The Mental Factors (Caittas) Contained in Deliberation

The term "tuiqiao" (deliberating and weighing) originates from an anecdote about the Tang dynasty poet Jia Dao composing poetry, originally describing his manner of thinking and his state of diligent effort in selecting words and phrases while writing poems. In order to find the right words, the poet continuously searched for terms in his mind to convey the artistic conception the poem was meant to express, with his body and hands simultaneously gesturing the deliberation. At first, the mind consciousness deliberated and examined (vitarka-vicāra), and gradually this transitioned to deliberation and examination by the manas. The manas's deliberation and examination is extremely subtle and concealed, so much so that the mind consciousness seems motionless and without thought—just like investigating Chan.

When Jia Dao was pondering and weighing his words and phrases, what mental factors (caittas) arose? There were the five universally present mental factors, the five object-specific mental factors, and perhaps also the wholesome mental factors and the afflictive mental factors. When deliberating, one must first raise the mental factor of initial application (manaskāra) toward the object being deliberated, directing the mind onto the dharma to be deliberated; the mental factor of contact (sparśa) arises, and the mind contacts the dharma being deliberated; the mental factor of feeling (vedanā) arises, receiving and taking in the dharma being deliberated; the mental factor of perception (saṃjñā) arises, recognizing and grasping the dharma being deliberated; the mental factor of volition (cetanā) arises, continuously deliberating (manana) on this dharma until finally working it through and confirming it, then proceeding to subsequent actions. When gesturing the motions of pushing and knocking with the hands, the five universally present mental factors of the five sense consciousnesses and the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses (pañcavijñāna-sahagata-manovijñāna) also appear.

During initial application, the mind is relatively concentrated, with the mind consciousness and manas focused on the corresponding dharma; the arising of the mental factor of feeling may be less frequent than at other times, as the mind is busy calculating and pondering the question at hand. During the process of deliberation, if a scene that is particularly sensitive to the manas is touched upon, the mental factor of feeling may arise; this feeling is a mental stirring and inner sensation, not a feeling caused by changes in the external six sense objects. The mental factor of feeling originally means to accept, receive, and take in, because if the problem is not taken in and accepted, one cannot continue thinking about it, cannot deliberate (cetanā), cannot arrive at the final result of that deliberation, cannot make a decision and engage in subsequent actions, and certainly cannot give rise to wisdom.

Throughout the processes of perception (saṃjñā) and volition (cetanā), the mental factor of meditative concentration (samādhi) is always present. There is also the mental factor of determination (adhimokṣa): determination should mean having correctly understood the general meaning of the dharma—that is, grasping the general idea, being able to derive a reasonably sound answer, view, notion, and conclusion regarding the dharma under consideration. During the process of deliberation, the mental factors of aspiration (chanda), mindfulness (smṛti), and meditative concentration (samādhi) also appear. Aspiration is the desire to deliberate, driving the sixth and seventh consciousnesses to deliberate and to select words and compose sentences; after determination, the mental factor of mindfulness (smṛti) forms regarding the meaning of the words, and focusing single-mindedly on the deliberation is the merit of the mental factor of meditative concentration.