The Conditions for the Arising of the Mental Factor of Attention

Question: The mental application (manasikāra) of the mental faculty (manas) is the crucial point in spiritual practice. Understanding its function greatly aids cultivation. Particularly in cultivating concentration (dhyāna), the work lies with the mental faculty. Without knowing the mental faculty, how can one speak of cultivating concentration? Without knowing the profound meaning behind the mental faculty's application of attention, how can one touch the secret? The mental application of the mental faculty is invariably associated with greed and hatred; there is none other than this. Of course, this refers to the mental faculty of ordinary beings. But how does the purified mental faculty of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas apply attention? Without the driving force of greed, hatred, or desire, how does the mental faculty apply attention? Can the mental faculty apply attention in a state of equanimous sensation (upekṣā-vedanā)? Can the mental faculty apply attention in a neutral state (avyākṛta)?

Answer: Besides being triggered by afflictive mental factors (kleśa) like greed and hatred, the mental application of the mental faculty is also initiated by the mental factor of desire (chanda). Desire can be wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral. Wholesome desire is great aspiration (praṇidhāna), while unwholesome desire is greed, hatred, and delusion. Part of the mental faculty's application of attention is habitual, arising from the force of inertia.

Original text from the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra: How does attention (manasikāra) properly arise? It arises due to four causes: 1) the power of desire (chanda-bala), 2) the power of mindfulness (smṛti-bala), 3) the power of the object (viṣaya-bala), and 4) the power of habituation (abhyāsa-bala). How by the power of desire? If the mind is attached to a certain thing, then attention frequently arises towards it. How by the power of mindfulness? If one has already well apprehended the characteristic (nimitta) of that [object], has intensely formed a mental image (saṃjñā), then attention frequently arises towards it. How by the power of the object? If that object is either extremely vast or extremely pleasing and is directly present, then attention frequently arises towards it. How by the power of habituation? If one is extremely accustomed to and familiar with that object, then attention frequently arises towards it. If it were otherwise, a single act of attention towards one object should arise at all times.

These are the conditions for the arising of the mental factor of attention: desire (chanda), mindfulness (smṛti), the object (viṣaya), and habituation (abhyāsa). This means that without desire and mindfulness, attention cannot be applied. Especially the desire and mindfulness of the mental faculty: only after the mental faculty applies attention can the six consciousnesses arise, and only then can the six consciousnesses apply attention.

To cultivate concentration, one must control and change the habitual mental application of the mental faculty, subduing its tendency to grasp (ālambana). The grasping tendency also refers to the habitual mental application of the mental faculty. Whether karmic seeds (bīja) ripen or not has no necessary connection to the mental application of the mental faculty. The tathāgatagarbha naturally knows whether karmic seeds have ripened or not, and then the tathāgatagarbha begins to produce certain conditions, activating the corresponding dharmas according to the karmic seeds.