The Mental Factors (Caittas) Contained in Deliberation

The term "tuiqiao" (deliberating and weighing) originates from an anecdote about the Tang dynasty poet Jia Dao composing poetry, originally describing his manner of thinking and state of diligent effort in selecting words and phrases while writing poems. In order to find the right words, the poet continuously searched for terms in his mind to convey the artistic conception the poem was meant to express, with his body and hands simultaneously gesturing the deliberation. At first, the mind consciousness deliberated and examined (vitarka-vicāra), gradually transitioning to the manas's deliberation and examination. The manas's deliberation and examination is extremely subtle and hidden, so much so that the mind consciousness seems motionless and without thinking, just like investigating Chan.

When Jia Dao was pondering and weighing his words and phrases, what mental factors (caittas) arose? There were the five universal mental factors, the five particular mental factors, and perhaps also wholesome mental factors and afflictive mental factors. In deliberating, one must first raise the mental factor of initial application (manaskāra) toward the object being deliberated, directing the mind onto the dharma to be deliberated; the mental factor of contact (sparśa) arises, the mind contacting the dharma being deliberated; the mental factor of feeling (vedanā) arises, receiving and accepting the dharma being deliberated; the mental factor of perception (saṃjñā) arises, recognizing and grasping the dharma being deliberated; the mental factor of volition (cetanā) arises, continuously deliberating (manana) on this dharma until finally working it through and confirming it, then proceeding to subsequent actions. When gesturing the motions of pushing and knocking with the hands, the five universal mental factors of the five sense consciousnesses and the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses (pañcavijñāna-sahagata-manovijñāna) also appear.

During initial application, the mind is relatively concentrated, with the mind consciousness and manas focused on the corresponding dharma; the arising of the mental factor of feeling may be less frequent than at other times, as the mind is busy calculating and pondering the problem at hand. During the process of deliberation, if one touches upon images to which the manas is especially sensitive, there may be the mental factor of feeling; this feeling is a mental stirring and sensation, not a feeling caused by changes in the external six sense objects. The mental factor of feeling originally means to receive, accept, and take in; for if the problem is not taken in and accepted, one cannot continue thinking about it, cannot deliberate (cetanā), cannot have the final result of that deliberation, cannot have decision-making and subsequent actions, and still less can wisdom arise.

Throughout the processes of perception and volition, the mental factor of meditative concentration (samādhi) is always present as a companion. There is also the mental factor of determination (adhimokṣa): determination should mean having correctly understood the general meaning of the dharma—that is, grasping the general idea, being able to derive a reasonably sound answer, view, notion, and conclusion regarding the dharma being pondered. During the process of deliberation, the mental factors of desire (chanda), mindfulness (smṛti), and meditative concentration (samādhi) also appear. The mental factor of desire is the wish to deliberate, driving the sixth and seventh consciousnesses to deliberate, to select words and compose sentences; after determination, the mental factor of mindfulness forms regarding the meaning of the words; and focusing on the deliberation is the merit of the mental factor of meditative concentration.