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 present mental factors: intentional attention (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), and volition (cetanā). The eighth consciousness itself also has seeds of consciousness; the continuous operation of these seeds of consciousness constitutes the eighth consciousness. The eighth consciousness applies the five universally present mental factors—intentional attention, contact, feeling, perception, and volition—to the various dharmas, thereby discerning and processing them; its function differs to some extent from the feeling, perception, and volition of the seven consciousnesses. When the five universally present mental factors operate, they carry no afflictions or ignorance whatsoever; this is a mode of operation without deliberate mental activity, also called acting spontaneously, moving in accord with dharmas. Among them, feeling does not enter into the objects of experience, perception involves no complex mental 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 seeds of consciousness, and their seeing likewise operates by relying on the five universally present mental factors. In the course of the five universally present mental factors' operation, some afflictions and ignorance may be mixed in, and wholesome and unwholesome mental factors may also arise together. After the five universally present mental factors have operated, the functions of seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing come into being. However, because the seven consciousnesses have afflictive mental factors manifesting, these have a certain obscuring effect on the seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing of the seven consciousnesses, causing the seven consciousnesses to perceive dharmas inaccurately and imprecisely, with many misinterpretations. Consequently, these misinterpretations lead to the commission of unwholesome karma, forming causes, conditions, and karmic retribution.