forms. These forms are the mind's modifications, and the knowledge that directly knows these mental modifications is the Manah-paryaya knowledge. This knowledge reveals the forms of the contemplative mind, but the objects of contemplation cannot be known directly.
Question: Then can the one with Manah-paryaya knowledge not know the objects of contemplation?
Answer: They can know them later through inference.
Question: How?
Answer: Just as a psychology expert infers a person's mental states and capabilities by observing their face or gestures, a person with Manah-paryaya knowledge initially sees the forms of another's mind and later infers, through practice, that this person was contemplating a particular object, because their mind would certainly show certain types of forms that would arise during the contemplation of that object.
1. See A. 2, Su. 6.