The Gradual Perfection Process of Manas and Cetasika After the First Bhūmi

The Wisdom of Equality at the initial stage of Bodhisattvahood refers to the mental faculty (manas). The eleven wholesome mental factors associated with this faculty are not yet fully complete, meaning they are imperfect. For instance, the wholesome mental factor of non-delusion is not entirely perfected. This is because the mental factor of ignorance and delusion persists even up to the ninth and tenth stages of Bodhisattvahood, and even in the stage of the virtually enlightened Bodhisattva. Between the first and eighth stages, while Bodhisattvas have eradicated the manifest activity of afflictions (klesa), the habitual tendencies remain unextinguished. Secondary afflictions such as concealment, envy, arrogance, resentment, and vexation have not yet been completely eliminated. Consequently, their mental factors exceed twenty-one in number. Even at the eighth ground, the Bodhisattva's mental factors are not fully reduced to twenty-one; the mental factors of ignorance and delusion still persist. It is only at the stage of Buddhahood that the twenty-one mental factors become fully complete, with the wholesome mental factors perfected and the afflictive mental factors utterly extinguished.