A Brief Discourse on the Essence of Consciousness

Chapter 11  The Mental Factors of the Six Consciousnesses

1. The Arising of the Six Consciousnesses and the Mental Factors

When the six faculties contact the six sense objects, the six consciousnesses arise; the six faculties and six sense objects together constitute the twelve entrances (āyatanas). The six faculties refer to the supreme faculties (indriya), located at the back of the head; the five supreme faculties plus the manas constitute the six faculties, also called the six inner entrances. The six sense objects are the five inner sense objects, plus the material form included in the dharma-āyatana (dharmāyatana-pragṛhīta-rūpa), making the six inner sense objects, also called the six outer entrances. The six inner entrances and six outer entrances together are called the twelve entrances. Among these, the faculties and sense objects are definitely joined together; the five inner sense objects arise within the supreme faculties at the back of the head, and the five dharmāyatana-pragṛhīta-rūpas transformed and manifested by the eighth consciousness all contact the manas. Only when faculty and sense object are together can there be contact; after contact, the manas makes its decision, and only then can the eighth consciousness produce the six consciousnesses.

That the faculties and sense objects contact each other shows that they must be together; the five supreme faculties are located at the back of the head, and the five inner sense objects are produced there at the supreme faculties at the back of the head. After the faculties and sense objects make contact, the manas makes its decision, and the eighth consciousness will produce the five sense consciousnesses; at the same time, the mental sense object also contacts the manas at the supreme faculties at the back of the head, and the mind consciousness will also arise simultaneously, discriminating the six sense objects together with the five sense consciousnesses—this is called consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna).

When the six faculties contact the six sense objects and the six consciousnesses arise, the three then combine and contact each other—that is, the six consciousnesses then contact the six sense objects, and the six sense objects are discriminated. This faculty and sense object are continuously in contact; if faculty and sense object do not contact, the six consciousnesses will cease. Then the six consciousnesses contact the six sense objects again; after contacting the six sense objects, there is reception—receiving and accepting the six sense objects. After accepting the six sense objects, the six consciousnesses have discriminated and grasped the six sense objects—that is when the perception mental factor (saṃjñā) emerges.

After discriminating the six sense objects, the six consciousnesses begin to deliberate (manasikāra); if the deliberation is unclear, they again direct attention (manaskāra) toward the six sense objects. After attention, there is discrimination again, and feeling again; at this point the feeling carries the feelings of pain, pleasure, sorrow, joy, and neutral feeling. The initial feeling is reception and acceptance; after accepting, it is as if the six sense objects have been taken in, and only then does one know what the six sense objects are—this acceptance represents taking them in. The subsequent feelings carry emotional coloring, and the feelings of pain, pleasure, sorrow, joy, and neutrality arise.

After the feeling emerges, if the feeling is unclear, one takes the mark and discriminates again, and the perception mental factor arises again; once the perception mental factor arises and the mark is discriminated, deliberation begins. If the deliberation is unclear, one contacts again; after contact, there is reception and feeling again, or one directs attention again, then discriminates again, or thinks again, or continues to feel; thus after discriminating and feeling, one deliberates again, until finally the matter is deliberated clearly and discriminated distinctly; the six consciousnesses give rise to a decisive mind, and then begin to act.

The content discriminated by the six consciousnesses must also be transmitted to the manas; the manas simultaneously operates on the six sense-object realms discriminated by the six consciousnesses using the five universal mental factors, producing a series of mental activities. Finally, when the manas gives rise to a decisive mind, deciding how to act, the eighth consciousness discerns this and, in accordance with the manas's deliberative decision and its attention, operates in coordination. Because the eighth consciousness needs to know what the manas directs its attention to, which aspect of the sense objects it attends to; only after knowing this can the eighth consciousness manifest the six consciousnesses on that sense object. Once the six consciousnesses manifest, bodily, verbal, and mental actions begin.

If the manas still has not deliberated clearly, it will continue to contact, continue to direct attention, continue to feel, continue to discriminate, and finally deliberate again and make a decision. Before the decision is made, these five universal mental factors operate repeatedly; their sequence may not follow the order of attention, contact, feeling, perception, volition, and may be reversed. Contact may come first and discrimination after; or contact may come first and feeling first, with discrimination after the feeling. Perhaps after discrimination there is feeling again; if the feeling and discrimination are still unclear, deliberation follows again. If the deliberation is still unclear, contact continues, feeling continues, discrimination continues.

Which mental factor comes first is not certain; the sequence here is disrupted. Initially there is attention; attention is definitely at the seed stage. At the seed stage, corresponding to that mental sense object, attention arises; then the consciousness seeds emerge right at that mental sense object, and the manas contacts that mental sense object. Whichever mental sense object is attended to, the seeds emerge onto that mental sense object, forming the conscious mind. Contact with that mental sense object—first there is attention, then the seeds emerge; only after the seeds emerge and there is a conscious mind can there be contact with the mental sense object.

After contact there is reception; after reception, the mark is taken and discrimination occurs; after discrimination, deliberation follows. If the deliberation is unclear, contact continues; after contact there is reception and feeling, or at this point attention arises again, and then there is discrimination again. With contact again and discrimination again, the sequence of the mental factors hereafter becomes disrupted; the initial sequence follows the order of attention, contact, feeling, perception, volition—such is the operation of the mental factors.

2. Speaking of the three dharmas of faculty, sense object, and consciousness, of course we must address the five universal mental factors of the six consciousnesses: contact (sparśa), attention (manaskāra), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), and volition (cetanā). The contact of the six consciousnesses is the threefold conjunction; the threefold conjunction is the coming together of faculty, sense object, and consciousness, called contact—none of the three can be lacking. After the six faculties and six sense objects contact, the six consciousnesses arise; the six consciousnesses then contact the six sense objects, while at the same time the six faculties are still continuously contacting the six sense objects, never having left the six sense objects, because the six inner sense objects arise at the site of the supreme faculties, and the manas has also been continuously contacting the mental sense objects. The contact spoken of here refers to the contact of faculty and sense object, and does not include the contact of the eighth consciousness. The contact of the manas and the eighth consciousness only requires directly contacting the object-aspect (nimitta); no other faculty is needed to induce it.

The contact of the manas directly contacts the mental sense objects transformed and manifested by the eighth consciousness; the contact of the eighth consciousness directly contacts faculties and environments—that is, it contacts the faculties, the material world, and karmic seeds. The contact mental factor of the six consciousnesses differs from the contact mental factors of the seventh and eighth consciousnesses: the contact mental factor of the six consciousnesses must have faculties to induce it; only without departing from the six faculties is there contact. The feeling mental factor is the same: the feeling mental factor is the feeling that arises after the six consciousnesses contact the six faculties and six sense objects; the feeling here includes not only reception, but afterward also emotional feelings—painful feeling, pleasant feeling, and neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling. The feeling of the eighth consciousness is pure reception, without a trace of emotion, without painful or pleasant feeling, corresponding only to neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā). The manas also has three feelings—painful, pleasant, and neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling. For example, the mind consciousness tells the manas not to get angry, yet it is still furious; the mind consciousness tells the manas not to get excited, yet it is still extremely excited; the mind consciousness tells the manas not to be too happy, yet it still cannot help dancing with joy; the mind consciousness tells the manas that it should forgive his ignorance and unreasonableness, yet the manas still refuses to comply. Does the manas have emotions or not? Inexplicable crying and laughing, inexplicable venting of emotions—inexplicably, these belong to the manas.

After the six consciousnesses arise, whether the attention mental factor or the contact mental factor comes first or later is not certain. In the initial stage, when the six consciousnesses are at the seed stage, attention definitely comes first; after the conscious mind has been drawn to the realm it needs to face, the attention is complete; once the conscious mind arises there is contact with the sense objects, and only then can the six consciousnesses contact the realm; only after contacting the realm can the realm be discriminated. This is the initial attention first, contact after. After contact, there are feeling, perception, and volition; after volition, the conscious mind contacts again; after contact, attention may arise again, then reception again, discrimination again, volition again, and feeling again. Thus the sequence of these mental factors may be reversed; contact may come first, and after contacting the realm, attention is drawn onto the realm—this is attention.

The manifestation of the five universal mental factors: sometimes attention comes first at the beginning, until all five universal mental factors are operating; sometimes contact comes first—contact first, then attention. After the six consciousnesses contact a realm and feeling arises, they can receive and accept the realm, then grasp the realm; thus there are designations (nāma) and perception; after designations and perception, the volition mental factor begins to act, and thus there are thinking, deliberation, and consideration; after deliberation, one of the three feelings—pain, pleasure, or neutrality—may arise, at which point a preliminary decision must be made, and bodily, verbal, and mental actions begin to be enacted.

After bodily, verbal, and mental actions are enacted, there may be contact again; because one cannot fully decide about the realm, one must contact and receive again, discriminate and volition again, repeatedly, until complete understanding and complete clarity are achieved, and only after making the final decision does it end. The procedures here are quite complex; the finer details cannot be observed through contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā). The five mental factors do not necessarily all operate in their fixed sequence, nor must all five procedures be gone through in turn; it is possible that at the feeling stage one must start over with contact again, or at the perception stage contact again; it is possible that after volition, a decision still cannot be made temporarily, so one must contact again, and after contact, attend again; or attend first and contact after—the sequence is not fixed; the number of times and the duration of the five mental factors' arising all differ.

The volition of the volition mental factor contains the meanings of deliberation, action, and decision; these mental activities all belong to the dynamic nature, belonging to formation (saṃskāra); formation can be called the formation aggregate (saṃskāra-skandha), or the aggregate of volitional formations. Why call it the aggregate of volitional formations? Because if we take these mental activities, these functions and operations, as real, as self and belonging to self, then the true nature of the true Dharma is obscured, the wondrous luminous true mind is obscured; then one only sees the operation of these dharmas and does not see the intrinsic functional nature of the eighth consciousness—therefore formation is also called the aggregate of volitional formations. Why call it the formation aggregate? The operation of the mind-consciousness is a functional operation assembled and aggregated by various conditions, therefore it is also called the formation aggregate; in fact they are all mental factors, a function of the six-consciousness mind.

Volition is a kind of behavioral action; whatever has behavioral action, has change, and can operate is called formation. The scope of the aggregate of volitional formations is broader than that of the volition mental factor; the aggregate of volitional formations also includes the operational functions of the physical body; the operations of body and mind together constitute the complete scope of the aggregate of volitional formations. The operation of the volition mental factor is also very complex; its functions are deliberation, weighing, deciding, and acting—the final step is decisive action. The volition mental factor has three processes: including thinking, pondering, analyzing, and judging; making a decision; and finally taking actual action. The volition of the first five consciousnesses is relatively simple, only deciding whether to approach or depart from a realm; the volition of the sixth consciousness is the most complex, requiring repeated consideration and pondering, and its power of wisdom (prajñā-bala) is relatively strong; the volition of the first five consciousnesses must rely on the perception and volition of the sixth consciousness in order to operate. Therefore volition itself is mental action; after mental action is enacted, bodily action and verbal action follow, and thus the five sense consciousnesses also participate in it.

The feeling of the feeling mental factor refers to the reception and acceptance by the six consciousnesses themselves; reception and acceptance means accepting the realm; after accepting the realm, there is discrimination; only after discrimination do the six consciousnesses have the emotional feelings of pain, pleasure, and neither-painful-nor-pleasant. The feeling that appears before the emotionally colored feeling is the feeling of receiving and accepting the realm. For example, after the eye consciousness contacts form, the eye consciousness receives and accepts the form; after acceptance comes the perception of discrimination and knowing, and then the grasping perception arises; only because of knowing and grasping are there painful and pleasant feelings.

If there is no knowing, there are no emotional painful or pleasant feelings; if there is no grasping, no painful or pleasant feelings appear either. Therefore the scope of the feeling mental factor is somewhat broader than the feeling aggregate among the five aggregates; the feeling aggregate is mainly the emotional feelings, including the three emotionally colored feelings of pain, pleasure, and neither-painful-nor-pleasant. The feeling mental factors of the seventh and eighth consciousnesses differ somewhat from those of the six consciousnesses: the eighth consciousness has only neutral feeling, without painful or pleasant feelings, and without emotional coloring; the five universal mental factors of the eight consciousnesses each have many subtle differences.

3. The five aggregates, also called the five aggregates of clinging (pañca-skandha): the four aggregates of feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness are all entirely the nature of the six consciousnesses. The feeling aggregate is the nature and function of the feeling of the six consciousnesses; the perception aggregate is the functional operation of the perception of the six consciousnesses; the formation aggregate is the functional operation of the formation of the six consciousnesses; the consciousness aggregate is the functional operation of the recognition of the six consciousnesses. The four aggregates respectively correspond to the four mental factors of feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness of the six consciousnesses; after the six consciousnesses contact the six sense objects, there is the feeling mental factor, the perception mental factor, and the volition mental factor. The volition mental factor has the meaning of moving the body and producing speech, the meaning of thinking and acting, the meaning of being able to manifest bodily, verbal, and mental actions.

Of the five universal mental factors of the six consciousnesses, attention comes first; attention is directing attention onto the realm—whatever dharma the manas, the seventh consciousness, wants to discriminate, the six consciousnesses direct their attention to that dharma; therefore the attention of the six consciousnesses is decided by the manas. After the six consciousnesses attend, the consciousness seeds emerge and the six consciousnesses manifest; then faculty, sense object, and consciousness conjoin in contact; after contact, the first thing is reception. What is reception? Reception does not refer to the feelings of feeling pain or feeling pleasure; at the beginning there is not yet any emotional feeling—it is first receiving the realm; the six consciousnesses receive the realm of the six sense objects, that is, first accept it. After acceptance, the perception mental factor begins to discriminate—first contact, then discrimination.

For example, if someone gives you an object, you first turn your attention to that object, then touch it with your hand, then accept the object; after taking it in hand, you carefully discriminate and observe it; after observation you take its mark, and a decisive mind about the object arises, and then a felt experience arises. As for the subsequent feeling mental factor and perception mental factor, which comes first and which later is hard to say; the two appear alternately, and the sequence of the five mental factors is thus disrupted. When many people simultaneously discriminate the same object, the sequences of their mental factors all differ; this is related to each person's power of wisdom (prajñā-bala), meditative concentration, karma, and afflictive habits.

Generally, only after receiving a realm is there perception; only after the functional nature of discrimination and mark-taking is there can feelings arise; if the feeling is unclear, one contacts and perceives again, and knows again; after knowing, a decisive mind arises, and there are various feelings. The longer the time occupied by contact, perception, and volition, the more the inner feelings, and the greater the changes in the mental state; this shows there is continuous perceiving and continuous feeling; continuous feeling, then continuous perceiving again; the emotions in the mind are fluctuating, and the mind is continuously grasping the marks of the realm; the five mental factors operate back and forth repeatedly, and the sequence of the five mental factors is often disrupted. For example, in the operation of the volition mental factor, when the perception mental factor has not discriminated the realm clearly, the volition is unclear, and the decisiveness of the volition mental factor cannot arise—there is no power of decision. Then one must turn back to let the contact mental factor and perception mental factor operate; only after discrimination is clear does the volition mental factor have the power of decision and can make the final decision; then the operation of the five universal mental factors on that realm concludes.

When the perception mental factor has not discriminated clearly, discrimination and volition continue; when the volition mental factor still cannot make a decision, the six consciousnesses must repeatedly and continuously volition and perceive, and repeatedly know again; after knowing, feeling again; after feeling, knowing again; after knowing, volition again; if the volition is unclear, attend again. After attention, contact again, or directly perceive again, or contact and then perceive, perceive and then feel, feel and then volition, volition and then feel—the sequence before and after is not fixed.

After all five mental factors have operated, if there is attention again, it is concentrating the attention of the six consciousnesses onto the realm to be discriminated; then faculty, sense object, and consciousness conjoin in contact. After the conjunction contact, the first is acceptance and reception, then knowing; when knowing is clear, there is feeling. If the feeling is not clear, knowing continues; there may be repeated attention, contact, and knowing. The six consciousnesses have known and grasped; only after feelings arise can the corresponding action to be taken next be decided; this requires first deliberating, considering, and judging, then making a decision on which bodily, verbal, and mental actions to take. This is divided into many steps, progressing layer by layer, deepening layer by layer, until bodily and verbal actions are enacted. If the thinking is not clear, one must continue to contact, continue to attend, continue to perceive, continue to know, until finally the discrimination is clear.

In the series of operations of the five mental factors, the contact mental factor must exist; that is, faculty, sense object, and consciousness must be conjoined and cannot separate; otherwise, if the consciousness leaves the sense-object realm, contact will disappear and can no longer exist and operate; the sense object also cannot leave the faculty, otherwise no consciousness arises. Furthermore, only when the six consciousnesses contact the six sense objects can the realm be accepted and discriminated—contact is the prerequisite condition. If we no longer wish to discriminate, no longer wish to feel, no longer wish to have bodily, verbal, and mental actions, then the consciousnesses should no longer continue to contact the sense objects—move the attention of the six consciousnesses away, and no longer attend; then there are no subsequent mental activities. This is the best method of cultivating meditative concentration and cultivating the mind; by practicing this way one can reach forgetting the sense-object realms, with no thoughts arising or few thoughts arising—this is how the arhats are. Therefore they generally have no emotional fluctuations, few feelings, and no mind toward objects.

When ordinary sentient beings contact realms, because they have craving and attachment and have ignorance and delusion, once they contact a realm they refuse to leave; prolonged discrimination and feeling, prolonged deliberation—the mind finds no rest, thoughts in disarray. Some people, because they lack the power of wisdom, do not know clearly and cannot think clearly, and thus cannot make decisions; therefore they must continuously contact realms, thinking back and forth, tossing and turning, their minds unsettled. Because they cannot think it through, cannot deliberate it clearly, they cannot decide, and so they must repeatedly and continuously attend and contact.

Some people need a long time to contact a realm, and also need a long time to think through a matter—one reason is that the mind has craving and attachment; one reason is that the matter is complex and the discriminating wisdom is insufficient; one reason is that the matter is very important and must be discriminated and thought through clearly before deciding. If the knowing is not clear, the feeling will not be clear, and the thinking and deliberation will likewise be unclear; thus there must be continuous attention, continuous contact, continuous discrimination. Among these, as attention and contact operate onward, which operates first and which later is not certain; whether feeling or perception operates first or later is also not certain; the sequence of the several mental factors is all not fixed.

4. The actual operation of the five universal mental factors can be illustrated with an analogy. For example, there is a painter painting a picture; the five universal mental factors can be compared to the painter, and the six sense-object realms discriminated by the mental factors are like the landscape painting the painter paints. When the painter is about to paint and copy, he first looks at the scenery before him to be copied; when he raises his head to look at the scenery before him, that is attending to the scenery before him; he transfers his eye consciousness onto the scenery, which is equivalent to directing his attention onto the scenery before him, and then induces the next mental activities of contact and mark-taking. The painter looking at the scenery is attention; after attention, he contacts the scenery; after contacting the scenery, there is feeling; the feeling at this time is generally the meaning of reception—receiving the realm of the six sense objects and accepting the realm.

At this time there is not yet any emotional coloring, not containing emotions such as pain, pleasure, sorrow, joy, or neutrality; nor does he think the landscape before him is beautiful or magnificent, nor does he feel inwardly moved by thinking the scenery before him is desolate. Because discrimination and mark-taking have not yet begun, he has simply accepted the realm. After accepting it, he then discriminates it; discrimination is perception, and he can know what it is—this is taking the mark, taking the realm. After taking the mark of the realm, he withdraws his eyes and holds it in mind in thought, firmly memorizing the landscape realm in his mind, and then decides how to copy it—this is equivalent to the operation of the volition mental factor. After the landscape realm is memorized in the mind, he begins to sketch on the drawing board; these sketching motions are equivalent to the action of the volition mental factor—bodily, verbal, and mental actions have already arisen.

After the painter has copied for a while, he no longer knows how to paint further, because the image in his mind has become blurred, so he must raise his head again to look at the scenery before him. This is attending again, contacting the scenery again; after contact, he receives and accepts again, and at this time there is emotional feeling, feeling that the landscape before him is so beautiful and magnificent, and the poetic and artistic feeling within arises; this feeling may have been present at the very beginning of sketching. After receiving the realm, he must discriminate again; after discrimination, he thinks again about how to sketch. After thinking, he begins to sketch again; this series of behavioral processes is equivalent to the repeated operation of the five mental factors of attention, contact, feeling, perception, and volition.

After attention, he contacts the realm; after contacting the realm there is feeling; after feeling, discrimination; if the discrimination is unclear, he contacts again; he may not need to attend again, because he has been looking at the scenery before him all along and his attention has not shifted elsewhere—he just continues to contact; at this time he may also not need to contact separately, because he has been contacting the realm all along and has never left the realm before him. After contacting the realm, he receives again; at this time he may also not need to receive the realm again, because he has been receiving the realm all along; the perception mental factor directly arises, repeatedly discriminating and deliberating. This series of actions continues to be enacted until the landscape painting is completely copied—this is equivalent to the six consciousnesses having completely known and made the final decision; the matter is thus concluded, the operation of the five universal mental factors on this realm is finished, the bodily, verbal, and mental actions have been completed, and the painting is copied.

The five universal mental factors can be compared to a painter who is always contacting the landscape realm that needs to be copied, attending to that realm, discriminating that realm, thinking about that realm, and then beginning to copy according to the discriminated realm; the five universal mental factors of the six consciousnesses also operate in a similar way.

5. When Does the Attention Mental Factor of the Six Consciousnesses Begin to Attend

After the manas clings to the dharmas manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, regarding dharmas it deems important, the manas attends; after attention, there are the three mental factors of contact, feeling, and perception; afterward the volition mental factor arises. After the tathāgatagarbha discerns the volition mental factor and attention mental factor of the manas, it actively cooperates with the manas: whatever dharma the manas attends to, deliberates on, and decides to discriminate, the eighth consciousness gives rise to the six consciousnesses on that dharma. The six consciousnesses that arise are definitely on the mental sense object that the manas attends to and deliberates on; if it is a dharma the manas does not attend to, the six consciousnesses cannot arise; therefore the discrimination of the six consciousnesses is all induced by the attention and volition mental factor of the manas; after the manas deliberates, the eighth consciousness cooperates with the manas to give rise to the six consciousnesses.

For example, if the manas attends to a flower, after contacting, feeling, and perceiving this flower, the volition mental factor arises; the eighth consciousness simultaneously discerns the volition mental factor of the manas, and on the inner material sense-object of the flower at the supreme faculties at the back of the head, gives rise to the eye consciousness and mind consciousness. Before the eye consciousness arises, the eye consciousness at the seed stage already tends toward attending to the inner material sense-object of the flower; the seed stage is the stage of the consciousness seeds; before the consciousness seeds are to arise, there must be a direction and place of arising, and they arise toward that place. Because the six sense objects at the supreme faculties at the back of the head are extremely numerous, on which sense object the eye consciousness and the six consciousnesses arise depends on which dharma the manas attends to; if the manas attends to the flower, the eye consciousness seeds are output at the flower; thus before the consciousness seeds arise, they are prepared to arise on the inner material sense-object of the flower at the supreme faculties at the back of the head—this preparation is attention.

The eye consciousness and mind consciousness at the seed stage are preparing to arise at that place of the flower; first is the place of the flower's manifest color (varṇa); the eye consciousness seeds at the seed stage are prepared to arise onto the flower's manifest color, which is equivalent to attending to the flower's manifest color; after attention, the eye consciousness seeds are output onto the flower's manifest color, and the eye consciousness immediately arises; after the eye consciousness arises, the operation of the eye consciousness's four mental factors of contact, feeling, perception, and volition begins. At the same time, at the supreme faculties at the back of the head there are also the flower's shape-color (saṃsthāna), indicative color (vijñapti), and non-indicative color (avijñapti); these are mental sense objects; the mind consciousness's seeds are prepared to be output at the flower's shape-color, indicative color, and non-indicative color; the mind consciousness seeds are output at the flower's mental sense-object place, and the mind consciousness rushes toward the mental sense object of the flower's shape-color and indicative color to arise; thus the mind consciousness is formed; next comes the operation of the mind consciousness's four mental factors of contact, feeling, perception, and volition toward the flower.

After the eye consciousness and mind consciousness arise, the two consciousnesses contact the flower; attention has already appeared at the seed stage; after the two consciousnesses arise, the operation of the contact mental factor begins. The initial attention definitely takes place at the seed stage; after contacting the flower, the feeling mental factor, perception mental factor, and volition mental factor arise; after operating thus, there is attention again; at this time the attention is no longer the attention of the seed stage, but the attention within the operation of the eye consciousness and mind consciousness themselves; after another round of contact, feeling, perception, and volition, and after discrimination, a final decision arises, and the matter of seeing the flower with the eyes concludes—this is the sequence of the arising and operation of the eye consciousness and mind consciousness.