The Indeterminate Mental Factors Capable of Both Good and Evil

The four indeterminate mental factors—remorse, sleep, initial application (vitarka), and sustained examination (vicāra)—sometimes belong to wholesome mental factors and sometimes to unwholesome mental factors; it depends on the specific circumstances, on the results achieved, and on the state at the time and the results toward which they are directed. If it is excessive craving for sleep, then sleep is an unwholesome mental factor, capable of inducing mental torpor and foolishness; if sleep can regulate one's mental state and is conducive to cultivation, then it belongs to wholesome mental factors. As for remorse, if a person always foolishly regrets their past, regretting that they should not have done things as they did before, to the point that their mind is troubled and agitated, lacking meditative concentration, and wisdom does not arise, then remorse is an unwholesome mental factor; if one has done evil deeds and can promptly repent, resolving never to commit them again, and after repenting, the mind attains tranquility (praśama), and meditative concentration and wisdom arise, then remorse is a wholesome mental factor.

As for initial application (vitarka), if the mind consciousness indiscriminately grasps at objects everywhere without purpose, to the point of lacking meditative concentration and having a scattered and distracted mind, then initial application belongs to unwholesome mental factors; if the mind consciousness is deliberating and seeking a truth—for example, investigating and searching for the eighth consciousness—then it belongs to wholesome mental factors. As for sustained examination (vicāra), if the mind is examining worldly dharmas, the mind is unsettled, and it obstructs the arising of correct wisdom, then it belongs to unwholesome mental factors; if, in order to understand the true meaning of a Buddhist teaching, one has a goal and engages in focused, deep, and subtle deliberation (manasikāra), then it belongs to wholesome mental factors.