The mental factors (caittas) of the manas are the guiding principle of actual practice, and also the operating system of actual practice.

"Zhi" (pointing) means that the mental factors (caittas) can point toward one's own goal of cultivation, break through ignorance, subdue afflictions and eliminate them, transform mental activities, and transform karmic seeds; "gui" (returning) means letting the mind return to wisdom, return to purity, and return to liberation: the operating system follows the mental factors, constantly correcting the mental factors and transforming the mental factors. Actual practice is precisely the process of operating the mental factors and the process of the mental factors' operation; it is the process of one's own mind transforming itself.

The reason the mental factors can be changed is that the mind consciousness has successfully perfumed the manas, so that the manas turns away from evil and toward good, transforming its own mental activities. The fundamental cause of this transformation is the tathāgatagarbha: it is the tathāgatagarbha that transforms the manas's mental factors. However, the tathāgatagarbha is not the master consciousness; He does not take charge and has no subjective initiative. He passively transforms the seeds in accordance with the manas's mental activities. When the seeds are transformed, the fruits are transformed as well. Although the arising of all things is produced by the tathāgatagarbha, the driving force behind it is the manas's mental factors. If the manas does not desire to act, the tathāgatagarbha does nothing, and no dharmas arise at all.

The manas has subjective initiative; when its mental nature is transformed, it will prompt changes in the karmic seeds. The transformation of the mental factors is the cause, and the change of karmic seeds is the fruit; the manas's recognition of the truth and realization of the truth is the cause, and the transformation of the mental factors is the fruit; the manas's diligent cultivation of the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment is the cause, and realization is the fruit; the mind consciousness's proper perfuming and guidance is the cause, and the manas's being perfumed is the fruit. Of course, every step of genuine practice will cause changes in the manas's mental factors, and the change in the mental factors is the fruit; the cause is still the manas's mental factors prompting corresponding changes in its own mental factors, with the prerequisite that the mind consciousness's mental factors are there to propel the manas's mental factors.

The mental factors must always arise simultaneously with the mind consciousness

The mental factors are the aids and companions of the mind consciousness; they must operate in conjunction with the mind consciousness, otherwise the mind consciousness would be unable to accomplish anything. Whenever the mind consciousness appears, the mental factors must appear simultaneously; without the mental factors, the mind consciousness cannot operate, and then all worldly dharmas could not arise and exist. Even the operation of the eighth consciousness requires the cooperation of its own mental factors; the very existence of the eighth consciousness likewise cannot be spoken of apart from the accompaniment of the mental factors.

The arising and operation of the four kinds of food are all functions of the mind consciousness. Since the mind consciousness cannot be apart from the aid and companionship of the mental factors, the four kinds of food cannot be apart from the mental factors. Ordinary beings cannot be apart from the four kinds of food, and noble ones in the human world of the desire realm also cannot be apart from them. Beings in relatively high states of meditative concentration can be apart from solid food and food of deliberation, and sometimes can also be apart from food of contact, but they cannot be apart from food of consciousness. The most basic need of sentient beings' lives must have the food of consciousness of the eighth consciousness and the seventh consciousness.