The Mental Factors (Caittas) of the Seventh Consciousness

The seeds of consciousness in the tathāgatagarbha give birth to and form the seven consciousnesses, and as soon as the seven consciousnesses become manifest and begin to operate, they function in the form of mental factors (caittas). First are the five universal mental factors, and then the five object-specific mental factors follow and operate at irregular times; wholesome and unwholesome mental factors also follow and operate. The seven consciousnesses are sometimes wholesome and sometimes unwholesome, and sometimes neither wholesome nor unwholesome mental factors manifest, but the five universal mental factors certainly accompany the seven consciousnesses and operate in their presence at every moment. Yet these mental factors have no seeds: among the seven intrinsically existing great seeds there are no seeds of the five universal mental factors, and among the karmic seeds there are no seeds of the mental factors either. However, as soon as the seven consciousnesses become manifest, the five universal mental factors, the five object-specific mental factors, and the wholesome and unwholesome mental factors come forth and operate along with them, and thus the karmic actions of body, speech, and mind are generated.

The seeds of consciousness are like drops of water: drops of water linked continuously form a stream of water, and this stream of water is analogous to the stream of consciousness of the seven consciousnesses. But the seven consciousnesses themselves depend on the mental factors in order to operate; only with the auxiliary operation of the mental factors do the seven consciousnesses have their functions and effects. After the seven consciousnesses are born, they direct attention (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), and volition (cetanā) toward the corresponding dharmas—this is the process of operation of the seven consciousnesses, interwoven with other mental factors. The seeds of consciousness themselves are pure, and the stream of consciousness they form is also pure; but when the mental factors participate in the operation, the seven consciousnesses are not necessarily pure, because among the mental factors there are those that are impure and defiled. Consequently, the karmic seeds formed by the seven consciousnesses carrying mental activities are not necessarily pure. Whatever kind of karmic seeds are stored in the tathāgatagarbha, the manas will have a corresponding manifestation; therefore the manas certainly accords with the karmic seeds.

The tathāgatagarbha makes the seven consciousnesses manifest according to the karmic seeds: if the karmic seeds are defiled, the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses are defiled; if the karmic seeds are pure, the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses are pure. When defiled seeds mature, the manas will manifest defiled karma, and the defiled karma is again stored as seeds in the tathāgatagarbha, while the seeds of consciousness return to the tathāgatagarbha and remain pure. When the karmic seeds of unwholesome actions created by the seven consciousnesses meet their conditions and ripen, retribution manifests; within that retribution, unwholesome mental activities arise again, and relying on those unwholesome mental activities, unwholesome karma is again created, and taking this as cause, unwholesome fruits are produced. Thus karmic cause and effect cycle round and round without end, and sentient beings transmigrate without cease. When the wholesome and unwholesome karmic seeds created by the seven consciousnesses encounter conditions and become manifest, they are exhausted and the karmic seeds disappear; yet all dharmas and all mental activities, like archives, never vanish. The more sentient beings experience throughout beginningless kalpas, the more this tathāgatagarbha stores; every bit and drop from the long river of lives across the kalpas, the tathāgatagarbha archives them all. The tathāgatagarbha is formless and without characteristics; if it were not formless and without characteristics, it could not store so many archives—and thus the archives, too, are formless and without characteristics.