The Transformation of Mental Factors Is the Mark of Cultivation Achievement

The transformation of mental factors (caittas) can serve as a quantifiable standard for measuring cultivation achievements. For instance, when anger diminishes, greed diminishes, and delusion diminishes—when the mental factors of greed, anger, delusion, and other afflictions correspondingly lighten, and the mind-ground becomes increasingly discordant with afflictions such as greed, anger, and delusion, and this state is maintained for a relatively long time—if this is the case, it indicates that one's cultivation has achieved results. Changes in afflictions are matched by corresponding changes in mental factors, and the transformation of wisdom is likewise matched by corresponding changes in mental factors. Using tangible, measurable standards to gauge one's cultivation progress may benefit the practice of the general public. By measuring with these standards, one can check oneself, assess oneself, and strengthen confidence in cultivation. Every step of progress has a standard by which it can be measured.

The transformation of mental factors is indeed the result of a person's cultivation and can serve as a standard for measuring the degree of cultivation. However, there remains the question of to what extent specific afflictions have been reduced, and to what degree wholesome mental factors have increased and strengthened—and this is not easy to grasp. This likewise involves the transformation of body and mind. The transformation of body and mind is a major, obvious, and clear-cut marker. The attainment and realization of each fruit-stage must be accompanied by a corresponding degree of transformation of body and mind—this is the marker. There are also hints of certain states, such as indications in dreams, which show the degree to which a person has realized the fruits of the Great and Small Vehicles, the degree to which afflictions have been eliminated, and the degree to which the mind has been purified. Every time a practitioner advances to a higher fruit-stage or elevates their level of cultivation, there are displays and hints at the level of meditative states: one is the shock and transformation experienced by body and mind, and the other is the hint of auspicious dreams, indicating the degree to which the mind has been purified, the degree to which afflictions have been subdued, the depth of the wisdom attained, and how future development will proceed.

Why must realization involve the transformation of body and mind, and why is the transformation of body and mind a major, obvious, and clear-cut marker? Because from beginningless kalpas in the past until beginningless kalpas in the future, the world of body and mind has been controlled and regulated by the manas. When the manas undergoes a transformation in cognition, in views, and in wisdom, it will correspondingly transform the world of body and mind. The reactions of body and mind are the barometer of the manas; the venting of the manas's emotions, the expression of its thoughts, and so on are all revealed through the reactions of body and mind. If the manas's thinking is touched or shaken by something, it will inevitably simultaneously drive and influence the world of body and mind, triggering a chain reaction in body and mind.

Those dreams with special significance carry important meaning and serve the function of hints and warnings, enabling one to judge oneself; they are the basis and grounds for assessing one's own level of practice and progress, and within these dreams there are also hints and indications from the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. The markers of cultivation achievement are, first, the transformation of afflictions, and second, the transformation of wisdom—these two are the most important, and both are transformations of mental factors. When mental factors have genuinely transformed, that is the level of third-fruit and fourth-fruit persons and bodhisattvas who have entered the bhūmis. Before this, afflictions are merely subdued, and there cannot be an obvious and clear-cut transformation of mental factors. Therefore, before the third and fourth fruits, there is no way to accurately quantify the standards.