The Functioning of the Five Universal Mental Factors of the Manas

What determines which dharma the manas directs its attention (manaskāra) toward was discussed in the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra: it is determined by the manas's mindfulness, desire, habitual tendencies, habits, thoughts, interests, preferences, plans, wishes, demands, and so on, which give rise to the attention of the manas's own consciousness seeds. The attention of all six consciousnesses is initiated and determined by the manas. Whichever dharma the manas intends to act upon and engage with, the seeds of the six consciousnesses within the tathāgatagarbha will have a direction in which to arise, with the intention to arise at that dharma—this is attention (manaskāra). Afterwards, the consciousness seeds will certainly arise upon that dharma.

After the manas directs its attention, no matter which consciousness it is, it will definitely make contact with the corresponding dharma, because whichever dharma the consciousness seeds arise upon, that is the dharma they will contact; after contact, they will feel and receive it. For example, after the hand touches a ball, it receives the ball, feels the ball, and only then can there be sensation—that is, feeling—and after that, knowing. For example, when the eye faculty contacts material sense-objects, first the material sense-object is received, then the material sense-object is known, and then it is grasped, giving rise to thoughts, plans, schemes, deliberations, and so on. Only after grasping the material sense-object does feeling arise, so feeling arises after perception. After feeling arises, deliberation (manasikāra) continues, followed by subtle discrimination, 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 discriminate it clearly; it must first have feeling toward this dharma, and after feeling, a choice will arise. This choice is the function of the volition mental factor (cetanā); this choice is not necessarily the final one—it may be an immature, temporary choice. After further subtle discrimination later on, when it feels confident that everything has been discriminated clearly, it will make the final choice, and then the operation of the seven consciousnesses 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 discrimination of this dharma is entirely finished. Then all the volition mental factors and the five universal mental factors also come to an end, and the mind 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, attention, feeling, perception, and volition will continue to operate in succession, feeding back and forth, constantly being corrected. It is like when we look at something: at first we take it in, and after receiving it, wanting to see it clearly, we begin to discriminate it. At the very beginning we may not yet see it clearly, so there is continual contact, continual feeling, continual knowing of the dharma; after knowing it, the three kinds of feeling—pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral—arise, and then one grasps the mark and makes a choice, and the six consciousnesses will then engage in karmic actions.