Mental Factors of the Mind base\: A Practical Compass (Second Edition) (with over 30,000 additional words, reorganized)
Section 2: The Mental Factor of Attention (manaskāra)
1. How Is the Manas's Mental Factor of Attention Aroused?
Question: Ordinary beings' manas attention is always associated with greed and aversion, without exception. How does the pure manas of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas attend? Without the driving force of greed, aversion, and desire, how does the manas attend? Can the manas attend while in a state of neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā) or in a neutral/indeterminate (avyākṛta) state?
Answer: The manas's attention is aroused not only by afflictive mental factors such as greed and aversion, but also by the mental factor of desire (chanda). Desire includes wholesome desire and unwholesome desire, as well as desire that is neither wholesome nor unwholesome. Wholesome desire is great power of vows; unwholesome desire is the afflictions of greed, aversion, and delusion. Part of the manas's attention is also habitual attention, resulting from the manas's inertial tendency.
Original text of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra: 云何能生。作意正起。由四因故。一由欲力。二由念力。三由境界力。四由数习力。云何由欲力。谓若于是处。心有爱著。心则于彼。多作意生。云何由念力。谓若于彼。已善取其相。已极作想。心则于彼。多作意生。云何由境界力。谓若彼境界。或极广大。或极可意。正现在前。心则于彼。多作意生。云何由数习力。谓若于彼境界。已极串习。已极谙悉。心即于彼。多作意生。若异此者。应于一所缘境。唯一作意。一切时生。
This describes the conditions for the arising of the mental factor of attention: desire, mindfulness, sense objects, and habituation. The reason the manas has grasping engagement is precisely that it has desire and mindfulness. Maitreya Bodhisattva has already explained this very clearly: without desire and mindfulness, attention cannot arise. Especially the manas's desire and mindfulness: only after the manas attends can the six consciousnesses arise, and only then can the six consciousnesses attend. What does the manas rely on for its grasping engagement? It is the power of desire and the power of mindfulness. Without these, He has no mind and does not wish to engage with any sense realm, will not generate attention toward dharmas, and subsequent dharmas will not appear. If the manas lacks the mental factor of desire, by what would the six consciousnesses develop the mental factor of desire? If the manas has no desire, how could all dharmas appear? Even the Buddha's manas has the mental factor of desire, let alone ordinary beings. The five consciousnesses all have determination (adhimokṣa); the manas has it even more so. Without determination, how could the manas comprehend the information discerned by the six consciousnesses, comprehend all the realms and dharmas it has experienced, and how could it make responses and reactions?
The arising of the five universal mental factors takes the power of desire and the power of mindfulness as its vanguard and foundation. The manas's power of desire and power of mindfulness are the fundamental driving force for the manifestation of all dharmas. There is also the manas's habitual inertia: when He has no desire or mindfulness, He will habitually engage and attend, and we involuntarily see forms, hear sounds, smell scents, and feel touches, even though at times the mind consciousness does not wish to know these dharmas. The specific explanations are as follows:
First, the power of desire: this is the manas's craving and attachment toward sense realms. Only thus can the consciousness continuously attend upon that realm, continuously generate deliberation (manasikāra) and decision-making, and the tathāgatagarbha must then continuously give rise to new realms and mental activities.
Second, the power of mindfulness: this refers to the manas continuously grasping the marks of sense realms and continuously knowing them. Only thus can the consciousness continuously generate the mental factor of attention toward the realms, and finally continuously engage in deliberation and decision-making, and the tathāgatagarbha must continuously cooperate in giving rise to subsequent mental activities and realms. This means that without desire and mindfulness, the consciousness cannot attend; especially the manas's desire and mindfulness—only after the manas attends can the six consciousnesses arise, and only then can the six consciousnesses attend.
Third, the manas's continuous attention is also due to the overwhelming force of the sense realms, which draws the consciousness so that it cannot help but attend upon them; thus the tathāgatagarbha cooperates in giving rise to subsequent mental activities and realms.
Fourth, toward realms that are frequently encountered and very familiar, the manas will attend to them frequently; the mental factor of volition will continuously arise, and the tathāgatagarbha must continuously give rise to subsequent mental activities and realms. The manas's power of habituation is enormous: life after life, or for beginningless kalpas, it has been immersed in the same dharmas. In later lives, upon encountering these dharmas and realms, it will continuously attend and engage, with great force. If the power is not strong, it cannot be controlled—for example, habits of greed such as craving for sensual desire, gluttony, craving for sleep, craving for wealth, and so on, are just like this.
If it is not one of the above four situations, the manas can engage with fewer realms, attend to fewer dharmas, deliberate upon and discern a single dharma, and can do so at all times. Therefore, the grasping nature also refers to the manas's habitual attention. If one wishes to cultivate meditative concentration, one must control and change the manas's inertial attention and subdue its grasping nature.
Whether karmic seeds have matured has no necessary connection with the manas's attention. Whether karmic seeds have matured, the tathāgatagarbha naturally knows, and then the tathāgatagarbha begins to give rise to the corresponding conditions, producing corresponding dharmas in accordance with the karmic seeds.
2. How Does the Mental Factor of Attention Arise?
The consciousness's attention toward dharmas is an extremely complex process, and observing it clearly is very difficult. Initially, attention toward a dharma is at the seed stage—that is, when the consciousness seeds have not yet been transmitted and the consciousness has not yet arisen. Because when consciousness seeds are about to arise, there must be a place of arising, a direction of attention; this direction and place is the object of attention, the location of the dharma.
For example, when playing basketball and shooting the ball toward the hoop, the eyes must aim in the direction of the hoop; one cannot shoot in other directions. This direction is analogous to the locus of attention—that is, the hoop. Here, the basketball is analogous to the consciousness seeds, the person's eyes are analogous to the consciousness, and aiming is analogous to attention. When holding the ball, the target should be oriented toward the hoop; when shooting, the hand must aim at the hoop, preparing to send the ball in that direction. Likewise, before the consciousness seeds arise within the tathāgatagarbha, there must also be a direction of arising; all consciousness seeds have attention before they arise. When the consciousness arises at a certain place, arises upon a certain dharma, it must attend toward the location of that dharma.
After the consciousness seeds arise, the consciousness will continue to attend without interruption. Because when the consciousness continuously operates upon a certain dharma, it must keep attending to that dharma; if it no longer attends, the transmission of consciousness seeds will shift direction, and the other mental factors—contact, feeling, perception, and volition—will no longer appear. Therefore, only through the consciousness's sustained attention can the discernment of a certain dharma continue; once attention ceases, there is no subsequent contact, feeling, perception, or volition. The mental factor of attention is very important: without it, the other mental factors will not appear, and there will be no function of consciousness with respect to that dharma.
3. The Manas's Attention Is One of the Conditions for the Mind Consciousness's Operation
The seven consciousnesses generate the mental factor of attention both in discerning all dharmas and in studying the Buddhadharma, and in all cases the manas's attention is primary; the manas's attention triggers the attention of the six consciousnesses. The manas's attention has preconditions and requires certain causes and conditions; with different conditions, its attention differs. Toward what it is interested in, it will attend with craving and attachment; toward what it is uninterested in and averse to, it will attend and immediately wish to distance itself; toward what it considers unimportant, after attending it will no longer make contact.
The manas attends at all times and in all places; attention varies in intensity and duration, which has a certain influence on the arising of the mind consciousness. The preconditions for the arising of the mind consciousness are: the eighth consciousness, the manas's attention, karmic seeds, one's own consciousness seeds, and mental objects (dharmas). When the manas contacts mental objects and generates the mental factor of volition wishing to discern them specifically, only then does the eighth consciousness give rise to the mind consciousness to discern the mental objects. If the manas does not attend—that is, if it pays no attention to or gives no weight to the mental objects—it will not generate the mental factor of volition wishing to discern them, and the eighth consciousness will not spontaneously give rise to the mind consciousness to discern them.
The manas universally engages with all dharmas; it can engage with all of them, and the mental factors of attention, contact, feeling, perception, and volition follow the manas moment by moment. But the manas can make choices: toward some mental objects it does not attend; toward others it certainly must attend. Important mental objects receive longer attention, repeated attention, focused attention, followed by repeated contact, feeling, perception, and volition, focused deliberation, repeated deliberation, prolonged deliberation; then the mind consciousness must repeatedly and for extended periods discern, and attend, contact, feel, perceive, and will.
The mind consciousness's activities and mental actions must all revolve around the manas, submit to the manas, and be directed by the manas. What the manas considers important, the mind consciousness must discern with emphasis; what the manas is interested in, the mind consciousness must discern continuously. What the manas pays little attention to, the mind consciousness discerns lightly; what the manas wishes to avoid, the mind consciousness inevitably cannot avoid discerning, and the eighth consciousness will not give rise to the mind consciousness. But because the manas's inertial force is too strong, even toward mental objects the mind consciousness very much wishes to avoid and does not wish to discern—even though the manas also wishes to avoid them—due to inertial force it cannot avoid them, and the mental objects will necessarily appear in the mind consciousness.
Some realms of the six sense objects, which the six consciousnesses do not wish to discern at all, still enter into the six consciousnesses. Because of the manas's universal grasping nature and its deeply rooted habits, even wanting not to engage and striving to avoid engagement cannot be achieved. Sometimes the more one tries to avoid with effort, the more one cannot avoid, and the discernment is even intensified—precisely because the manas's inertial force is so powerful that it involuntarily contacts and attends to mental objects. Often, it is not out of interest in the six sense objects, but rather aimless grasping engagement and attention. Habitual, aimless attention is the manas's distraction (auddhatya), which causes the mind consciousness's distraction, making it impossible to gather in body and mind, and impossible to settle down and let the mind be at peace. Such a manas needs the mind consciousness's continuous guidance, repeated admonishment and edification, in order to gradually be tamed.
4. Upon What Does the Manas Rely to Generate Attention Toward Dharmas?
The manas's attention relies, first, on its habitual tendencies and inertia: toward certain dharmas that appear frequently and are relatively familiar, it habitually pays attention and easily attends. Second, the manas may attend aimlessly, which is due to habits of distraction and grasping engagement. Third, the manas easily generates attention toward dharmas it is interested in. Fourth, the manas easily generates attention toward major and important dharmas. Fifth, the manas generates attention due to craving and attachment for certain dharmas. Sixth, the manas generates attention due to afflictions such as anger and resentment. Seventh, the manas generates attention toward dharmas it needs. Eighth, the manas easily attends to dharmas that appear suddenly, and so on—the list goes on.
After the manas attends, perhaps the mental factors of contact, feeling, perception, and volition do not come forth and operate; perhaps there is no mental factor of volition, and the manas does not decide what to do; perhaps the mental factor of perception does not come forth and operate, and the manas does not grasp the dharmas it engages with; perhaps the mental factor of feeling does not come forth and operate, and the manas does not wish to feel, being uninterested in the engaged dharmas. Initially, if the preceding mental factor does not appear, there is no need for the subsequent mental factor to appear either.
5. How Does the Manas Attend So as to Bring About Its Own Cessation?
When an arhat liberated by wisdom (prajñā-vimukta) is at the end of life, the manas no longer craves the three realms, no longer attends, no longer chooses to see dharmas, has no desire to see dharmas, no desire to act; when the five universal mental factors do not manifest, the manas must cease. Therefore, when the manas does not attend, contact, feel, perceive, or will, the tathāgatagarbha does not cooperate in producing dharmas. When the manas has no desire or mindfulness toward the three realms, it certainly will not attend, contact, feel, perceive, or will; the consciousnesses can no longer operate, the functions of the five aggregates do not arise, and thus the manas ceases. As long as the manas has mental activity and desire, and has grasping propensity toward the dharmas of the three realms, the five universal mental factors will keep operating; the manas cannot cease, the five aggregates and eighteen realms will continue to arise, and sentient beings will undergo birth and death in the three realms without interruption.
6. What Is Called Uninterrupted Attention?
"Interval" means gaps and interruptions; "uninterrupted" means continuous, without gaps or interruptions. Attention means directing the mind's notice toward a dharma, the mind turning toward and focusing on the dharma. Attention is one of the five universal mental factors of consciousness; all eight consciousnesses have attention and can all turn toward and focus on certain dharmas.
Is the eighth consciousness's attention uninterrupted or interrupted? We know that all dharmas are produced and sustained by the eighth consciousness. Once the eighth consciousness no longer attends to a certain dharma, it no longer operates upon that dharma and no longer produces seeds upon it, and that dharma must vanish and perish. Therefore, as long as a certain dharma exists, the eighth consciousness's attention must be operating continuously. But the existence of all dharmas arises, first, through the eighth consciousness's spontaneous operation in accordance with matured karmic seeds, and second, through the manas's attention and grasping engagement. Therefore, at times the eighth consciousness's attention is triggered by the manas's attention; once the manas no longer attends, the eighth consciousness no longer produces and sustains that dharma, and that dharma necessarily disappears. Thus, for a certain dharma to exist, the manas's mental factor of attention must also be operating; as long as a certain dharma exists continuously, the manas's mental factor of attention must be operating continuously and uninterruptedly; otherwise, that dharma must disappear.
Therefore, the eighth consciousness's attention can be uninterrupted, and the manas's attention can be uninterrupted. Can the mind consciousness's attention be uninterrupted? We know that the mind consciousness is interrupted during much of each day and invariably ceases involuntarily. Even if the mind consciousness has uninterrupted attention, it lasts only for a period of time; it is impossible to remain uninterrupted twenty-four hours a day. When the mind consciousness attends uninterruptedly for a period of time, it is entirely due to the manas's uninterrupted attention; once the manas no longer attends, the eighth consciousness stops outputting the mind consciousness's seeds, and the mind consciousness necessarily disappears from that dharma.
Therefore, only under the condition of the manas's uninterrupted attention can the mind consciousness have uninterrupted attention for a period of time. In fact, in the vast majority of cases, the mind consciousness becomes fatigued after attending for a period of time, and will become distracted and cease; it will not attend for too long, and even more so with the attention of the five consciousnesses. Without the manas's attention and without the eighth consciousness's attention, the six consciousnesses would not have even a moment's attention; the six consciousnesses all depend on the eighth consciousness and the manas to manifest and operate, because they cannot be independent and cannot be the master.
Once the manas forms uninterrupted attention toward a certain dharma, it means the mind consciousness's immersion has succeeded; it will then automatically and consciously direct the six consciousnesses to carry out the principles it has realized, and thus its mental actions must change, and its bodily, verbal, and mental actions must also change, without the mind consciousness needing to supervise and remind. Only when the manas has not been successfully immersed does the mind consciousness need to constantly supervise, remind, and regulate—because the manas is not self-aware; it is only so when it has not been immersed and has not realized the dharma.
7. Situations in Which the Manas Does Not Attend and the Six Consciousnesses Do Not Arise
First, when asleep without dreams, the manas knows the physical body needs rest, does not wish to engage with or know anything, does not attend, and the six consciousnesses do not manifest and do not discriminate. Second, in the fetal stage, there are no complete five gross sense faculties and supreme faculties (indriya), the six sense bases (ṣaḍāyatana) cannot form, the eighth consciousness has not manifested the inner objective realm, and the manas does not contact the six sense objects; therefore the first six consciousnesses cannot arise, and there is no six-consciousness experience and discernment. Third, in a coma, the brain's supreme faculty is damaged, the entry of the six sense bases into the supreme faculty is obstructed, the causes and conditions for the arising of the six consciousnesses are incomplete, and discrimination does not occur. Fourth, in the meditative absorption of no-perception (asaṃjñi-samāpatti), although the supreme faculty is intact, the manas does not wish to discern form, sound, scent, taste, touch, and dharma in depth; therefore the six consciousnesses do not arise. Fifth, in the meditative absorption of cessation (nirodha-samāpatti), the manas's mental factors of feeling and perception have both ceased, and the manas does not engage with the six sense objects; therefore there is no six-consciousness experience of the six sense objects.
As long as the manas exists, it has attention toward the realms of the six sense objects; even in a coma and in the meditative absorption of no-perception there is attention, and it also attends to the physical body relying on the eighth consciousness. Therefore one can wake from a coma and emerge from meditative absorption; otherwise, one could not wake up, nor emerge from the meditative absorption of no-perception or the meditative absorption of cessation.
When asleep in the middle of the night, if an earthquake suddenly occurs, the manas also wants to run—so why can it not run? Because the bodily action of running must be directed by the manas and jointly executed by the body consciousness and the mind consciousness; if the six consciousnesses cannot arise quickly, the manas can only fret helplessly. When a nightmare demon presses down on the body, the manas also wants to break free—so why can the body not move? The manas also wants to move—so why can it not move? The mind consciousness even knows that the chest is being pressed heavily, but it simply cannot move. All of this is because the six consciousnesses are very weak, their strength insufficient to deal with the nightmare demon.
