The Operation of the Five Universal Mental Factors of the Manas

What determines which dharma the manas directs its mental engagement (manaskāra) toward is discussed in the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra: it is the manas's mindfulness, desire, habitual tendencies, habits, thoughts, interests, hobbies, intentions, wishes, demands, and so forth that give rise to the mental engagement of the manas's own seeds of consciousness. The mental engagement of all six consciousnesses is aroused and determined by the manas. Whichever dharma the manas wishes to act upon and engage with, the seeds of the six consciousnesses within the tathāgatagarbha will have a direction in which to arise—there is an intention to be born into that dharma-object; this is mental engagement. Afterwards, the seeds of consciousness will certainly arise upon that dharma.

After the manas has engaged mentally, whichever consciousness it may be will definitely make contact with the corresponding dharma, because whichever dharma the seeds of consciousness arise upon, that is the dharma they will contact; and after contact, they will experience and accept it. For example, after the hand touches a ball, it accepts the ball and experiences the ball, and only then can there be sensation—that is, feeling—and afterwards, knowing. For instance, when the eye faculty contacts material sense-objects, the material sense-object is first accepted, and then the material sense-object is known; then it grasps at that material sense-object, giving rise to thoughts, intentions, plans, schemes, and so forth. Only after grasping the material sense-object does feeling arise, so feeling arises after perception. After feeling arises, deliberation (manana) continues, followed by subtle discernment, making decisions and exercising mastery, wanting to decide how to handle it. Before handling it, the manas must finish grasping this dharma; before grasping it, it must discern it clearly; and it must first have a feeling with regard to this dharma. After feeling, a decision will arise. This decision is the function of the volition mental factor (cetanā). This decision is not necessarily the final one; it may be an immature, temporary decision. After further subtle discernment later, when it feels confident that everything has been discerned clearly, it will make the final decision, and then the operation of the seventh consciousness upon this dharma comes to an end.

Before the operation upon this dharma is thoroughly completed, the manas's volition mental factor will continue to operate without interruption, until the discernment of this dharma is entirely finished. Then all the volition mental factors and the five universal mental factors come to an end, and it enters the operation of the next dharma, with the five universal mental factors continuing to run new content. If this dharma has not ended, then contact, mental engagement, feeling, perception, and volition will continue to operate in succession without cease, feeding back and forth and constantly being corrected. It is like when we look at something: at first we take it in, and after accepting it, wanting to see it clearly, we proceed to discern it. At the very beginning we may not yet see it clearly, so there is constant contact, constant feeling, constant coming to know the dharma. After knowing it, the three kinds of feeling—suffering, pleasure, and neutrality—arise, and then one grasps at the sign and makes a decision, and the six consciousnesses will then engage in karmic actions.