The Relationship between the Mental Factor of Determination (adhimokṣa) and the Mental Factor of Wisdom (prajñā)

The treatises say that determination (adhimokṣa) is the validation and acceptance of an object—knowing the object as that object, believing the object to be that object, without error or doubt. For example, when the mind engages with a flower or the moon, it determines them to be a flower and the moon, without doubt, able to trust its own understanding and not easily swayed—this is determination. The word "determination" highlights the degree to which the object is understood, approaching the true reality of the object. But it is not yet the final, complete conviction, nor has the true reality of the object been realized. Therefore there is also the mental factor of wisdom (prajñā); only when the mental factor of wisdom manifests can the object be realized, can conviction in the object be established, and can the objects of the flower and the moon be fully known.

Determination corresponds to knowing that something is so, while wisdom corresponds to knowing why it is so: one is understanding, the other is realization. Determination is shallow wisdom, the foundation of wisdom, while wisdom is the ultimate and final cognition. In the cultivation and realization of the Buddha-Dharma, the mental factor of determination corresponds to intellectual understanding (interpretive awakening), and the mental factor of wisdom corresponds to realization-enlightenment. For intellectual understanding to become realization-enlightenment, it must pass through two stages: the mental factor of mindfulness and the mental factor of meditative concentration—firmly impressing and holding the understood dharma in the mind, never forgetting it moment to moment, cultivating meditative concentration, and with the mind settled on this dharma, investigating it without interruption. Finally, the mind opens in conviction, great wisdom manifests, and realization is attained.

Determining the flower and the moon is a worldly matter and does not seem too difficult: as long as one possesses the concepts and knowledge of worldly phenomena, the six faculties are normal, and there are no obstructions, one can determine the flower and the moon, which also contains some relatively shallow understanding-wisdom. But reaching the level of determination in the Buddha-Dharma is not so easy: one must possess the relevant knowledge and concepts of the Buddha-Dharma, and also cultivate the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment, reducing the obstructions of karmic hindrances, in order to attain determination. Yet there is still a considerable distance to go before realization, and certain causal conditions must be perfected before realization can proceed smoothly.