Mental Factors of the Mind base\: A Practical Compass (Second Edition) (with over 30,000 additional words, reorganized)

Section 3: The Mental Factors (caittas) Corresponding to Each Consciousness

1. The Mental Factors Associated with the Eight Consciousnesses

Mental factors (caittas) are the dharmas possessed by the conscious mind; they are the traces of mental activities in the process of the conscious mind's operation, assisting the operation of the eight consciousnesses. The mental factors of the eight consciousnesses were summarized and categorized by Bodhisattva Vasubandhu into at most fifty-one, but there are still finer mental factors that have not been categorized, such as emotional mental factors like shock, fear, joy, happiness, and so on. These mental factors do not belong to wholesome or unwholesome, and in essence do not affect cultivation and realization. Each consciousness has its own mental factors, which are not all the same; each sentient being also has different mental factors at different stages of cultivation, determined by the mind and changing with the mind. Therefore, it is difficult to say exactly how many mental factors each consciousness has in a fixed manner, and it is also difficult to say exactly which mental factors each sentient being has; all must be analyzed and treated according to specific circumstances, and cannot be generalized.

Generally speaking, the eight consciousnesses have the following mental factors:

Five universal mental factors: contact (sparśa), attention (manaskāra), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), volition (cetanā);

Five object-specific mental factors: desire (chanda), determination (adhimokṣa), mindfulness (smṛti), meditative concentration (samādhi), wisdom (prajñā);

Eleven wholesome mental factors: faith (śraddhā), shame (hrī), remorse (apatrāpya), non-greed (alobha), non-hatred (adveṣa), non-delusion (amoha), diligence (vīrya), tranquility (praśrabdhi), non-negligence (apramāda), equanimity of action (upekṣā), non-harmfulness (ahiṃsā);

Six root afflictions: greed (rāga), hatred (dveṣa), delusion (moha), arrogance (māna), doubt (vicikitsā), wrong view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi);

Eight universal afflictions: non-faith (āśraddhya), laziness (kausīdya), negligence (pramāda), torpor (styāna), restlessness (auddhatya), forgetfulness (muṣita-smṛtitā), non-discernment (asaṃprajanya), distraction (vikṣepa); indeterminate mental factors: regret (kaukṛtya), sleep (middha), initial application (vitarka), sustained examination (vicāra);

Two intermediate afflictions: shamelessness (ahrikā), lack of remorse (anapatrāpya);

Ten minor afflictions: anger (krodha), resentment (upanāha), spite (pradāśa), concealment (mrakṣa), deceit (māyā), flattery (śāṭhya), conceit (mada), harmfulness (vihiṃsā), jealousy (īrṣyā), stinginess (mātsarya).

Among these, the eleven wholesome mental factors stand in opposition to the afflictive mental factors: where one exists, the other does not; where the other exists, this one does not. When the conscious mind has wholesome mental factors, it does not have the corresponding afflictive mental factors; when it has afflictive mental factors, it does not have the corresponding eleven wholesome mental factors. A single consciousness cannot simultaneously possess both wholesome and unwholesome mental factors; it is either wholesome, or unwholesome, or neither wholesome nor unwholesome—they cannot appear simultaneously.

For example, when facing a sense object or a dharma, if the conscious mind has the mental factor of faith, it cannot have the mental factor of non-faith, nor can it be half-believing and half-doubting; conversely, likewise, it cannot possess both. If it has the mental factors of shame and remorse, it cannot have the mental factors of shamelessness and lack of remorse; if it has the mental factor of non-greed, it cannot have the mental factor of greed; if it has the mental factor of non-hatred, it cannot have the mental factor of hatred; if it has the mental factor of non-delusion, it cannot have the mental factor of delusion; if it has the mental factor of diligence, it cannot have the mental factor of laziness; if it has the mental factor of tranquility, it cannot have the mental factor of torpor; if it has the mental factor of non-negligence, it cannot have the mental factor of negligence; if it has the mental factor of equanimity of action, it cannot have the mental factors of anger, resentment, and spite; if it has the mental factor of non-harmfulness, it cannot have the mental factor of harmfulness. Of two opposing factors, only one can exist; they cannot be possessed simultaneously.

Then, does the eighth consciousness have the twenty-six afflictive mental factors? Certainly not. The eighth consciousness has no ignorance and no afflictions whatsoever, and it has wholesome mental factors as well as mental factors that are neither wholesome nor unwholesome; if it did not have wholesome mental factors, it would have unwholesome mental factors. The wholesome mental factors of the eighth consciousness are: faith, non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion, diligence, tranquility, non-negligence, equanimity of action, and non-harmfulness. It does not have the mental factors of shame and remorse, because the eighth consciousness never creates mental actions that wrong itself or others, and therefore has no need for shame or remorse, or the lack thereof. The three mental factors of non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion are easy to understand: the eighth consciousness has no ignorance, and of course has no afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion; its mind is liberated from all afflictions.

The eighth consciousness has the mental factor of non-negligence; He never indulges Himself in pursuing ease and pleasure, because He has no mind toward any dharma, never feels fatigued, does not crave sense objects, does not like sense objects, and does not weary of sense objects; therefore He neither indulges Himself nor seeks comfort—thus He has the mental factor of non-negligence.

The eighth consciousness has the mental factor of equanimity of action. Equanimity of action means the mind's activities are in a state of equanimity, impartial and unbiased, equal toward all dharmas, not recalling the past, not reaching toward the future, with a peaceful state of mind, neither slow nor hurried, abiding in the Middle Way, with a neutral mental nature. The eighth consciousness is precisely such a mind.

The eighth consciousness has the mental factor of non-harmfulness; toward all people, affairs, things, and principles, it has no mind of harm or opposition. If people, affairs, things, or principles have aspects that are not in accordance with the Dharma, the eighth consciousness never pursues the matter at all, absolutely does not care about anything, and therefore does not give rise to harmful mental activities, allowing all wholesome and unwholesome phenomena to manifest as they will. The eighth consciousness never has the mind to discriminate or deal with things, never gives rise to thoughts; wholesome and unwholesome alike cannot affect the mind of the eighth consciousness.

2. The Mental Factors of the Eighth Consciousness

The mental factors of sentient beings' eighth consciousness include the five universal mental factors: attention, contact, feeling, perception, volition; the object-specific mental factors: determination, mindfulness, meditative concentration, wisdom (whether it has the mental factor of desire remains to be observed); and the wholesome mental factors: faith, non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion, diligence, tranquility, equanimity of action, non-harmfulness. It does not have the twenty-six afflictive mental factors, nor the four indeterminate mental factors. The mental factors of a Buddha's eighth consciousness include the five universal factors, five object-specific factors, and the eleven wholesome factors, without afflictive mental factors or indeterminate mental factors (their specific operations cannot be observed at present).

The five universal mental factors of the eighth consciousness accompany the eighth consciousness's operation moment by moment, never separating for an instant. Because the eighth consciousness is constantly operating upon all dharmas, able to discern karmic seeds, discern the five-aggregate body, discern the material world (bhājana-loka), and discern the mental activities of the manas, whatever dharmas the eighth consciousness manifests, the eighth consciousness can discern them all; therefore the five universal mental factors always accompany the eighth consciousness's operation.

The mental factor of attention: the eighth consciousness attends to all the dharmas it discerns, directing the mind toward the dharmas to be discerned; next it makes contact with the dharmas to be discerned; then it receives the dharmas it is contacting; afterward it discerns the received dharmas, and the appearance of the dharmas arises in the mind. This differs greatly from the dharma-marks arising in the minds of the seven consciousnesses: the eighth consciousness does not have the appearances of worldly dharmas, does not manifest the specific appearances of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharma objects, but it certainly discerns the distribution and operation of the six great seeds of the dharmas; afterward, the eighth consciousness's mental factor of volition arises, deciding how to produce the corresponding dharmas and change the corresponding dharmas; by regulating and outputting the six great seeds, it causes the phenomena of arising, ceasing, and change of dharmas to appear.

The eighth consciousness's discernment of the seventh consciousness, the manas, mainly discerns the manas's mental factors, discerning the dispersal and concentration of the consciousness seeds, and thereby knows what dharmas the seventh consciousness is attending to and what it wants to do; when the karmic seeds allow, the eighth consciousness will satisfy the seventh consciousness's desires and thoughts.

Among the five object-specific mental factors, the eighth consciousness has the mental factor of determination. After the eighth consciousness has discerned the karmic seeds, the five-aggregate body, the material world, and the mental activities of the manas, it can accurately know these dharmas, cognize them reasonably, and the mind can accept and accord with them; only afterward can there be any activity—this process is determination. If these dharmas cannot be correctly interpreted, then further down, all dharmas cannot be reasonably and truthfully produced and changed.

For example, after the eighth consciousness discerns the decision of the manas's mental factor of volition, it can correctly and accurately know what the manas's decision is, and only by accepting and trusting the manas's decision can it create and transform dharmas in accordance with the manas's intentions. If the eighth consciousness could not attain determination regarding the manas's intentions, it would produce and change dharmas in a chaotic and erroneous manner, and could not properly cooperate with the manas, and the world would fall into chaos.

Another example: after the eighth consciousness discerns the karmic seeds, if it can attain determination regarding what the karmic seeds are, it will know how to produce dharmas according to the karmic seeds; if it could not attain determination regarding what the karmic seeds are, it could not produce dharmas normally, and the world would be thrown into great disorder. For instance, if the karmic seeds indicate that this person should have a car accident, but the eighth consciousness cannot discern correctly and cannot attain determination regarding this information, then not only does the car accident not occur, but the body's illness is eliminated, or the person is promoted and becomes wealthy; in this way, cause and effect cannot be truthfully realized—good deeds receive no good retribution, evil deeds receive no evil retribution, and the world would be abnormal. Therefore, it is said that the eighth consciousness certainly has the mental factor of determination.

Acceptance means recognition, meaning to accord with and not oppose. The patience with non-arising and the patience with the non-arising of dharmas also have this meaning: not opposing, acknowledging and accepting. This is completely different from the ordinary person's "patience" of a knife over the heart. The patience of a knife over the heart involves a mind and concept of enduring; the patience with non-arising and the patience with the non-arising of dharmas are not like this, and the eighth consciousness's acceptance is even less like this. Without realizing the eighth consciousness, one cannot truly understand the difference between the eighth consciousness and the minds of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, and cannot appreciate His mental activities.

The eighth consciousness also has the mental factor of mindfulness. For example, while in the womb, the eighth consciousness discerns the karmic seeds on one hand, and outputs the four great seeds to transform into the fetus's material body on the other. Having discerned the karmic seeds, the mind can remember them, and outputs the corresponding four great seeds onto the material body according to the karmic seeds. When the eighth consciousness transforms and produces the ears and other organs, as it creates a little, the mind can remember how much it has created and what it has created, and thinks about how to create further in the next step, when to create what, how many four great seeds to use, and what the proportional structure is—the mind has it all accounted for. Having it accounted for in the mind is precisely the mental factor of mindfulness; it just cannot be articulated, simply not as articulate as the mind consciousness. Whatever dharmas the eighth consciousness is upholding and creating that are not yet finished, He remembers when to continue creating them, when to create what, and in what location to create—the eighth consciousness thinks of these, and the mind has it accounted for. He has these mindful thoughts; all dharmas are recollected forth by the eighth consciousness, just as the Sixth Patriarch said: "Suchness has no thought, yet nothing is not thought."

The eighth consciousness also has the mental factor of meditative concentration: "The nāga is always in samādhi, with no time of non-samādhi," the great samādhi of the Śūraṅgama, the vajra treasure samādhi, and so on—all these speak of the eighth consciousness's meditative concentration, which is extremely solid, neither exiting nor entering; no dharma can destroy the eighth consciousness's samādhi, and no dharma can cause the eighth consciousness to exit samādhi, or make the eighth consciousness's mind distracted, torpid, or restless. No worldly samādhi comes even close to one ten-thousandth of the eighth consciousness's samādhi. If the eighth consciousness intends to realize wholesome and unwholesome karmic seeds and realize cause, condition, and effect, no dharma can stop Him; He is not subject to coercion or enticement—"The eight winds cannot move him; he sits upright on the purple-gold lotus." Among all dharmas worldly and supramundane, the eighth consciousness does not reach toward or pursue any, touches no benefit whatsoever, does not even want to become a Buddha—without desire and without seeking, its power of concentration is like a vajra.

The eighth consciousness also has the mental factor of wisdom. The eighth consciousness's wisdom is called prajñā-pāramitā, the great wisdom capable of reaching the other shore of birth-and-death, the great wisdom capable of not being immersed in birth-and-death and of being liberated from all dharmas, the great wisdom capable of discerning all dharmas and creating all dharmas. The eighth consciousness's wisdom of truthfully discerning karmic seeds, and its wisdom of outputting the six great seeds according to the karmic seeds to transform all dharmas bit by bit or rapidly—even if the sixth and seventh consciousnesses became Buddhas, they would still be far from matching it.

The eighth consciousness's great wisdom of truthfully knowing the states of all dharmas—the sixth and seventh consciousnesses can never match it no matter what; even the wisdom of a Buddha's sixth and seventh consciousnesses, though perhaps able to deliberate exhaustively, cannot compare with the eighth consciousness's wisdom. That incomparable Śūraṅgama samādhi of the eighth consciousness, that supreme great wisdom, can at the same time universally attend to all dharmas and also at the same time process all dharmas; regardless of far or near, past or present, without obstruction of time and space, it can bless and process them all. Therefore the eighth consciousness has both samādhi and wisdom, which the samādhi and wisdom of the seven consciousnesses absolutely cannot compare with, and which surpasses the imagination of bodhisattvas before the bhūmis.

3. The Mental Factors of the Seventh Consciousness

The mental factors of the seventh consciousness are very complex, because all sentient beings' wholesome and unwholesome retributions since beginningless kalpas have been accomplished through the wholesome and unwholesome mental factors of the seventh consciousness, the manas. Whether the retribution of ordinary beings is in the three good destinies or the three evil destinies, and whether it is the supreme retribution of the four kinds of noble ones—arhats, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, and Buddhas—all are accomplished through the wholesome and unwholesome mental factors of the manas. The retributive differences from hell to Buddhahood are so vast, all caused by the differences in the manas's mental factors. Although the wholesome and unwholesome mental factors of the mind consciousness also greatly influence the retribution, the wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of the mind consciousness is, on one hand, perfumed forth by the manas, and on the other hand, the wholesome and unwholesome qualities perfumed by the environment must be perfumed into the manas before they can have a real influence and effect on the final retribution. If it is not perfumed into the manas, it means the person's fundamental nature has not changed, and the retribution cannot change.

Since the manas's mental factors determine sentient beings' wholesome and unwholesome retributions in future lives, and sentient beings indeed have different wholesome and unwholesome retributions, the manas must have wholesome and unwholesome mental factors. Moreover, the degrees of weight of each sentient being's manas's wholesome and unwholesome mental factors all differ: the manas of beings in the three evil destinies is complete with afflictive mental factors; the Buddha is complete with wholesome mental factors; other beings are not complete with either. Since the mental factors of different beings' manas differ so greatly, the various mental factors of the manas must be described separately according to different types of beings, and cannot be generalized.

Since beginningless kalpas, sentient beings' seventh consciousness has always had ignorance and afflictions. After studying Buddhism and cultivating, due to the restraint of precepts and the growth of meditative concentration and wisdom, ignorance and afflictions are continuously subdued and eradicated, afflictive mental factors are continuously lightened and reduced, the eleven wholesome mental factors continuously increase and strengthen, and the functions of the five object-specific mental factors also continuously increase and strengthen. Therefore, the seventh consciousness's mental factors must be described separately according to the stages and degrees of cultivation.

(1) The seventh consciousness's mental factors of ordinary sentient beings include the five universal mental factors, the five object-specific mental factors, and the afflictive mental factors of greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, doubt, wrong view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi), non-faith, laziness, negligence, forgetfulness, non-discernment, distraction, restlessness, shamelessness, lack of remorse, anger, resentment, spite, concealment, deceit, flattery, conceit, harmfulness, jealousy, and stinginess, as well as the eleven wholesome mental factors, etc. It does not have the mental factor of torpor; among the indeterminate mental factors, it has regret, initial application, and sustained examination, but not the mental factor of sleep.

Initial application and sustained examination differ: initial application is the mind's coarse activity—searching, seeking, inferring, deducing, thinking, analyzing... Sustained examination is the mind's subtle activity—waiting, investigating, examining, fine thinking, fine study... Initial application is generally the thought activity of the mind consciousness; the manas also has the behavior of initial application, but it is too difficult to observe. When the mind consciousness forgets certain people or matters, the manas is in the state of initial application; the mind consciousness may be in the state of initial application, or may be in the state of sustained examination. When the manas is in the state of sustained examination, the mind consciousness has long since ceased initial application, and may also have ceased sustained examination, operating entirely by the manas alone. From initial application and sustained examination, one can think of this: when the mind consciousness is in a state of not giving rise to a single thought, the manas is absolutely not in a state of no thought; the manas is still deliberating. Whatever it deliberates, it is all initial application and sustained examination—including deliberating about "not deliberating"—that too is the manas engaging in initial application and sustained examination.

The manas's sustained examination is even harder to observe than initial application, because its mode of activity is too subtle. Therefore countless people deny most of the manas's mental factors, believing they do not exist, when in fact they simply cannot be observed. To simply deny what one does not know or understand—this attitude is really not good; the mind is not honest, and wisdom cannot grow. Honesty is also a mental factor, belonging to the wholesome mental factors, not included among the fifty-one mental factors.

Whatever is the mind's activity, the mind's form, the mind's mode of activity, the mind's nature—all belong to mental factors; there are wholesome ones, unwholesome ones, and neither-wholesome-nor-unwholesome ones. Initial application is searching without a target, like shining a flashlight around everywhere, moving obviously and quickly. Sustained examination is, after searching around, having found a rough target, then concentrating attention on the target to observe, moving lightly and slowly. When practicing Chan, after finding a rough direction and focus of investigation, one begins to lock onto a target to observe and examine, with even finer and more subtle mentation, difficult to detect.

The mental factor of regret is remorse, repentance, self-reproach, and weariness toward what one has done in the past; sometimes it belongs to wholesome mental factors, sometimes to unwholesome mental factors. The manas of ordinary beings and people at the three stages of worthiness has regret, sometimes wholesome, sometimes unwholesome; the manas of noble ones who have severed afflictions and whose minds are pure also has regret, but it is always wholesome; if someone does a wholesome deed and then regrets it, that is an unwholesome dharma. The manas of bodhisattvas at the eighth bhūmi and above, whose afflictive habits have been completely severed, has no regret, because they no longer do wrong things; the Buddha's manas even more has no mental factor of regret, due to great wisdom. Once the manas of beings in hell regrets the evil karma they have done, the evil karma is extinguished, and they immediately emerge from hell—this is wholesome. The mind consciousness of beings in hell, being busy with suffering, has no mind to regret; even if the mind consciousness could regret, it could not eliminate the evil karma and emerge from hell, because the mind consciousness does not hold the authority to decide.

The manas of ordinary beings is almost complete with all afflictive mental factors, and because of these afflictive mental factors, they transmigrate through the six destinies life after life, with suffering retribution without end; it is only a matter of whether each sentient being's afflictive mental factors are all complete, whether they can all manifest, and how heavy or light the afflictions are. Of course, the manas of ordinary beings also has wholesome mental factors; otherwise ordinary beings could not ascend to heavens to enjoy blessings. In the transmigration of the six destinies there would be only five destinies, without the destiny of heavens; in the human destiny there would be no good retribution, and in the asura destiny there would be no good retribution either; even in the human destiny one could not become a good person, and without doing good deeds, there would be no good fruits in the future. But the fact is that even beings in the three evil destinies have wholesome minds; otherwise they could not be reborn as humans and devas in the future—it is only that beings' wholesome minds temporarily do not appear, or appear less frequently.

(2) The seventh consciousness of ordinary beings who possess the four dhyānas and eight samādhis is associated with the mental factor of meditative concentration; they can enter the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, and can be reborn in the desire-realm heavens, form-realm heavens, and formless-realm heavens. Their secondary afflictions are reduced, without mental factors such as laziness, negligence, forgetfulness, distraction, torpor, restlessness, etc. The mental factor of meditative concentration among the five object-specific mental factors is strengthened; the manas of people without meditative concentration has no mental factor of meditative concentration. Therefore, the seventh consciousness's mental factors of ordinary beings are not fixed; each person's mental factors need not be the same.

But for those who have cultivated meditative concentration and those who have attained noble fruits, the common characteristic of the manas's and mind consciousness's mental factors is that afflictive mental factors are lightened and reduced, and wholesome mental factors are increased and strengthened.

(3) The seventh consciousness's mental factors of bodhisattvas at the three stages of worthiness before passing the final barrier, and of first-fruit and second-fruit people: the mental factor of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) is eliminated; several of the universal afflictions are reduced; the mental factor of non-faith is eliminated, and the mental factor of faith is increased and strengthened; the mental factor of non-discernment is eliminated; the mental factor of torpor was not there to begin with; laziness, negligence, restlessness, forgetfulness, and distraction are lightened or eliminated; the universal afflictions are lightened; the intermediate afflictions may be lightened or eliminated; at the same time, all eleven wholesome mental factors are increased and strengthened; among the five object-specific mental factors, the mental factors of determination, meditative concentration, and wisdom are strengthened. All these depend on the individual; each person is not completely the same.

(4) For bodhisattvas after passing the final barrier and bodhisattvas on the bhūmis, because the seventh consciousness has initially transformed consciousness into wisdom, the mental factors include the five universal and five object-specific factors, and the eleven wholesome factors, but not completely possessed, not yet the strongest—only at the Buddha-ground can they be completely possessed and strongest. The root afflictive mental factors are all extinguished; the universal afflictions are all eliminated; the intermediate afflictions are lightened or eliminated; the minor afflictions are gradually extinguished during the bodhisattva stages from the fourth to the seventh bhūmi. The seventh consciousness's mental factors of third-fruit and fourth-fruit people have also changed: the fourth-fruit people's afflictive mental factors are all extinguished; the third-fruit people still have some afflictive mental factors; wholesome mental factors increase, and the five object-specific mental factors are also strengthened, but not completely possessed—roughly equivalent to the mental factors of bodhisattvas after passing the final barrier, but they cannot sever the minor afflictions; the habitual tendencies still exist. The Buddha's seventh consciousness's mental factors are completely possessed of the five universal factors, five object-specific factors, and the eleven wholesome factors, with no other mental factors.

4. The Mental Factors of the Mind Consciousness

The mental factors of the sixth consciousness are transformed on one hand through perfuming by the manas's mental factors, and on the other hand through perfuming by the environment. At birth, the mind consciousness's mental factors are completely influenced by the manas, directed by the manas, with no autonomy whatsoever. As one gradually grows up, one is gradually influenced by the surrounding environment—such as parents, relatives, playmates, school education, television, the internet, and so on—with more and more perfuming. In this way, a child born kind may gradually pick up bad habits, or a child born with bad habits may gradually become well-behaved—this is the effect of environmental perfuming. If a child's innate wholesome and unwholesome habits are both very heavy, it is not easy to be perfumed by the environment: a good child remains a good child and will not learn bad; a bad child remains a bad child and will not learn good. In such cases, the manas's force of influence appears quite great. On yet another hand, the mind consciousness's mental factors can in turn influence and perfume the manas; after perfuming the manas, the karmic seeds change, the karmic force is turned around, and the retribution undergoes change.

The ordinary being's mind consciousness is associated with the fifty-one mental factors, but not everyone's sixth consciousness is completely possessed of all fifty-one; some mental factors do not manifest, and some mental factors manifest when conditions are complete. In some people, afflictive mental factors manifest more, and wholesome mental factors manifest less; a person in whom the afflictive mental factors are completely possessed and manifest has extremely heavy afflictions and quite poor moral character.

Sentient beings' sixth consciousness has at most fifty-one mental factors, and can have fewer than fifty-one; when reduced to only twenty-one, that is a bodhisattva at the eighth bhūmi or above; when completely possessed of the twenty-one mental factors, one has thoroughly transformed consciousness into wisdom and become a Buddha. Therefore sentient beings' mental factors each differ, with different emphases; especially the sixth consciousness's mental factors of non-Buddhist ordinary beings with the four dhyānas and eight samādhis are clearly fewer than fifty-one. The mental factors of bodhisattvas at the three stages of worthiness before passing the final barrier, and of first-fruit and second-fruit people, must be reduced—mainly the root afflictive mental factor of the view of self is gone, and the universal afflictions are also reduced and lightened. The fourth-fruit people's mental factors: the root afflictive mental factors are all extinguished, the universal and intermediate afflictions are all extinguished, and the minor afflictions still exist, only lightened. The third-fruit people still have the root afflictions of arrogance and delusion not extinguished, but clearly much lightened; the universal and intermediate afflictions are extinguished, the minor afflictions remain, and their habitual tendencies are heavier than the fourth-fruit people's.

For bodhisattvas after passing the final barrier and bodhisattvas on the bhūmis, the mental factors are roughly the same as those of Hīnayāna third- and fourth-fruit people, except that the bodhisattvas on the bhūmis' minor afflictions gradually lighten and decrease starting from the first bhūmi, and are all extinguished before entering the eighth bhūmi. If the manas has no afflictions or habitual tendencies, the mind consciousness has even less. Bodhisattvas after the eighth bhūmi have a sixth consciousness whose mental factors initially correspond to the twenty-one mental factors—the five universal, five object-specific, and eleven wholesome factors—but not completely possessed; only at the Buddha-ground can they be completely possessed.

5. The Mental Factors of the Five Consciousnesses

The mental factors of the first five consciousnesses first include the five universal mental factors; as soon as the five consciousnesses are born, the five universal mental factors operate along with them. The five consciousnesses also have the five object-specific mental factors. Among them, the mental factor of desire is the longing for, pursuit of, and reaching toward the five sense objects; in most cases it is mobilized and directed by the manas, and also manifests under the influence of the mind consciousness's mental factor of desire. In a few cases it continues due to being attracted by the five sense-object realms; for example, when the eye consciousness sees a soft light and wants to contact and discern it more, this is the mental factor of desire. This desire is too simple, without any autonomy whatsoever, entirely subject to the manas's approval and adjudication. Not wanting to leave this light belongs to the mental factor of greed; weariness of and avoidance of this light barely belongs to the mental factor of hatred.

In fact, the five consciousnesses do not have the mental factor of hatred; it is regulated forth by the manas. For example, glaring at people with the eyes is hatred—this is the body consciousness's doing, manifesting the manas's hatred toward the person, perhaps with the mind consciousness's hatred mixed in. If one knows in the mind that this person is hateful and feels hatred, that is the mind consciousness's hatred; hating a person for no reason, without clear justification, or being unable to be persuaded otherwise, or hatred arising upon encountering a situation before there is time to think—that is the manas's hatred. In fact, greed is also barely attributable; it all manifests the greed of the mind consciousness and the manas.

The five consciousnesses' mental factor of determination is the clarity toward sense objects, not being muddled, knowing exactly what one is discerning, without misperception. The mental factor of mindfulness is that after the five consciousnesses discern sense objects, there is a certain memory; this memory quality is very brief. If the mind can recollect the sense object and want to engage it, it is mostly caused by the manas's mindfulness, or caused by the manas's desire—it is the result of the manas's dominance, sometimes also influenced by the mind consciousness; the five consciousnesses' own mindfulness is not clear and distinct, without obvious mindfulness quality. The five consciousnesses' mental factor of meditative concentration is the relatively focused discernment of sense objects; this focused discernment is mainly dominated and manipulated by the manas, brought about by the manas, sometimes influenced by the mind consciousness; the five consciousnesses themselves have no proactive thoughts or actions. The five consciousnesses' mental factor of wisdom can accurately judge and discern the five sense-object realms, discerning without confusion.

Because the five consciousnesses can only face the coarse five sense objects and cannot discern mental objects (dharmadhātu), their wisdom is very inferior; they have little mentation and little capacity for thinking and discrimination, and therefore do not have many wholesome or unwholesome mental factors. Wholesome and unwholesome mental factors mainly operate upon mental objects; thoughts and concepts belong to mental objects. The sixth and seventh consciousnesses correspond to mental objects, and only then have so many wholesome and unwholesome thoughts and concepts, having wholesome and unwholesome mental factors; the five consciousnesses do not. The five consciousnesses slightly have the root afflictions of greed, hatred, delusion, and doubt; a minority of greed arises actively from the five consciousnesses themselves, but most is dominated by the manas; hatred is almost all brought about by the manas; delusion is mostly dominated by the manas, with a minority belonging to the five consciousnesses' own weak discernment.

If the five consciousnesses have doubt, they can only doubt the accuracy and truthfulness of the five sense objects they themselves discern, and will not doubt other dharmas—doubting whether one has seen clearly is the mind consciousness's doubt or the manas's doubt. The five consciousnesses do not have the kind of broad doubt toward all dharmas that the mind consciousness and manas have, because the five consciousnesses' mental power is weak, with little capacity for thinking, and wisdom extremely inferior; therefore on their own they have little mentation, few afflictions, and little wholesome mind; in the vast majority of cases they rely on the manas and mind consciousness to have wholesome and unwholesome mental factors—only driven by the manas and influenced by the mind consciousness can they have wholesome and unwholesome mental factors; on their own they are mostly neutral.

Among the five consciousnesses' universal afflictions, those brought about by the manas include non-faith, laziness, negligence, forgetfulness, non-discernment, distraction, and torpor; there is no restlessness, nor the intermediate afflictions of shamelessness and lack of remorse, nor the minor afflictions; and of course there are no wholesome mental factors opposite to them, because the five consciousnesses are rather coarse and inferior, without even slightly finer capacity for thinking; therefore the five consciousnesses themselves have no wholesome or unwholesome mental factors—what is manifested is all the wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of the manas. For non-Buddhist ordinary beings with the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, the five consciousnesses' universal afflictive mental factors are lightened and reduced; the root afflictions can only be lightened, not severed; these afflictions all exist depending on the mind consciousness and manas, and do not exist independently. Each person's five consciousnesses' mental factors need not be the same, because the manas differs greatly, and the mental factors induced in the five consciousnesses accordingly differ.

The five consciousnesses have the mental factor of sleep, temporarily ceasing during sleep; this sleep is decided and regulated by the manas. The five consciousnesses also have the mental factors of initial application and sustained examination. Initial application is the five consciousnesses' coarse searching around; of course, the searching behavior is regulated by the manas, and the direction of searching is also designated by the manas—wherever the manas points, the five consciousnesses must turn toward, without the slightest autonomy. The mind consciousness still has a little authority to decide; the five consciousnesses have none at all. Therefore it is said that the five consciousnesses' mental factors mostly exist depending on the manas, turning with the manas. From the operation of the five consciousnesses, one can know the manas's mental activities. The five consciousnesses' sustained examination is, after the five consciousnesses have found the rough location of the five sense objects, calmly waiting for the five sense objects to appear, or carefully distinguishing the appearances of the five sense objects. The five consciousnesses do not have the mental factor of regret, because they have little capacity for thinking and cannot discern mental objects, and therefore cannot regret.

The five consciousnesses' wholesome mental factors, generally speaking, also all exist depending on the manas, including faith, non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion, diligence, non-negligence, equanimity of action, and non-harmfulness. When the manas is unwholesome, the five consciousnesses cannot be wholesome; the five consciousnesses cannot have their own wholesome mental factors independently, because the object of wholesomeness is the mental object, and the five consciousnesses cannot contact mental objects and cannot have the capacity for thinking like the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, and therefore cannot have wholesome and unwholesome mental activities; wholesome and unwholesome minds can only be possessed by the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. After the five consciousnesses transform consciousness into wisdom at the Buddha-ground, they may be completely possessed of the wholesome mental factors, but this cannot yet be observed at present.

Before becoming a Buddha, the five consciousnesses' mental factors are generally without much change, except for the mental factors dominated by the manas: when the manas is unwholesome, the five consciousnesses become unwholesome accordingly; when the manas is wholesome, the five consciousnesses become wholesome accordingly, and in between they are also influenced by the mind consciousness's mental activities. The mental factors that the five consciousnesses correspond to independently are only the five universal and five object-specific factors, ten mental factors in total; adding the wholesome and unwholesome mental factors that can only manifest depending on the manas, plus the indeterminate mental factors of sleep, initial application, and sustained examination influenced and led by the manas, there are thirty-two in total. When the sixth and seventh consciousnesses become Buddhas, they undergo three transformations of consciousness into wisdom, with the mental factors transformed three times; whereas the five consciousnesses' transformation of consciousness into wisdom occurs only once, at the time of becoming a Buddha, with the mental factors transformed only at Buddhahood—this shows that the five consciousnesses independently do not have so many wholesome and unwholesome mental factors; they all manifest only depending on the manas.