The Internal Seven Factors of Awakening and the External Seven Factors of Awakening in the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta

In the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sūtra, when the World-Honored One taught the five aggregates of grasping, He also spoke of the inner dharmas and outer dharmas of form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness. Inner form is the physical body; outer form is the six sense objects. Inner feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness are the manas; outer feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness are the mind consciousness.

When the World-Honored One taught the seven factors of enlightenment, He also divided the seven factors of enlightenment into inner seven factors of enlightenment and outer seven factors of enlightenment. The factor of investigation of dharmas, the factor of effort, the factor of joy, the factor of reliance (tranquility), the factor of meditative concentration (samādhi), and the factor of equanimity are all divided into the outer factors of enlightenment of the mind consciousness and the inner factors of enlightenment of the manas. When the inner seven factors of enlightenment have not been cultivated to accomplishment, it is impossible to attain the fruits of the Small Vehicle, impossible to eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), let alone to see the mind and see the nature. If the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment are not cultivated to accomplishment, do not speak of attaining any fruit of either the Great or Small Vehicle; if tranquility of body and mind is not accomplished, if meditative concentration is not accomplished, if the neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā) within the mind does not exist, then the view of self cannot be eradicated, and seeing the mind and seeing the nature is impossible. These are the hard criteria of Buddhist practice and realization, which no one can bypass. If one insists on claiming that so-and-so has attained a fruit or has seen the mind, those are all plastic fruits—fine to look at, but not edible, without any real value.

From the World-Honored One's description of the seven factors of enlightenment, the manas has the factor of investigation of dharmas, the factor of effort (true diligence), the factor of joy (the manas is not limited to neutral feeling), the factor of tranquility, the factor of meditative concentration (corresponding with samādhi), and the factor of equanimity. Only afterward, when the mental actions conform to the Noble Eightfold Path, can the conditions for attaining the fruits of the Small Vehicle be complete, so that the view of self can be eradicated and the first fruit attained; otherwise, all are false fruits, plastic fruits. When the conditions are not complete and the causes and conditions are not complete, forced guidance can only yield a false fruit—something to look at every day, but unusable, without any practical value.