The Mental Factors Implicit in Deliberation

The term "tuiqiao" (deliberating and weighing) originates from an anecdote about the Tang dynasty poet Jia Dao composing poetry; it originally described Jia Dao's manner of thinking and state of diligent effort in selecting words and phrases while composing poems. In order to find the appropriate 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 in 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 concealed, so much so that the mind consciousness seems motionless and without thought—just like investigating Chan.

When Jia Dao was pondering and weighing his words and phrases, what mental factors (caittas) arose? There were the five universally present mental factors and the five object-specific mental factors, and perhaps also wholesome mental factors and afflictive mental factors. When deliberating, one must first raise the mental factor of attention (manaskāra) toward the object being deliberated, directing the mind onto the object to be deliberated; the mental factor of contact (sparśa) arises, and the mind contacts the object of deliberation; the mental factor of feeling (vedanā) arises, receiving and accepting the object of deliberation; the mental factor of perception (saṃjñā) arises, recognizing and grasping the object being deliberated; the mental factor of volition (cetanā) arises, continuously deliberating (manasikāra) on this object until finally working it through and determining it, then proceeding to subsequent actions. When gesturing with the hands the motions of pushing and knocking, the five universally present mental factors of the five sense consciousnesses and the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna) also arise.

When attention (manaskāra) is operating, the mind is relatively concentrated, with the mind consciousness and manas focused on the corresponding object; the mental factor of feeling may arise less than at other times, as the mind is calculating and pondering the problem at hand. During the process of deliberation, if one happens upon images to which the manas is particularly sensitive, the mental factor of feeling may arise; 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, because if the problem is not taken in and accepted, one cannot continue thinking about it, cannot exercise volition, cannot arrive at the final result of volition, cannot make decisions and engage in subsequent actions, and even less can wisdom arise.

Throughout the processes of perception and volition, the mental factor of concentration (samādhi) is always present. 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 gist, being able to derive reasonably sound answers, views, concepts, and conclusions regarding the object of contemplation. During the process of deliberation, the mental factors of desire (chanda), mindfulness (smṛti), and 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, mindfulness is formed regarding the meaning of the words, and focusing intently on the deliberation is the merit of the mental factor of concentration.