After the first bhūmi, the mental factors of the manas also need to undergo a process of gradual perfection.

The equality wisdom (samatā-jñāna) of the first bhūmi refers to the manas. The manas does not fully possess the eleven wholesome mental factors; that is to say, they are not yet complete. For example, the wholesome mental factor of non-delusion is not fully possessed. This is because the mental factor of delusion and ignorance still exists even in bodhisattvas of the ninth and tenth bhūmis, and even bodhisattvas at the stage of virtual enlightenment. Among bodhisattvas from the first to the eighth bhūmi, although the manifest activity of afflictions has been eradicated, habitual tendencies have not yet been completely eliminated; for instance, latent afflictions such as concealment, jealousy, arrogance, anger, and vexation have not been fully removed, so their mental factors number more than twenty-one. Even the mental factors of an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva are not entirely limited to twenty-one; there are still mental factors of delusion, ignorance, and afflictions. Only at the buddha stage are the twenty-one mental factors fully possessed: the wholesome mental factors are completely complete, and the afflictive mental factors are completely extinguished.