The Mental Factors Implicit in Deliberation

The term "tuiqiao" (deliberating and weighing) originates from an anecdote about the Tang dynasty poet Jiadao composing poetry, originally describing Jiadao's manner of thinking and state of diligent effort when selecting words and phrases while composing poems. In order to find the appropriate words, the poet continuously searched for terms in his mind to convey the artistic conception the poem was meant to express, with his body and hands simultaneously gesturing the deliberation. At first, the mind consciousness engaged in deliberation with initial application and sustained examination (vitarka-vicāra), gradually transitioning to the manas's deliberation with initial application and sustained examination. The manas's deliberation is extremely subtle and hidden, so much so that the mind consciousness seems motionless and without thought, just like in Chan investigation.

When Jiadao was pondering and weighing his words and phrases, what mental factors (caittas) arose? There were the five universally present mental factors, the five object-specific mental factors, and perhaps also the wholesome mental factors and the afflictive mental factors. When deliberating, one must first raise the attention mental factor (manaskāra) directed toward the object of deliberation, drawing the mind onto the dharma to be deliberated; the contact mental factor (sparśa) appears, with the mind contacting the dharma to be deliberated; the feeling mental factor (vedanā) appears, receiving and accepting the dharma being deliberated; the perception mental factor (saṃjñā) arises, recognizing and grasping the dharma being deliberated; the volition mental factor (cetanā) appears, continuously deliberating (manasikāra) on this dharma until finally working it through and determining it, before proceeding to subsequent actions. When gesturing the actions of pushing and knocking with the hands, the five universally present mental factors of the five sense consciousnesses and the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna) also appear.

During attention (manaskāra), the mind is relatively concentrated, with the mind consciousness and manas focused on the corresponding dharma; the feeling mental factor may appear less frequently than at other times, as the mind is occupied with calculating and pondering the problem at hand. During the process of deliberation, if one happens upon imagery to which the manas is particularly sensitive, the feeling mental factor may arise; this feeling is a mental stirring and sensation, not a feeling caused by changes in the external six sense objects. The feeling mental factor originally means to receive, accept, and take in, because if the problem is not taken in and accepted, one cannot continue thinking about it, and thus cannot exercise volition (cetanā), cannot arrive at the final result of volition, cannot make decisions and engage in subsequent actions, and even less can wisdom arise.

Throughout the processes of perception and volition, the concentration mental factor (samādhi) is always present in accompaniment. There is also the determination mental factor (adhimokṣa); determination should mean having correctly understood the general meaning of the dharma, that is, grasping the general idea, being able to derive a relatively reasonable answer, view, notion, or conclusion regarding the dharma under consideration. During the process of deliberation, the desire mental factor (chanda), the mindfulness mental factor (smṛti), and the concentration mental factor also appear. The desire mental factor is the wish to deliberate, driving the sixth and seventh consciousnesses to deliberate, to select words and compose phrases; after determination, mindfulness of the meaning of the words is formed, and focusing on the deliberation is the merit of the concentration mental factor.