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

The seeing of dharmas by the eight consciousnesses is all accomplished through the five universally operative mental factors (caittas): attention (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), and volition (cetanā). The eighth consciousness itself also has consciousness seeds; the continuous operation of these consciousness seeds constitutes the eighth consciousness. The eighth consciousness operates the five universally operative mental factors—attention, contact, feeling, perception, and volition—toward the various dharmas, thereby discerning and processing them, though its functions differ to some extent from the feeling, perception, and volition of the seven consciousnesses. When the five universally operative mental factors operate, they carry no afflictions or ignorance; this is a state of operation without deliberate mental activity, also called spontaneous functioning, moving along with dharmas. Among them, feeling does not enter into the objective realm, perception involves no complex thought activity, and volition is the choosing and fabricating, as well as the maintaining and managing of dharmas.

The seven consciousnesses each also have their own consciousness seeds, and their seeing likewise operates by relying on the five universally operative mental factors. In the course of the five universally operative mental factors' operation, some afflictions and ignorance may be mixed in, and wholesome and unwholesome mental factors will also appear together. After the five universally operative mental factors operate, the functions of seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing come into being. However, because afflictive mental factors arise in the seven consciousnesses, they have a certain obscuring effect on the seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing of the seven consciousnesses, causing the seven consciousnesses to see dharmas inaccurately and imprecisely, with many misinterpretations. Because of these misinterpretations, unwholesome karma is created, forming causes, conditions, and karmic retribution.