The Five Universal Mental Factors Always Operate Together with the Eight Consciousnesses

The five universal mental factors (caittas) not only operate when thoughts arise, but also operate together with the eight consciousnesses at every instant and every moment, accompanying the eight consciousnesses and never departing from them for even an instant. Whenever the eight consciousnesses appear, the five universal mental factors accompany and operate alongside them. In the first volume of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra by Bodhisattva Maitreya, it is stated that the five universal mental factors are the aids and companions of the mind-kings (citta); as long as a mind-king operates, it must rely on the five universal mental factors as its aids and companions. Without the five universal mental factors, the mind-king cannot operate.

For example, before a consciousness seed is to be born, there must be a location for its birth; the place where it will be born must be determined. For instance, if it is to be born upon the flower's color seen by the eye, once the manas has determined this location, the consciousness seed will emerge at that place of the flower's material sense-object (rūpa-viṣaya) in the supreme faculty (indriya); or it will rush toward the location of a certain sound, being born at the place where the sound's sense-object appears in the supreme faculty, or it will be born at some other location that the manas wishes to cognize. Therefore, before the consciousness seed is born there is directed attention (manaskāra); directed attention means having a direction of birth, a location of birth, and the mental factor of directed attention begins to operate before the consciousness seed is born. The operational characteristics (ākāra) of the mental factors and the mind-king merge together perfectly; their operational characteristics should be completely identical. On the surface, what is manifested is the operational characteristic of the mental factors, while hidden within is the operational characteristic of the flowing forth of the consciousness seeds of the mind-king. Although the two are consistent, each has its own operational characteristic.

Furthermore, among the five universal mental factors, the last one is the mental factor of volition (cetanā). The final function of the mental factor of volition is action and activity. Once the mental factor of volition has completed its activity, it is as if the mind-king has completed its activity; the consciousness-mind then ceases or shifts its location, and the mental factors likewise disappear. From this principle, the operational characteristics of the mind-king and the mental factors are identical; their operation is twisted together, and the operational characteristics are manifested in the operational characteristics of the mental factors' activity, while hidden within is the operational characteristic of the flowing forth of the consciousness seeds. They cannot be separated from one another.