The Classification of Worldly Dharmas

Mental factors (caittas), as the name implies, are dharmas that belong to the mind. Emotions, attitudes, opinions, suggestions, anxiety, agitation, jealousy, sadness, and so on—all of these are dharmas that arise upon the mind and belong to the mind, so they are all called mental factors. Dharmas that arise upon the body, belonging to the body, are called bodily factors, as the name implies. Dharmas belonging to the physical body—for example, falling ill, changes in body weight, the occurrence of various mishaps, things being produced, or things being reduced, and so on—all the arising, ceasing, and changes pertaining to the body are bodily factors. The physical body is divided into the inner body and the outer body: the inner body is the body itself, and the outer body is the six sense objects of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas; taken together, they all constitute the body of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha). The body is material form (rūpa), and the dharmas that arise upon the body are also material form, so whatever belongs to material form is also material form. All worldly dharmas are divided into material form (rūpa-dharma) and mental dharmas (citta-dharma), as well as dharmas that are neither material nor mental; in terms of their belonging, they are divided into mental factors and bodily factors, as well as dharmas belonging to neither body nor mind. All these dharmas are subsumed under the tathāgatagarbha. Once all dharmas are returned to the tathāgatagarbha, there is nothing left at all—so what are we still craving and clinging to now? It is all empty, all false appearance. Unfortunately, the habit of craving and clinging is too deeply rooted and too hard to transform. The fundamental reason is that the true reality of the dharmadhātu has not been properly understood or clearly seen. This matter takes three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas to thoroughly clarify, and by then, cultivation itself has also come to an end.