The Mental Factors (caittas) of the Seventh Consciousness (Manas)

The mental factors of the seventh consciousness are very complex, because the wholesome and unwholesome karmic retributions of all sentient beings since beginningless kalpas have been accomplished through the wholesome and unwholesome mental factors of the seventh consciousness, the manas. Whether it is the karmic retribution of ordinary beings in the three wholesome destinies or the three unwholesome destinies, or the sublime retributions of the four kinds of noble ones—arhats, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, and Buddhas—all are accomplished through the wholesome and unwholesome mental factors of the manas. The differences in retribution from hell to Buddhahood are so vast, and all are caused by the differences in the mental factors of the manas. Although the wholesome and unwholesome mental factors of the mind consciousness also exert a very great influence on karmic retribution, on the one hand the wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of the mind consciousness is infused and cultivated by the manas, and on the other hand, only when the wholesome or unwholesome qualities infused by the environment are infused into the manas can they exert a genuine influence and effect on the final karmic retribution. If it has not been infused into the manas, it means that the person's essential nature has not changed, and the karmic retribution cannot change.

Since the mental factors of the manas determine the wholesome and unwholesome karmic retributions of sentient beings in future lives, and sentient beings indeed do have different wholesome and unwholesome retributions, the manas must possess wholesome and unwholesome mental factors. Moreover, the degree of wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of the mental factors of each sentient being's manas differs. The manas of beings in the three unwholesome destinies is endowed with afflictive mental factors; the Buddha is endowed with wholesome mental factors; other sentient beings are not fully endowed with either wholesome or unwholesome mental factors. Since the mental factors of the manas of different sentient beings differ so greatly, one must describe the various mental factors of the manas separately according to different types of sentient beings, and cannot generalize.

Sentient beings have had the afflictions of ignorance in the seventh consciousness since beginningless kalpas. After studying Buddhism and cultivating practice, through the restraint of precepts and the growth of meditative concentration and wisdom, the afflictions of ignorance are continuously subdued and eliminated, afflictive mental factors are continuously lightened and reduced, the eleven wholesome mental factors continuously increase and strengthen, and the functions of the five particular mental factors also continuously increase and strengthen. Therefore, the mental factors of the seventh consciousness must be described separately according to the stage and degree of cultivation.

(1) The mental factors of the seventh consciousness of ordinary sentient beings include the five universal mental factors, the five particular mental factors, the afflictive mental factors of greed, hatred, delusion, conceit, doubt, wrong view, lack of faith, laziness, non-diligence, forgetfulness, lack of introspective awareness, distraction, restlessness, absence of shame, absence of embarrassment, anger, resentment, spite, concealment, deceit, flattery, arrogance, harmfulness, jealousy, and stinginess, as well as the eleven wholesome mental factors and so on; there is no mental factor of torpor; among the indeterminate mental factors, there are the mental factors of remorse, investigation (vitarka), and examination (vicāra), but no mental factor of sleep.

Investigation and examination differ: investigation is the coarse activity of the mind—searching, seeking, inferring, deducing, thinking, analyzing... Examination is the subtle activity of the mind—waiting, investigating, scrutinizing, fine thinking, careful study... Investigation is generally the mental activity of the mind consciousness; the manas also has the behavior of investigation, but it is too difficult to observe. When the mind consciousness has forgotten certain people or matters, the manas is in a state of investigation, while the mind consciousness may be in a state of investigation or may be in a state of examination. When the manas is in a state of examination, the mind consciousness has long since stopped investigating, and may even have stopped examining, with the manas operating entirely on its own. From investigation and examination, one can think of this: when the mind consciousness is in a state of not arising a single thought, the manas is definitely not in a state of not arising a single thought; the manas is still deliberating. Whatever He is deliberating, it is all investigation and examination—including the deliberation of "not deliberating," which is also the manas engaged in investigation and examination.

The examination of the manas is even harder to observe than investigation, because its mode of activity is too subtle. Therefore countless people deny most of the mental factors of the manas, claiming they do not exist, when in fact they simply cannot be observed. Not knowing or understanding, they simply deny it outright—this attitude is truly bad; the mind is not honest, and wisdom cannot grow. Honesty is also a mental factor, belonging to the wholesome mental factors, though it is not included among the fifty-one mental factors.

Whatever is an activity of the mind, a form of the mind, a mode of activity of the mind, or a nature of the mind, belongs to the mental factors; there are wholesome ones, unwholesome ones, and also those that are neither wholesome nor unwholesome. Investigation is searching without a target, like shining a flashlight around everywhere—movement that is obvious and rapid. Examination is, after searching everywhere, having found a rough target, so attention is concentrated on observing the target—movement that is light and slow. When practicing Chan, after finding a rough direction and focus for investigation, one begins to lock onto a target to observe and examine; the mind becomes even more subtle and difficult to detect.

The mental factor of remorse is regret, repentance, self-reproach, and weariness toward what one has done in the past; sometimes it belongs to wholesome mental factors, sometimes to unwholesome mental factors. The manas of ordinary beings and of those at the three stages of worthiness has remorse, sometimes wholesome and sometimes unwholesome; the manas of noble ones who have eliminated afflictions and whose minds are pure also has remorse, but it is always wholesome; if someone does a wholesome deed and then regrets it, that is an unwholesome dharma. Bodhisattvas at the eighth bhūmi and above, whose afflictive habits have been completely eliminated, have no remorse in the manas, because they no longer do wrong things; the Buddha's manas even more has no mental factor of remorse, due to great wisdom. Once the manas of beings in hell repents of the evil karma they have done, the evil karma is extinguished, and they immediately emerge from hell—this is wholesome. The mind consciousness of beings in hell, being busy with suffering, has no mind to repent; even if the mind consciousness could repent, it could not eliminate the evil karma and emerge from hell, because the mind consciousness does not hold decision-making authority.

The manas of ordinary beings is endowed with almost all afflictive mental factors, and because of these afflictive mental factors they transmigrate through the six destinies life after life, with suffering retribution that is inexhaustible—except that whether each sentient being's afflictive mental factors are all fully endowed, whether they can all manifest, and how heavy or light the afflictions are, varies. Of course, the manas of ordinary beings also has wholesome mental factors; otherwise ordinary beings could not ascend to the heavens to enjoy blessings. In the transmigration of the six destinies there would be only five destinies, with no heavenly destiny; in the human destiny there would be no wholesome retribution, and in the asura destiny there would be no wholesome retribution either; even within the human destiny one could not become a good person, and without doing wholesome deeds there would be no wholesome fruit in the future. But the fact is that even beings in the three unwholesome destinies have wholesome minds; otherwise they could not be reborn in the future as humans and devas—it is only that sentient beings' wholesome minds temporarily do not appear, or appear less frequently.

(2) The seventh consciousness of ordinary beings who have attained the four dhyānas and eight samādhis corresponds with the mental factor of meditative concentration; they can enter the four dhyānas and eight samādhis and can be reborn in the desire realm heavens, the form realm heavens, and the formless realm heavens; their secondary afflictions must decrease, and they have no mental factors such as laziness, non-diligence, forgetfulness, distraction, torpor, or restlessness. The mental factor of meditative concentration among the five particular mental factors must be strengthened; the manas of a person without meditative concentration has no mental factor of meditative concentration. Therefore, the mental factors of the seventh consciousness of ordinary beings are indeterminate; each person's mental factors need not be the same.

However, for those who have cultivated meditative concentration and those who have realized noble fruits, the common characteristic of the mental factors of the manas and the mind consciousness is that afflictive mental factors must be lightened and reduced, and wholesome mental factors must increase and strengthen.

(3) For bodhisattvas before passing the final barrier at the three stages of worthiness, and for those of the first and second fruits, in the mental factors of the seventh consciousness, the mental factor of self-view has been eliminated; several of the universal secondary afflictions must be reduced; the mental factor of lack of faith has been eliminated, and the mental factor of faith has increased and strengthened; the mental factor of lack of introspective awareness has been eliminated; the mental factor of torpor was never present; laziness, non-diligence, restlessness, forgetfulness, and distraction are lightened or eliminated; universal secondary afflictions are lightened, and intermediate secondary afflictions may be lightened or eliminated; at the same time, all eleven wholesome mental factors increase and strengthen; among the five particular mental factors, the mental factors of determination (adhimokṣa), meditative concentration, and wisdom are strengthened. All of these depend on the individual; each person is not entirely the same.

(4) For bodhisattvas who have passed the final barrier and post-bhūmi bodhisattvas (bhūmi-pratiṣṭhita-bodhisattva), because the seventh consciousness has initially transformed consciousness into wisdom, the mental factors include the five universal and five particular mental factors, and the eleven wholesome ones, but not completely endowed and not yet at their strongest—only at the Buddha stage can they be completely endowed and strongest. The fundamental afflictive mental factors have all been extinguished; the universal secondary afflictions are all eliminated; the intermediate secondary afflictions are lightened or eliminated; the particular secondary afflictions are gradually extinguished during the stages from the fourth to the seventh bhūmi. The mental factors of the seventh consciousness of those of the third and fourth fruits have also changed: for those of the fourth fruit, all afflictive mental factors are extinguished; those of the third fruit still have some afflictive mental factors; wholesome mental factors increase, and the five particular mental factors are also strengthened, but not completely endowed—roughly equivalent to the mental factors of bodhisattvas after passing the final barrier—but they cannot eliminate the particular secondary afflictions, and the afflictive habits still exist. The mental factors of the Buddha's seventh consciousness are completely endowed with the five universal mental factors, the five particular mental factors, and the eleven wholesome mental factors, with no other mental factors.