The Mental Factors Inherent in Deliberation

The term "tuiqiao" (deliberating and weighing) originates from an anecdote about the Tang dynasty poet Jiadao composing poetry; it originally described Jiadao's manner of thinking and state of effort in 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, while his body and hands simultaneously gestured along with the deliberation. At first, the mind consciousness deliberated and examined (vitarka-vicāra), gradually transitioning to the manas's deliberation and examination; the manas's deliberation and examination is extremely subtle and hidden, so much so that the mind consciousness seems motionless and without thought, just like investigating Chan.

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

During attention, the mind is relatively concentrated, with the mind consciousness and manas focused on the corresponding dharma; the mental factor of feeling may appear less than at other times, as the mind is busy calculating and pondering the problem. During the process of deliberation, if one touches upon images to which the manas is particularly sensitive, the mental factor of feeling may arise; this feeling is a mental stirring and sensation, not a feeling caused by changes in the external six sense objects. The mental factor of feeling originally means to receive, accept, and take in, because if the problem is not taken in and accepted, one cannot continue thinking about it, cannot deliberate, cannot have the final result of volition, cannot have decision-making and subsequent actions, and even less can wisdom arise.

Throughout the processes of perception and volition, the mental factor of meditative concentration (samādhi) is always present. There is also the mental factor of determination (adhimokṣa); determination should be a correct understanding of the general meaning of the dharma, that is, grasping the general idea, being able to derive relatively reasonable answers, views, concepts, and conclusions regarding the dharma being pondered. During the process of deliberation, the mental factors of desire (chanda), mindfulness (smṛti), and meditative concentration (samādhi) also appear: the mental factor of desire is the wish to deliberate, driving the sixth and seventh consciousnesses to deliberate, to select words and compose sentences; after determination, the mental factor of mindfulness forms regarding the meaning of the words; focusing on the deliberation is the merit of the mental factor of meditative concentration.