The Process of the Five Universally Pervading Mental Factors Operating Is Like Copying a Painting

When copying a painting, the eyes repeatedly and continuously observe and discriminate the scene, while the mind simultaneously observes and continuously memorizes. During the copying process, one paints while continuously recalling, and this process is repeated over and over until the copying is complete and the work is finished. One looks at the scene, paints a bit, ponders for a while, paints a bit more, ponders again, repeating this cycle until the painting is done. Once the painting is set aside, one neither ponders nor paints, nor applies mental attention, and then moves on to the next activity.

The functioning process of the five omnipresent mental factors is similar to copying a painting. The process of painting resembles the operating principle of the mind-consciousness. When the mind-consciousness operates on a particular phenomenon, it must complete the operation before setting that phenomenon aside. If the operation is not yet complete, it repeatedly applies mental attention, repeatedly contacts, receives, apprehends, discriminates, cognizes, feels, and deliberates, continuously analyzing and discerning, repeatedly operating and executing—a very complex process. The sequence of the mental factors’ operation is not necessarily that feeling precedes conception; their operation is not fixed, depending on the cognitive wisdom and degree of the mind-consciousness. Only after the operation is complete does a deeper feeling arise, followed by further discrimination, then feeling again, until the mental faculty perceives that discrimination is clear, at which point mental attention ceases. If at a later time the mental faculty recalls that something further needs to be understood, it will again apply mental attention, contact, feeling, conception, and volition to the phenomenon, until it is thoroughly understood and clearly comprehended, then the operation of the mental factors on that phenomenon ceases, and the phenomenon disappears again from the mind-consciousness.

After deliberation, a decision may sometimes be made, and sometimes not, because the mental faculty perceives that the discrimination is not yet sufficiently clear or thorough. As long as the mental faculty has not made a final determination, the five omnipresent mental factors do not cease. Only when the mental faculty is satisfied and has achieved its goal does it stop deliberating and immediately make a decision on how to proceed.