Whether There Is Grasping or Not Is the Overall Function of the Mental Factors of the Manas

An arhat in the cessation attainment (nirodha-samāpatti) has long since eliminated the self-grasping of the five aggregates; otherwise he could not have attained the fourth fruit, let alone cultivated the cessation attainment. When an arhat cultivates to the fourth dhyāna, he is already free from the bondage of the five aggregates—liberated with regard to birth and death, able to leave when he wishes and remain when he wishes—and having cultivated the cessation attainment, he is even more at ease.

When an arhat is in the first dhyāna, he no longer has grasping at a self of person; he does not grasp at the feeling, perception, or volition mental factors, nor at the physical body—and this does not necessarily require the cessation of the two mental factors of feeling and perception before there is no grasping. Whether or not there is grasping is the function of the manas's mental factors as a whole, not necessarily the function of the single mental factors of feeling, perception, or volition. The same is true of grasping at dharmas: it is the function of the manas's mental factors as a whole. For example, in the cessation attainment the manas has the mental factors of attention (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), and volition (cetanā), all of which are functions with respect to dharmas; it is not that only the single volition mental factor has grasping at dharmas.

However, the manas of all Buddhas has completely eliminated grasping at dharmas. Their manas possesses not only the five universal mental factors, but also the five particular mental factors and the eleven wholesome mental factors. With so many mental factors, their grasping nature has nevertheless been eliminated. The Buddha's manas has no grasping at dharmas, yet its volition mental factor still operates ceaselessly. The undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna) discerns the manas's volition mental factor and, in coordination with the manas, manifests immeasurable Buddha-lands throughout the ten directions. In fact, the tathāgatagarbha can discern the manas's mental factors as a whole. The volition mental factor has the function of decision-making; after the tathāgatagarbha discerns it, it cooperates with the manas according to the manas's decisions to carry out its tasks, presenting to the manas all the dharmas it requires.