The Five Specifically Investigated Mental Factors

Concentration, wisdom, and the power of decisive understanding are mental factors of the discerning mind, representing its functions. They belong to the category of the five object-specific mental factors. For the seventh consciousness, these manifest distinctly and intermittently, not continuously. What manifests continuously are the five universal mental factors. However, the seventh consciousness of all Buddhas and great bodhisattvas continuously possesses concentration, wisdom, and the power of decisive understanding everywhere. The five object-specific mental factors are not always manifest, yet they can be continuously manifest. The concentration, wisdom, and power of decisive understanding of the Tathāgatagarbha, however, manifest continuously and everywhere, even in the state of nirvana without residue.

One can observe and understand that the concentration power of the Tathāgatagarbha is exceptionally profound. In the functioning of all dharmas, regardless of the circumstances encountered, it remains unmoving and unshaken — like a steadfast mountain, unbending even under immense pressure. Regardless of right or wrong, it remains indifferent and unattached, operating spontaneously according to established principles. The Buddha described it as the great samādhi of Śūraṅgama, which neither enters nor exits concentration. It is immovable and unshakable in all dharmas, matchless, like a true treasure mountain. In the nirvana without residue, if the Tathāgatagarbha lacked concentration, it would become scattered. Yet since the Tathāgatagarbha is the great Śūraṅgama samādhi — neither entering nor exiting — it remains perpetually in samādhi. How could it be scattered or lack concentration?

What of the wisdom power of the Tathāgatagarbha? Even in the nirvana without residue, it must continuously discern karmic seeds. If the Tathāgatagarbha lacked wisdom and the power of decisive understanding, it would not know what the karmic seeds are or whether they have ripened. Consequently, arhats would never emerge from nirvana to possess the manas and the five-aggregate body. The wisdom of the Tathāgatagarbha neither increases nor decreases; it eternally possesses the great prajñā wisdom, capable of discerning all dharmas, creating all dharmas, and sustaining all dharmas. In the nirvana without residue, dharmas still exist for the Tathāgatagarbha to face, so its mental factors remain present.

If, when the Tathāgatagarbha gives rise to the ear faculty, the five-aggregate body, or all dharmas, its concentration power were suddenly insufficient, its wisdom power inadequate, and it failed to recognize the nature of karmic seeds, what would be the result? The consequence might be that the Tathāgatagarbha, through inadvertence, transmits an insufficient quantity of the four great elements, misconfigures their proportional structure, or delivers incorrect seeds. The resulting dharmas would then be mismatched — everything would be distorted, and the world would fall into chaos. If the Tathāgatagarbha lacked the utmost power of decisive understanding and could not comprehend the intentions of the manas, what would happen? No dharma would arise reasonably or as intended. The aspirations of sentient beings would be rendered useless, all thoughts would be ineffectual, and the five-aggregate world would become disordered.