The Mental Factors of the Seventh Consciousness Are Transformed with Practice

The mental factors (caittas) are the mental activities of the conscious mind. Through continuous study and practice, and through continuously subduing one's own mind, the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses will continuously transform: deep and heavy afflictions turn into mild afflictions, and mild afflictions gradually disappear. Wholesome mental factors will become more numerous and stronger, the mental activities will become increasingly pure, meditative concentration (samādhi) will become increasingly stable and strong, and wisdom will become increasingly deep and penetrating. Therefore, through continuous practice, the mental factors will continuously undergo transformation. If one has practiced for a period of time but the mental factors have not changed at all, the afflictions have not become milder, meditative concentration has not arisen, and wisdom has not advanced, then the practice is not effective.

The mark of whether a Buddhist practitioner achieves accomplishment lies in the mental factors. When practice truly reaches accomplishment, the afflictive mental factors of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses will decrease and be eliminated, the wholesome mental factors will increase and become complete, and the functions of the five object-specific mental factors will also increase and become complete. When one practices all the way to the buddha stage, the eight consciousnesses will be fully endowed with twenty-one mental factors, with their functions brought to the utmost. A true Buddhist practitioner should, at every stage, observe his own mental factors—that is, introspect his own mind-ground. If he finds that his mind-ground has not changed much, it shows that his practice is still not effective, and perhaps he has not yet gotten on the right track. Each person's level of practice and progress differ, and so their mental factors differ, which shows that people's minds are all different. If someone claims that his mind consciousness has as many as fifty-one mental factors, while the afflictive mental factors of the manas remain as many and as heavy as before, then such a person is still a beginner in Buddhism, with extremely heavy afflictions and very poor moral character.

Generally, the mental factors discussed in the treatises on bodhisattvas refer to the mental factors of the eight consciousnesses of ordinary beings and bodhisattvas who have not yet accomplished the transformation of the basis, not to the mental factors of the eight consciousnesses of post-bhūmi bodhisattvas (bhūmika bodhisattva) who have already accomplished the transformation of the basis. These mental factors must all undergo transformation through continuous practice; only then does it represent accomplishment in practice, only then can one transform the consciousnesses into wisdom, and only then can the path to buddhahood gradually approach perfection. The transformation of the mental factors is the mark of accomplishment in practice.

In fact, even before reaching the stage of transformation of the basis and attaining the bhūmis—that is, after making some progress in practicing Buddhism—the mental factors of the several consciousnesses are already quietly transforming; it is only that the accumulated quantity is not yet sufficient to bring about a qualitative leap. The mental factors are a mark of whether a person has practiced or not. Even when non-Buddhists attain meditative concentration, the mental factors of their seven consciousnesses will also undergo some transformation. The mental factors are not fixed and unchanging, nor are they identical in everyone. Even among sentient beings who have not yet begun to practice, the mental factors of their conscious minds are not entirely the same; each has its own emphasis. Therefore, this person's direct perception of his own mental factors is like this, while that person's direct perception of his own mental factors is like that—not necessarily the same. This shows that human natures each have their differences, and people's minds are not all alike.

If someone, through direct perception, observes that the mental factors of his sixth consciousness include the six root afflictions of greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, doubt, and wrong view/false view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi), as well as eight universal afflictions, two intermediate afflictions, and ten minor afflictions, then such a person has no practice whatsoever—neither meditative concentration nor good moral cultivation. Ordinary people cannot directly perceive the mental factors of their seventh consciousness; but if one could directly perceive that the mental factors of one's seventh consciousness include intense greed, hatred, and delusion, as well as laziness, distraction, lack of faith, forgetfulness, restlessness, incorrect knowledge, non-diligence, torpor, strong self-grasping, deep and heavy arrogance, deep and heavy greedy attachment, a strong view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), and a tendency toward seeking out objects of attachment, all stubborn and hard to change, then such a person has no practice at all, and meditative concentration would also be very difficult to develop.

If this person's seventh-consciousness mental factors do not correspond at all with the eleven wholesome mental factors, then his practice has not gotten on track at all; his afflictions are very heavy, and he may even be an evil person. Even ordinary people who have not studied Buddhism have a wholesome side to the manas's mental factors; if the wholesome outweighs the unwholesome, such a person can ascend to the heavens after death and enjoy blessings. The transmigration through the six realms is determined by the wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of the manas's mental factors: if the manas is mentally wholesome and performs wholesome karma, one will ascend to the heavens in the next life; if the manas is unwholesome and commits evil karma, one will fall into hell in the next life. From this we can know that bodhisattvas at the stage of transformation of the basis after the first bhūmi, having eradicated afflictions and reached an untainted mind-ground, must necessarily undergo transformation in the mental factors of their sixth and seventh consciousnesses: the afflictive mental factors are eliminated, the wholesome mental factors increase, and the meditative-concentration mental factors and wisdom mental factors are strengthened. This is absolutely inevitable; otherwise they would be no different from ordinary beings.

When practice becomes effective, the universal afflictions are the first to lessen, and some of them are to be eliminated. For example, the mental factor of non-faith lessens and is eliminated, going from non-faith gradually to faith, and finally to complete faith; the mental factor of laziness lessens and is eliminated, and one gradually becomes diligent; the mental factor of non-diligence lessens and is eliminated—whereas before one often indulged one's body and mind in pleasure and idle amusement, now one has no interest in such things; the mental factor of torpor rarely appears anymore—before, one would feel drowsy as soon as one began practicing, but now one's energy is vigorous and one's attention is highly focused; the mental factor of restlessness has also decreased and disappeared—before, when studying Buddhism, one's wandering thoughts flew about, but now, for things one has experienced, they pass without lingering, and one does not fantasize about the future either; before, the mind was always very scattered, but now when contemplating the Buddha's teachings, one can concentrate for a period of time; before, one had incorrect knowledge of the Four Noble Truths, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, and other Buddhist teachings, but now one's views are quite correct; before, one would forget the Buddha's teachings shortly after reciting them in one's mind, but now one can keep them constantly in mind without forgetfulness.

As practice deepens, the intermediate afflictions will also become mild, and may even be eliminated. For example, before, when one did wrong things, one always lacked shame and remorse; now the sense of shame and remorse gradually increases, and if one commits a major wrongdoing, one will feel deeply ashamed. From this we can see that only when the afflictive mental factors decrease and lessen can the wholesome mental factors correspondingly increase and strengthen; when the afflictive mental factors are eliminated, the wholesome mental factors appear.