The Internal and External Seven Factors of Enlightenment in the Mahasatipatthana Sutta

In the Mahasatipatthana Sutta, when the World-Honored One spoke of the five aggregates subject to clinging, he also addressed the internal and external dharmas of form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. Internal form is the physical body; external form is the six dusts (objects of the senses). Internal feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness pertain to the mind-root (manas); external feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness pertain to mind-consciousness.

When the World-Honored One explained the seven factors of enlightenment, he also divided them into internal and external seven factors. The enlightenment factors of investigation of dharmas, energy, joy, equanimity (lightness and ease), concentration, and letting go are all divided into the external enlightenment factors of mind-consciousness and the internal enlightenment factors of the mind-root. Without cultivating the internal seven factors of enlightenment, it is impossible to attain the fruits of the Hinayana path, impossible to sever the view of self, let alone realize the mind and see its nature. If the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment are not fully cultivated, one cannot speak of attaining any fruits, whether Hinayana or Mahayana. Without achieving lightness and ease of body and mind, without achieving concentration, without the internal equanimous feeling being present, one cannot eradicate the view of self, nor realize the mind and see its nature. These are the hard criteria for verification in the Buddha Dharma; no one can bypass them. If one insists that someone has attained the fruits or realized the mind, that is just plastic fruit — one can look at it but cannot eat it; it has no real value.

Judging from the World-Honored One's description of the seven factors of enlightenment, the mind-root possesses the enlightenment factor of investigation of dharmas, the enlightenment factor of energy (true diligence), the enlightenment factor of joy (the mind-root is not merely characterized by equanimous feeling), the enlightenment factor of lightness and ease, the enlightenment factor of concentration (being in accordance with concentration), and the enlightenment factor of letting go. Only after the mental activities accord with the Noble Eightfold Path can one fulfill the conditions for attaining the Hinayana fruits, sever the view of self, and realize the first fruit (Sotāpanna). Otherwise, they are all false fruits, plastic fruits. If the conditions are not complete, if the causes and conditions are insufficient, forceful guidance can only yield a false fruit — one can look at it every day, but it cannot be used; it has no practical value.