The Relationship between the Perceiving-Aspect of the Tathāgatagarbha and the Five Universal Mental Factors

The perceiving-aspect of the tathāgatagarbha is the functional operation of the tathāgatagarbha's perceiving of dharmas. The tathāgatagarbha perceives all dharmas through the operation of the five universal mental factors—attention (作意), contact (触), feeling (受), perception (想), and volition (思)—and then grasps and manifests those dharmas. Only at this point can the manas perceive the dharmas; before this, they can be perceived by the tathāgatagarbha alone. However, the manas cannot perceive the perceiving-aspect function of the tathāgatagarbha. Only after attaining buddhahood, or for bodhisattvas who have attained the bhūmis, can the perceiving-aspect function of the tathāgatagarbha and the operation of its mental factors be seen. The manas of ordinary beings and pre-bhūmi bodhisattvas (pūrvabhūmika bodhisattva) lack such great wisdom and power of meditative concentration (samādhi); even bodhisattvas at several of the bhūmis may not necessarily be able to perceive it clearly and completely.

The seeing of dharmas by all eight consciousnesses is accomplished through each one's own five universal mental factors. The tathāgatagarbha itself also has seeds of consciousness; as these seeds run continuously, the mode of activity of the tathāgatagarbha's operation is displayed. Toward the various dharmas, the tathāgatagarbha operates the five universal mental factors of attention, contact, feeling, perception, and volition, thereby discerning and processing the dharmas. Its functions differ somewhat from the feeling, perception, and volition of the seven consciousnesses: the operation of the tathāgatagarbha's five universal mental factors is not mixed with any afflictions or ignorance; it belongs to a state of operation without deliberate mind, also called acting spontaneously and moving in accord with dharmas. In this, feeling does not enter into the objects of experience, perception involves no complex mental activity, and volition is merely selection and action, along with the maintenance and management of dharmas. By contrast, when the five universal mental factors of the seven consciousnesses operate, they are mixed with ignorance and afflictions and involve all sorts of complex mental activities; they are not a state of operation without deliberate mind, and they are greatly influenced by the objects of experience.

The seven consciousnesses also each have their own seeds of consciousness, and their perceiving likewise operates by means of the five universal mental factors. In the course of the operation of these five universal mental factors, some afflictions and ignorance may be mixed in, and wholesome and unwholesome mental factors, as well as neutral (avyākṛta) mental factors, may also appear together. After the five universal mental factors have operated, the seven consciousnesses acquire the functions of seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing. However, because afflictive mental factors arise in the seven consciousnesses, they have a certain obscuring effect on the seven consciousnesses' seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, causing them to perceive dharmas inaccurately and incorrectly, with many misinterpretations. Consequently, these misinterpretations lead to the commission of unwholesome karma, forming unwholesome causes, conditions, and karmic retribution.