The Mental Factor of Determination of the Eighth Consciousness

Among the five object-specific mental factors, the eighth consciousness possesses the mental factor of determination (adhimokṣa). After the eighth consciousness discerns karmic seeds, discerns the five-aggregate body, discerns the material world (the container world), and discerns the mental activities of the manas, it can accurately know and rationally cognize these dharmas, and the mind can accept and accord with them, after which it can engage in any activity—this process is determination (adhimokṣa). If these dharmas cannot be correctly interpreted, then further on it would be impossible to reasonably and truthfully produce and alter all dharmas. For example, after the eighth consciousness discerns the deliberation (cetanā) mental factor of the manas and its decision, it can correctly and accurately know what the manas's decision is, and only by endorsing the manas's decision can it accord with the manas's intentions to transform and produce dharmas. If the eighth consciousness cannot properly understand the manas's intentions, it would produce and alter dharmas in a confused and erroneous way, and then it could not normally cooperate with the manas, and the world would fall into chaos.

Take another example: when the eighth consciousness discerns karmic seeds, if it can properly understand what those karmic seeds are, it will know how to produce dharmas in accordance with them; if it cannot properly understand what the karmic seeds are, it cannot produce dharmas normally, and the whole world would be thrown into great disorder. For instance, if the karmic seeds indicate that this person should have a car accident, but the eighth consciousness cannot discern correctly and cannot properly understand this information, then not only does the car accident not occur, but the person's bodily illness is eliminated instead, or perhaps the person gets promoted and becomes wealthy. In that case, cause and effect would not be realized truthfully: good deeds would receive no good retribution, evil deeds no evil retribution, and the world would become abnormal.

Take yet another example: after the eighth consciousness discerns the six sense objects, if it cannot properly understand the current state of the six sense objects, it cannot normally output the seeds of the four great elements to continue upholding the six sense objects, and then the six sense objects could not arise, cease, and change truthfully, reasonably, and normally, and cause and effect would be thrown into disorder. For instance, if the eighth consciousness discerns the food and drink consumed by the five-aggregate body but cannot properly understand what nutrients they contain, it cannot rely on those nutrients to transform, alter, and uphold the material body. What should have made the body stronger and healthier instead leaves it weak and frail—such an outcome would also be abnormal. Therefore, since the eighth consciousness can truthfully realize the law of cause and effect, it must possess the mental factor of determination (adhimokṣa); only then is the world reasonable.