Compilation of Daily Discourses
Chapter 10: The Mental Factors (caittas) of the Manas
I. Evidence that the Manas Possesses the Mental Factor of Mindfulness (smṛti) and Mental Factors of Afflictions
When a person has been constantly thinking about a problem in his mind, and suddenly becomes aware of the thought in his mind, he feels astonished, and may even feel guilty as if he had been a thief; he quickly shakes his head to shake off the thought, wondering, "How could I have such an idea?"
From this example, one can see that a person has two mental thoughts: one thought arises autonomously and operates covertly—this is the mental thought of the manas. The other thought at first does not detect the first thought, and only when it suddenly detects it does it feel surprised—this is the mental thought of the mind consciousness. This shows that the two thoughts are not consistent; the views and notions of the mind consciousness and the manas are not entirely identical, and the two minds are not always in a state of mutual communication and coordination. This also shows that the mental thoughts of the manas can arise at any time, can operate free from the control of the mind consciousness, and at times can also be controlled by the mind consciousness. When the mind consciousness discovers it and feels it is wrong, it feeds back to the manas, and the manas temporarily cuts off that thought; whether it will arise again later depends on the controlling power of the mind consciousness and the effect of its persuasion and perfuming. Why does the manas constantly give rise to thoughts? How can one make the manas give rise to thoughts of the Buddha-dharma, thoughts of investigating Chan, and give rise to questioning doubt regarding the Great and Small Vehicles?
Ordinary people's mind consciousness lacks sufficient meditative concentration and wisdom, and it is not easy to detect the mental thoughts of the manas; one does not even know what thoughts one has, yet unknowingly one is driven by these thoughts, muddled-headed doing certain things and saying certain things, and after awakening one regrets it. If a thought of killing arises in the manas's mind, when the mind consciousness detects it, it suddenly shudders, feeling fear and doubt—this shows that the manas has a mind of anger (dveṣa) that the mind consciousness does not know about; once detected, the mind consciousness will think, "Do I myself have such a thought?" Afterwards the two communicate, exchange, and mutually perfume each other; when the manas's thought gains the upper hand and the mind consciousness decides to obey, they will then collude as partners in crime, formulating and implementing a murder plan.
The formulation and implementation of a theft plan is the same: the manas takes the lead, and the mind consciousness obeys and assists. All evil karmic actions of greed, anger, and delusion afflictions arise in this way. If the mind consciousness gives rise to thoughts of greed, anger, and delusion afflictions while the manas is pure, the mind consciousness's thoughts will not last long before disappearing, and may even be forgotten. These are wrong thoughts perfumed into the mind consciousness from the external environment; if the manas holds fast to its fundamental mind, the mind consciousness's thoughts are like floating clouds that disperse as soon as they are told to. If the mind consciousness persistently and continuously contacts defiled environments and wrong thoughts keep arising, reaching a certain quantitative accumulation, the manas may be perfumed and led astray, with the result that it commits defiled karma of greed, anger, and delusion afflictions together with the mind consciousness. Therefore, the environment a person is in plays a great role in his growth and greatly influences his views and notions; only by dwelling among the good can one follow the good and avoid evil.
That afflictions can continue and transmigrate life after life proves that the manas has afflictions; the birth-and-death saṃsāra of the six realms proves that the manas has afflictions; the dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination proves that the manas has afflictions—and moreover has all afflictions. That sentient beings are born carrying afflictions proves that the manas has afflictions and has all afflictions. If the manas had no afflictions, or lacked a certain affliction, then how did all afflictions or a certain affliction arise? When did they begin to arise?
II. Evidence from the Medicine Buddha Sūtra that the Manas Has Wholesome and Unwholesome Natures
Original text of the Medicine Buddha Sūtra:像法转时。有诸众生。为种种患之所困。长病羸(léi)瘦。不能饮食。喉唇干燥。见诸方暗。死相现前。父母亲属。朋友知识。涕泣围绕。然彼自身。卧于本处。见阎魔使。引其神识。至于阎魔法王之前。然诸有情。有俱生神。随其所作。若罪若福。皆具书之。尽持授与。阎魔法王。尔时彼王。推问其人。计算所作。随其罪福。而处断之。
Explanation: In the semblance-dharma period, sentient beings have meager merit (alpa-puṇya); when the seeds of evil karma created in past lives and this life mature, they are beset by the retributive results of evil karma, bedridden for a long time, emaciated and thin, unable to eat or drink, with dry throat and lips, seeing everything as dim and lusterless, with the signs of death manifesting before them. Their parents and family members weep around them. But while the patient's body lies ill in bed, his consciousness is escorted by the black and white impermanence ghosts to before King Yama, the Dharma King. The patient's inborn spirit then manifests all the sinful and meritorious karma he has created throughout his life and presents it to King Yama. At that time King Yama interrogates the patient, calculates what he has done, and according to the amount of his sinful and meritorious karma, determines his karmic retribution and decides his destination.
All sentient beings have an inborn spirit; this refers to the seventh consciousness, the manas, the governing consciousness that has always existed and never ceased. When the impermanence ghosts seize a person, they are also guiding the governing consciousness, the manas, to King Yama. Before King Yama, everyone's manas automatically manifests the meritorious and sinful karmic actions of his whole life; King Yama, possessing supernatural powers, knows with his mind the various karmic actions the person has created, rapidly browsing through them like viewing images on a screen, and then King Yama begins the judgment.
This shows that it is the manas that created the sinful and meritorious karma, the wholesome and unwholesome karma; the judgment is a judgment of the manas. The mind consciousness from the time of being alive has long ceased and cannot follow along to King Yama's place; what accompanies the manas is the mind consciousness temporarily born in the antarābhava. This shows that the manas has wholesome and unwholesome natures; otherwise, how could wholesome and unwholesome karma arise? At this time the mind consciousness has all ceased and is not functioning; even if it functions, it is merely the manas's runner and helper, assisting the manas in its tasks. King Yama does not concern himself with the mind consciousness; he seeks only the manas to judge the sinful and meritorious karma and its retribution.
When a person dies or is half-dead in suspended animation, the mind consciousness almost never functions. No matter what the circumstances, the manas is forever the master of sentient beings, the governing consciousness. After death or suspended animation, the manas is drawn by karmic power before King Yama. After King Yama has reviewed the manas's sinful and meritorious karma, seeing that there is still a little merit not yet used up and that the person should not yet die, he sends the person's manas back into the physical body in the world of the living, and the person revives. Reviving means the manas has returned into the physical body and then summons the mind consciousness out to function.
When King Yama judges the dead, he knows to seek the dead person's master, not the dead person's assistants and underlings. Debts have their owners, and karma even more so has its owner; only a fool would seek subordinates, assistants, lackeys, odd-job workers, servants, nannies, and the like. Therefore the manas can create all wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate (avyākṛta) karma; it possesses wholesome and unwholesome natures and has wholesome and unwholesome mental factors (caittas).
III. The Governing Function of the Manas Determines that the Manas Has Wholesome and Unwholesome Natures
The manas silently encompasses all dharmas, meaning that the manas corresponds to, accords with, merges with, and conditions all dharmas, including wholesome and unwholesome dharmas—this is quite easy to understand. If the manas did not correspond to wholesome and unwholesome dharmas, how could the mind consciousness correspond to wholesome and unwholesome dharmas? If there are dharmas that the manas does not correspond to and does not condition, how could the mind consciousness correspond to them and condition them?
From the perspective of the manas's actual functions and roles: if the manas had only an indeterminate nature, then washing clothes and cooking—these indeterminate activities—are decided by the manas as the governing agent, but doing good deeds and taking pleasure in helping others would not be decided by the manas as the governing agent, and stealing, robbing, and false speech would also not be decided by the manas as the governing agent. That would mean the manas can only govern and decide with respect to a portion of dharmas, but cannot govern and decide with respect to another portion. Then what causes the manas to be able to govern only a portion of dharmas and be unable to govern another portion? Is the other portion of dharmas that the manas cannot govern governed by the mind consciousness instead? Has the mind consciousness also become the governing consciousness? Splitting the manas apart, splitting the dharmas apart—is there such a principle?
For a good person, is it the manas that is good, or the mind consciousness, or are both good? If a person's goodness is only the mind consciousness being good while the manas is not good, then after the mind consciousness ceases and only the manas remains, is this person still a good person at that moment? If the manas is not good, then at that moment he is not a good person. If a good person, once asleep and without the mind consciousness, is no longer a good person, then how do we account for the good deeds he has done? Isn't this matter very bizarre? It is simply inconceivable and can never be explained.
According to this logic, after a good person dies and this life's mind consciousness disappears forever, he even more cannot be a good person. A person who did good all his life, upon dying, is acknowledged by no one as a good person—isn't that an injustice? If he died for the country and for the people, then his death would not be glorious either, because the glorious mind consciousness no longer exists, so there is no way to posthumously confer any glorious title on him, nor to give his family spiritual and material compensation. If, along with the disappearance of a good person's mind consciousness, all the good deeds and contributions made by the mind consciousness were to vanish with it, because the remaining manas is not good, then in the future good people would probably fear death the most and would no longer be willing to make sacrifices easily. They might also fear sleeping and comas, because once the mind consciousness ceases, the label and reputation of being a good person disappears, and after death they would not go to a good destination to enjoy blessings. Conversely, an evil person upon death is no longer an evil person and need not go to the three evil destinies—how cost-effective is doing evil? Such things truly cannot be explained. Therefore, the good person's manas has a wholesome nature, the evil person's manas has an unwholesome nature, or perhaps the manas of both good and evil people has wholesome and unwholesome natures, which together with the indeterminate nature makes three natures.
If only the mind consciousness had wholesome and unwholesome natures and the manas had none, then when a good person acts in a play portraying an evil person doing evil, is this actor at that moment a good person or an evil person? In work and daily life, some people are especially good at disguising themselves—putting on one front openly and another behind the scenes, appearing very good on the surface like an upright gentleman whose conduct one cannot help but praise, yet behind the scenes they scheme and plot to frame others. So is this person ultimately a good person or an evil person?
When sentient beings do good or create evil, it is a time of both the manifest and the hidden operating together: the six consciousnesses are in the open, and the manas is behind the scenes in the dark. How do the two cooperate and connect seamlessly? On the surface it appears that the six consciousnesses are doing good and creating evil, but what is the manas doing? What mental activities does it have? How does it operate? Does it govern these wholesome and unwholesome matters or not? Does it leave it to the mind consciousness to govern and create wholesome and unwholesome karma? How does the manas cause the six consciousnesses to arise and operate? How does it cause the six consciousnesses to arise precisely upon the wholesome and unwholesome dharmas being engaged in? If these matters cannot be observed, how can one be certain that the manas has no wholesome or unwholesome mental activities and no wholesome or unwholesome natures?
IV. The Manas Silently Encompassing All Dharmas Shows that the Manas Has Wholesome and Unwholesome Natures
Original text of the fourth volume of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra:如意默容。十方三世。一切世间出世间法。唯圣与凡。无不包容。尽其涯际。当知意根圆满一千二百功德。
Explanation: For example, the manas can silently encompass all worldly and supramundane dharmas of the past, present, and future three periods throughout the worlds of the ten directions—whether ultimate truth or conventional truth, whether the dharmas of sages or of ordinary beings, all are included within it, exhausting the limits of all dharmas. Therefore, you should know that the manas perfectly possesses one thousand two hundred merits.
"Silently" means quietly, covertly, without fanfare; "encompass" means to contain, accept, possess, attend (manaskāra), contact, perceive, deliberate, correspond, condition, know, and see. Why does the manas silently and covertly condition all dharmas, contact everything, see all dharmas, know all dharmas, and reject none of them? Silently, because the manas cannot speak or write, and cannot use words, language, or sounds to convey and reveal its own mental activities; covertly, because the mind consciousness most of the time does not understand Him, does not know Him, and does not know or see His mental activities and operations, nor His merits—therefore it is called "covertly." If the mind consciousness could completely understand the manas's merits and its operations upon all dharmas, then it would no longer be covert.
That the manas can encompass all dharmas means it can condition all dharmas, contain and accept all dharmas, cognize all dharmas, know and see all dharmas, and can operate its five universal mental factors upon all dharmas, corresponding to all dharmas—of course also corresponding to wholesome and unwholesome dharmas, able to contain the wholesome and the unwholesome, itself possessing wholesome and unwholesome natures. The range of all dharmas that the manas can condition and does condition is extremely vast and boundless; the dharmas conditioned by the mind consciousness cannot compare with those conditioned by the manas, and neither is as vast as the dharmas conditioned by the tathāgatagarbha.
What is included in all these dharmas conditioned by the manas? First are the dharmas of the three periods in the worlds of the ten directions, which is the largest spatial range in the conventional world; the temporal range is past, present, and future, which is also the largest. Within this largest space-time, the dharmas conditioned by the manas include all worldly dharmas, that is, the dharmas of future existence generated by the tathāgatagarbha using the seeds of the seven great elements, such as material form (rūpa), mind, and mental factors; it also includes supramundane dharmas that must operate and manifest within the world, such as the tathāgatagarbha, buddha-nature, and suchness (tathatā), as well as the path practiced by sages—the ultimate truth, the first principle truth. Both sages and ordinary beings are included within it, all the way to the very edge of all dharmas, where the manas can condition no further—only dharmas that the tathāgatagarbha alone can condition, and dharmas that do not possess worldly characteristics and do not operate within the world.
Because the manas can encompass dharmas of such a vast range, having already exhausted the limits of the dharmas operating within the world, He possesses the full one thousand two hundred merits, the most complete, second only to the merits of the tathāgatagarbha. Then, without question, the manas also contains the dharmas of sages and of ordinary beings, contains wholesome and unwholesome dharmas, and possesses wholesome and unwholesome natures, wholesome and unwholesome mental factors, and mental activities. If it were not so, the manas's merits would not have exhausted the limits of all dharmas; there would be dharmas it cannot contain, and its merits would not be perfect.
This passage was spoken by the World-Honored One when expounding the merits of the manas: the manas can perfectly possess one thousand two hundred merits. He did not say the mind consciousness's merits are perfect, because the mind consciousness arises and ceases moment to moment, cannot act autonomously, cannot span the three periods, and even the dharmas of the present life it cannot fully cover—there are many dharmas it cannot condition or cognize, let alone the dharmas of the ten directions and three periods, which it certainly cannot reach. Therefore the mind consciousness is not an ultimate dharma, not a fundamental dharma, and is not worth relying upon. Practice must cultivate the fundamental dharma, the reliable dharma, the autonomous dharma: only by removing the manas's ignorance and perfecting the manas's wisdom can one become a Buddha.
V. Evidence from the Śūraṅgama Sūtra's Account of the Origin of the World that the Manas Is Not Indeterminate (avyākṛta)
In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the World-Honored One expounded the origin of the world: eons without beginning, when chaos had not yet opened, only the eighth consciousness and the manas existed; there was no three-realm world, much less the five-aggregate body and the six consciousnesses. The manas together with the eighth consciousness constituted sentient beings' life-form. At that time, due to ignorance, the manas directed its mind outward to seek and grasp, wanting to explore something; only then did the eighth consciousness, following the manas's mental intentions, gradually form the world. This process was extremely long, because the world was not formed by the mental intention of one sentient being's manas, but by the mental intentions of the manas of many sentient beings.
After the world had formed for a number of great eons, sentient beings' five-aggregate bodies could be born because there was a suitable environment for survival. Before the world formed, all ignorances already existed; no ignorance was generated after birth. Therefore it is said that all ignorances are the manas's ignorances. Since the manas possesses all ignorances, hidden within this ignorance are all the factors of afflictions, which will give rise to afflictions upon encountering conditions. The manas's ignorance and afflictions then perfume the mind consciousness, and the mind consciousness is gradually perfumed with afflictions—this too is a long process. Thus the very earliest afflictions all belonged to the manas; the mind consciousness merely complied with the manas's afflictions, and only after the mind consciousness was successfully perfumed did afflictions appear in it.
Ignorance means not understanding: the manas's mind does not understand the principle, being muddled and confused. What does this principle refer to? According to what the Śūraṅgama Sūtra indicates, it is the true reality of the dharma-realm (dharmadhātu). The manas does not understand the principle of the true reality of the dharma-realm, the eighth consciousness; it does not understand that it itself is a dharma within the eighth consciousness, generated and upheld by the eighth consciousness, and that apart from the eighth consciousness there are no dharmas and no dharma-realm. This is the manas's beginningless ignorance, also the fundamental ignorance. From this beginningless ignorance, it directs its mind to seek outside the eighth consciousness, causing the world to form—formed gradually over long eons, not achievable within short eons.
After the world had formed for a number of great eons, sentient beings' five-aggregate bodies appeared, and the mind consciousness and the five sense consciousnesses were born along with the five-aggregate body. Only after the five-aggregate body appeared were there the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses cooperating with the manas in creating karma. Therefore, because of ignorance, the manas came to have the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion, directing the six consciousnesses to create evil karma of afflictions; the seeds of evil karma were thereby left behind, and thus there came to be the causes, conditions, and retributions of birth-and-death saṃsāra in the six realms—this is the origin of the dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination. From this it can be seen that the mind consciousness appeared very late, far later than the manas; it is impossible that the mind consciousness had ignorance and afflictions as soon as it appeared, without any cause. And the cause of the mind consciousness's later appearance of afflictions is that they were perfumed in by the governing consciousness, the manas, which dominates it; or, the ignorance and afflictions the mind consciousness displays all belong to the manas, being the result of the manas's manipulation. Therefore the manas truly has afflictions; it is not merely indeterminate in nature—it has all three natures: wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate.
Ignorance is an unwholesome dharma, not a wholesome dharma and not a neutral dharma that is neither good nor evil. Therefore one must, through studying Buddhism and cultivating practice, exhaust all ignorance and afflictions and become the perfectly luminous Buddha of permanence, bliss, self, and purity. Surely no one would regard ignorance as a wholesome dharma or an indeterminate dharma? Sentient beings' afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion come from ignorance, that is, from the manas. If the manas had no ignorance, it would not create karma of greed, anger, and delusion afflictions; it is ignorance that causes the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion to manifest. Therefore the manas is not indeterminate in nature. Then is the manas after buddhahood indeterminate in nature? The manas after buddhahood is even less indeterminate in nature—it is of a purely wholesome nature without evil, of a nature of great loving-kindness and great compassion, of a nature of compassion and mercy toward all sentient beings. From this point, the nature of the manas should be easy to judge, and there should be no more misunderstanding.
VI. Evidence from the Dharma of the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination that the Manas Is Not Indeterminate (avyākṛta)
The twelve links of dependent origination: ignorance conditions volitional formations (avidyā-pratyayāḥ saṃskārāḥ), formations condition consciousness, consciousness conditions name-and-form... The first link is ignorance, the source of power for the opening of heaven and earth; from this power, all things between heaven and earth sprouted forth, and the five-aggregate life-form came to operate. This is the origin of the birth-and-death saṃsāra of the five-aggregate body—the ignorance of the governing consciousness, the manas. The second link is formations: due to ignorance, the manas produced mental activities, wanting to create—just like the stirring before heaven and earth were born. Once the mental activity of ignorance stirs, subsequent creations follow. This mental activity fully possesses the three natures of wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate; even wholesome actions contain the nature of ignorance—for without ignorance, even worldly goodness would not be done, the mind-ground being pure and without fabrication. The third link is the six consciousnesses: because the manas's mental activity stirred and made the decision to create, the six consciousnesses were born, cooperating with the manas to create bodily, verbal, and mental actions. The fourth link is the karmic seeds left behind after the six consciousnesses created bodily, verbal, and mental actions; these karmic seeds determine the birth of name-and-form in future lives.
Sentient beings' bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the three natures—wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate—sprout forth and create according to conditions, and the karmic seeds are deposited into the Ālayavijñāna according to conditions at all times, so birth-and-death saṃsāra transmigrates without stop. The bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the three natures come from the manas's mental activities and are determined by the manas's mental activities—so how could the manas's mental activities have only the indeterminate nature and lack wholesome and unwholesome mental activities? If so, the birth-and-death chain of the twelve links of dependent origination would have no way to connect and continue perpetually; birth-and-death would necessarily be severed and saṃsāra necessarily cease. The manas's mental activities are the driving force of the six consciousnesses' bodily, verbal, and mental actions; the six consciousnesses' wholesome and unwholesome actions must come from the manas's wholesome and unwholesome mental activities, are governed and determined by the manas's wholesome and unwholesome mental activities, and cannot be separated from the manas's wholesome and unwholesome mental activities. And the manas's wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate mental activities all result from the manas's ignorance: the wholesome is ignorance, the unwholesome is ignorance, and the indeterminate is still ignorance. Without ignorance, the karmic actions and karmic seeds of birth-and-death would necessarily perish, and birth-and-death saṃsāra would forever cease.
If the manas were not wholesome, the six consciousnesses would have no way to create many wholesome actions such as generosity (dāna) and keeping precepts, and sentient beings would have no way to ascend to the heavens to enjoy blessings and pleasures; if the manas were not unwholesome, the six consciousnesses would have no way to create various evil actions such as killing and arson, and sentient beings would have no way to fall into the three evil destinies to suffer evil retribution. Some would say this is determined by the mind consciousness's wholesome and unwholesome mental activities. But how could the mind consciousness's wholesome and unwholesome mental activities have such great power as to be able to govern, to exercise the manas's governing authority, usurping the host's role? Moreover, if the manas had no mental activities, the mind consciousness would have no way to be born at all; whether the mind consciousness is born depends entirely on the manas's decision. If the manas does not decide, the mind consciousness has no opportunity to be born—how could it create wholesome and unwholesome bodily, verbal, and mental actions and reverse the sequence of the twelve links of dependent origination? If it could reverse them, would that not mean the Buddha taught the dharma wrongly? When the manas's wholesome mental activity appears, it necessarily wants to create wholesome karma, and the six consciousnesses will comply with the manas's decision to be born and create wholesome karma, fulfilling the manas's wish. The six consciousnesses are subordinate to the manas and serve the manas; they cannot have independent actions and creations—the six consciousnesses' creation of evil karma follows the same principle. Therefore it is said that the manas is not merely indeterminate in nature; it fully possesses wholesome and unwholesome natures as well. Only thus is there saṃsāra in the six realms, and only thus could the Buddha expound the dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination on this basis.
VII. The Difference and Connection between the Mental Factor of Perception (saṃjñā) and the Mental Factor of Mindfulness (smṛti)
The five universal mental factors: attention (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), volition (cetanā). The five object-specific mental factors: desire (chanda), determination (adhimokṣa), mindfulness (smṛti), concentration (samādhi), wisdom (prajñā). The mental factor of perception belongs to the five universal mental factors, operating at all times and places; whenever a consciousness appears, the mental factor of perception operates, because the main function of a consciousness is to recognize and cognize the dharmas it contacts. Perception means discerning and cognizing, taking an image upon the mind. Only after taking an image upon the mind can there be a decision; only after deciding upon a dharma can the five object-specific mental factors operate.
In the operation of the five object-specific mental factors, first one gives rise to desire, interest, aspiration, and seeking toward the dharma one has decided upon; after gaining a certain degree of determination (adhimokṣa) regarding the dharma, one will keep the dharma in mind, and the mental factor of mindfulness appears. Without the prior cognition of the dharma, there would be no subsequent determination regarding it; if one cannot gain determination regarding the dharma, one will not keep it in mind. Because one does not understand the dharma and does not aspire to it, how could one hold it in one's heart and keep it in mind? That one can hold it in one's heart and keep it in mind shows that one has already understood the dharma and feels this dharma is important and is what one needs. This means that only because there is the mental factor of perception is there the mental factor of mindfulness—hence there is a word "xiangnian" (想念, thinking-of), first perceiving, then being mindful.
This mental factor of mindfulness corresponds to the mindfulness factor of enlightenment among the seven factors of enlightenment. For example, having studied the dharma of the Four Noble Truths, only by fully understanding the dharma of the Four Noble Truths, knowing the importance of the Four Noble Truths for the transmigration of birth-and-death, and having gained a considerable degree of determination, can the mindfulness factor of enlightenment appear, with the mind constantly and continuously engaged in contemplating the Four Noble Truths and comparing them against daily activities of the five aggregates. If one has not yet fully discerned and understood the principle of the Four Noble Truths, it is impossible to keep the Four Noble Truths in mind. A thought is the mental factor of mindfulness; it is not present at all times—there are interruptions. If it does not interrupt and the mindfulness lasts long, then whatever dharma one is mindful of, one is concentrated (samādhi) upon that dharma, and one has the power of meditative concentration. Therefore after the mental factor of mindfulness comes the mental factor of concentration.
From this one can see that the operation of the five universal mental factors has no preconditions; they can follow the consciousness at all times and places, whereas the appearance of the five object-specific mental factors must have preconditions; they cannot appear at all times and places, but only at particular times when conditions are complete. The mental factors of desire, determination, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom each require different conditions, and the five mental factors are respectively the conditions for the appearance of the subsequent mental factors; the preceding mental factors can determine whether the subsequent mental factors appear. Therefore, the mental factor of wisdom is not something everyone has, nor does it appear upon all dharmas; the mental factor of concentration is like this, the mental factor of mindfulness is like this, and the mental factors of determination and desire are all like this.
VIII. Do the First Five Consciousnesses Have the Function of Deliberation?
The first five consciousnesses also have the five universal mental factors: attention, contact, feeling, perception, volition—only simpler and coarser than the five universal mental factors of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. The sixth and seventh consciousnesses deliberate upon mental sense-objects (dharma-viṣaya), and their deliberation can be very fine and profound; the first five consciousnesses deliberate upon the five sense-objects, and their deliberation is very coarse and simple. As long as one can separate the five sense-objects from the mental sense-objects and not confuse them, one can distinguish the difference between the deliberation of the five consciousnesses and that of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses. The deliberation of the five consciousnesses is not the kind of deliberative function of the mind consciousness; the two differ, and the difference is considerable. Being able to separate the five sense-objects from the mental sense-objects is very difficult, so distinguishing the recognition of the five consciousnesses from that of the mind consciousness is also very difficult. Distinguishing the functions and roles of the manas from those of the mind consciousness is likewise something ordinary people cannot do.
What people ordinarily call deliberation generally refers to the sixth and seventh consciousnesses' deliberation upon mental sense-objects, especially the solitary consciousness's (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) deliberation upon the subjectively imagined realm, in which the five consciousnesses cannot but participate. The deliberation (volition) among the five universal mental factors of the five consciousnesses mainly serves the function of judgment and decision. After the five consciousnesses discern their corresponding five sense-objects, they take an image of the five sense-objects, make a simple, coarse judgment, and then decide whether to continue discerning or to stop and avoid, with the mind consciousness simultaneously participating in the discernment. The reason the five consciousnesses' discernment is said to be coarse is that the five sense-objects are coarse and do not require fine discrimination; therefore the discernment is fast and does not require much mental effort from the five consciousnesses, as if it did not go through the brain. The mental sense-objects that accompany the five sense-objects, however, are relatively subtle and require the mind consciousness's fine discernment; therefore the mind consciousness's discernment and analytical thinking are relatively slow and require more mental effort.
When the five sense-objects are significant and their impact great, the manas takes the five consciousnesses' judgment and decision as primary in making its decision, with no time to process the mind consciousness's analysis and judgment, and so it ignores the mind consciousness's discernment and deliberation. Usually the five consciousnesses' discernment is relatively direct and fast, while the mind consciousness's discernment is subtle and slightly slower than the five consciousnesses'. For major matters, the manas takes the five consciousnesses' reactions as primary and cannot attend to the mind consciousness's reactions; therefore, in some sudden emergencies, without the mind consciousness's analysis and deliberation, the manas directs the completion of the matter, resulting in the mind consciousness's belated awareness. To summarize: deliberation refers to the deliberation of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses; the deliberation of the first five consciousnesses is simpler, coarser, and more direct than deliberation, not deep enough—and it need not be deep, because the five sense-objects are shallow, coarse, and direct.
