Different sentient beings have different mental factors (caittas)

Among the mental factors (caittas), apart from the five universal mental factors, all other mental factors do not appear constantly; they only arise and operate on particular occasions. The five object-specific mental factors appear only on particular occasions; the higher a person's wisdom, the more frequently they manifest. The wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral mental factors also appear only on particular occasions, not operating at all times. The more wholesome a person is, the more often the wholesome mental factors manifest; the more unwholesome a person is, the more often the unwholesome mental factors manifest. At the stage of buddhahood, the wholesome mental factors may operate at all times. For example, the mental factor of meditative concentration (samādhi): the Buddha's mind is constantly in samādhi, never emerging from it. For example, the mental factor of wisdom (prajñā): the Buddha's mind constantly possesses great wisdom, with no moment lacking wisdom. For example, the mental factor of determination (adhimokṣa): the Buddha's mind can at all times determine and comprehend all dharmas. For example, among the wholesome mental factors, non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion: the Buddha's mind is forever and at all times without greed, hatred, or delusion. For example, the mental factors of non-negligence, tranquility, equanimity, and non-harm: the Buddha's mind is like this at all times.

Each person has their own temperament and disposition; everyone's mental factors are different. As complex as sentient beings' minds are, so complex is the world; hence it is said that the world is conjured forth from the minds of sentient beings. If all sentient beings' minds were like the Buddha's mind, the world would be far simpler and more sublime—light clouds and gentle breezes, or even without even light clouds and gentle breezes—quiet and still, so serene that no language could accurately describe that beauty.

In the end, the world will all be like that; sentient beings, having cultivated to the end, will all be wise and simple, not the least bit complicated. Personality and individuality will all be extinguished, temperaments and dispositions all eliminated; the mental factors will all be wholesome with nothing unwholesome—only twenty-one, no more, no fewer. But to cultivate the mind to this degree requires three immeasurable kalpas; one can see how difficult it is to cultivate the mind, how hard it is to change the mind. If the mind does not change, one must endure torment—tormenting oneself and tormenting others, tormenting one another. Not knowing that sentient beings share the same root, they can only fry one another and then stew themselves.

The process of cultivation is precisely the process of turning around and transforming the mental factors, ultimately bringing the eight consciousnesses to perfect completion with the twenty-one mental factors, thereby becoming beyond training (aśaikṣa) in both the Great and Small Vehicles. Bodhisattvas from the first bhūmi onward, having eradicated the fundamental afflictions, the universal afflictions, and the middling afflictions, transform the sixth and seventh consciousnesses into wisdom and attain the wisdom of the patience with the non-arising of dharmas; their mental factors all correspond to the twenty-one wholesome mental factors, except that the five object-specific mental factors are not yet ultimate or perfect and still need strengthening, the eleven wholesome mental factors also need strengthening and enhancement, and the minor afflictions still need to be further eliminated. Bhūmi-level bodhisattvas in the Mahāyāna dharma have not exhausted the affliction of delusion, so the wholesome mental factor of non-delusion is not yet complete; some bodhisattvas' manas still retains the mental factor of pride not yet exhausted, and the twenty-one mental factors still require continual refinement and strengthening. Only at the stage of buddhahood are the twenty-one mental factors of the eight consciousnesses perfect and ultimate, requiring no further enhancement.

Because bodhisattvas from the first to the eighth bhūmi still have the obscuration of afflictive habits, their mental factors are not yet pure enough, not purely wholesome. When one cultivates to the eighth bhūmi, the minor afflictions are extinguished, the afflictive habits are severed, and part of the defiled seeds is eliminated; the twenty-one mental factors become more perfect and more powerful. Thus cultivation has a great deal to do with eliminating afflictions and habits; the purpose of cultivation is to sever afflictions, afflictive habits, and all ignorance, thereby attaining liberation. When ignorance is fully severed, the buddha path is accomplished—ultimate liberation.

The functions of the five object-specific mental factors will grow ever stronger as afflictions and habits are continuously eliminated. All supernatural powers and spiritual abilities are related to the five object-specific mental factors and are accomplished by means of them, though of course they are not apart from the assistance of the five universal mental factors. As cultivation continually advances, the consciousness-mind must inevitably change; the change of the consciousness-mind is the transformation of the mental factors, and the transformation of the mental factors is the result of cultivation. The five universal mental factors must also be continually improved and strengthened: the mental factor of feeling comes closer to neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā); the mental factor of perception discerns and discriminates more accurately and thoroughly; the mental factor of volition gains greater, faster, more accurate, more skillful, and more selfless power of deliberation and selection. It is also possible that the mental factors of feeling, perception, and volitional formations appear less and less, with fewer and fewer mental actions and fabrications.

The mental factors of ordinary beings also differ from one another; the greater the difference in one's mental factors before and after studying Buddhism, the better one has cultivated. If someone has studied Buddhism for ten or twenty years and yet their mind-ground, mental conduct, and mental factors remain the same as before, what has this person been doing all those decades? If one has studied for many years with no change in mental conduct or mental factors, with afflictions not subdued to a certain degree, and one's mental factors and mental conduct still differ greatly from those of a srotāpanna, how can one turn toward the direction of stream-entry, let alone realize the first fruit? As long as cultivation gives rise to the seven factors of enlightenment, the mental factors must change; if they do not change, the seven factors of enlightenment are incomplete, and without the seven factors of enlightenment being complete, one can by no means realize the fruits. How many people do not even come close to the edge of the seven factors of enlightenment, yet claim to have attained a great noble fruit and gone home to enjoy it—this is the chaos of the Dharma-ending age.