The Mental Factors of the Six Consciousnesses

After the six consciousnesses arise, whether the mental factor of attention (manaskāra) or the mental factor of contact (sparśa) comes first or later is not fixed. In the initial stage, when the six consciousnesses are still in the seed state, attention definitely comes first; after it directs the mind-consciousness toward the object it needs to face, attention is complete. Once the mind-consciousness is produced, there is contact with the sense object, and only then can the six consciousnesses contact the object; only after contacting the object can they discern it. This is the initial case where attention comes first and contact comes later. After contact, there is feeling, perception, and volition; after volition, the mind-consciousness then contacts again, and after contact, attention may arise again, then feeling again, then discerning again, then volition again, then feeling again. In this way, the sequence of these mental factors may be reversed—possibly contact comes first, and after contacting the object, attention is directed onto the object; this is attention.

When the five universally present mental factors manifest, sometimes attention comes first at the beginning, and after all five universally present mental factors are running; sometimes contact comes first—contact first, then attention. After the six consciousnesses contact an object and feeling arises, they can receive and accept the object, then grasp the object, and thus there are designations (names) and perception; after there are designations and perception, the mental factor of volition begins to act, and thus there is thinking, deliberation (manasikāra/manana), and consideration; after deliberation, one of the three kinds of feeling—suffering, happiness, or neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā)—may arise, at which point a preliminary decision must be made, and bodily, verbal, and mental actions begin to be enacted.

After bodily, verbal, and mental actions are enacted, there may be contact again; because one cannot fully determine the object, one must contact and receive again, discern and volition again, repeatedly, until one can fully understand and completely clarify, and only after making the final decision does it come to an end. The procedures involved here are quite complicated; what is too subtle cannot be reached by contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā). The five mental factors do not necessarily all operate according to the fixed order of arrangement, nor must all five procedures be gone through in turn; it is possible that at the stage of feeling, one starts over from contact again; it is possible that at the stage of perception, one contacts again; it is possible that after volition is finished, one temporarily cannot yet decide, and so must contact again, and after contact, attend again; or attend first and then contact—the sequence is not fixed, and the number of times the five mental factors arise and their durations are all different.