The Mental Factors Employed in the Discernment of Direct Perception, Inference, and Mistaken Perception (Non-Valid Cognition)

Among the three types of discernment, it is not fixed which of the fifty-one mental factors (caittas) will be employed; each case must be analyzed specifically. Different situations call for different mental factors, and different people, for various reasons, employ different mental factors. Even for the same person, at different times and in different settings, with different physical and mental states, different levels of knowledge, and different levels of wisdom, the mental factors employed will also differ. The five universal mental factors will all be used; the five object-specific mental factors are not necessarily all used; the eleven wholesome mental factors do not necessarily appear; and the fundamental afflictions and the great, middling, and minor afflictive mental factors also do not necessarily appear—all depending on the circumstances.

Discernment by direct perception (pratyakṣa) requires sufficient data, which in turn requires very deep wisdom: the mental factor of determination (adhimokṣa) must be extremely strong, the mental factor of meditative concentration must be present, and the mental factor of mindfulness must be complete, so that the mind is continuous without interruption, thought after thought. Discernment by inference (anumāna) requires comparatively shallower wisdom; it must proceed through comparison—without comparison there is no reference point, and one cannot know. If there is no corresponding condition, there is no place to begin. Discernment by direct perception, however, requires no comparison and knows directly, or knows in the very moment—this belongs to sharper faculties. Discernment by erroneous cognition (non-valid cognition) occurs when evidence truly cannot be found: when there is insufficient data and no object for comparison, one has no choice but to resort to imagination, guessing, inference, and other such means. The more methods used, the more limited the wisdom and the weaker the power of determination; of course, the power of concentration and the power of mindfulness are also insufficient, so that one cannot judge directly or draw a conclusion directly.

Inference is like a person whose ability is insufficient to complete a task alone and who must find someone to help in order to get it done. Erroneous cognition is when not even a single person who could help can be found, and one is forced to fiddle about on one's own, left and right; perhaps by luck one gets it right, but even if one gets it right, the wisdom is insufficient—it does not count as direct perception. It is like being unable to see what clothes someone is currently wearing, and having nothing to compare against, so one has no choice but to imagine and guess; even if the guess is correct, it is still not something directly seen.

Some people lack wisdom and do not know how to guide others step by step in cultivation and realization so as to see the Way through direct perception, yet they still insist on guiding others, and so they resort to the process of elimination. For example, suppose there are five roads here leading out of the city to five other regions, and only one of them leads to Beijing. Not knowing how to guide a person to make the correct choice, he resorts to elimination: first he points to the first road. The other person, hesitating, points at it again and again, not daring to be certain; seeing the doubt in his eyes, the guide signals that it is wrong, and then they move to the second road. The other person looks at his expression and feels it is also wrong, and so the second road is eliminated. In this way, four roads are rejected one by one, leaving only the last road. The other person then says, "It must be this road—this is the road that leads to Beijing." Whereupon this person says: "Well, that's what you said, not what I taught you. Congratulations, you have seen the Way." Everyone, tell me—does this count as seeing the Way? What wisdom has been born from such "seeing the Way"? Those who cheat people and lead students astray are precisely such people—utter frauds through and through, cheating you without any room for negotiation, while the other person is cheated happily along with them—a pair of fools!