The Mental Factors of the Eighth Consciousness (Ālayavijñāna)

The mental factors (caittas) of sentient beings' eighth consciousness include the five universal mental factors: attention (manaskāra), contact (sparśa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā), and volition (cetanā); the five object-specific mental factors: determination (adhimokṣa), mindfulness (smṛti), meditative concentration (samādhi), and wisdom (prajñā) (whether there is the mental factor of desire still remains to be observed); and the wholesome mental factors: faith, non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion, diligence, tranquility, equanimity of volitional formations, and non-harmfulness. There are no twenty-six afflictive mental factors, and no four indeterminate mental factors. The Buddha's eighth consciousness has the mental factors of the five universals, the five object-specifics, and the eleven wholesomes, without afflictive mental factors or indeterminate mental factors (their specific operations cannot be observed at present).

The five universal mental factors of the eighth consciousness accompany the operation of the eighth consciousness moment after moment, never separating even for an instant. Because the eighth consciousness is constantly operating upon all dharmas—discerning karmic seeds, discerning the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) body, discerning the material world (bhājana-loka), discerning the mental activities of the manas—whatever dharmas the eighth consciousness manifests, the eighth consciousness can discern them all; thus the five universal mental factors will always accompany the operation of the eighth consciousness.

As for the mental factor of attention (manaskāra), the eighth consciousness directs its attention to all the dharmas it discerns, inclining the mind toward the dharmas to be discerned; next it makes contact with the dharmas to be discerned; then it receives the dharmas it is contacting; after that, having discerned the received dharmas, the appearances of those dharmas will arise in the mind. This differs greatly from the dharma-appearances arising in the minds of the seven consciousnesses: the eighth consciousness will not have the appearances of worldly dharmas, will not manifest the specific appearances of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or mental objects, but it will certainly discern the distribution and operation of the six great seeds within the dharmas; afterward, the volition (cetanā) mental factor of the eighth consciousness arises, deciding how to give birth to corresponding dharmas or change corresponding dharmas. By regulating and outputting the six great seeds, it causes the phenomena of arising, ceasing, and change to appear in dharmas.

The eighth consciousness's discernment of the seventh consciousness, the manas, mainly discerns the manas's mental factors, discerning the dispersal and concentration of the consciousness seeds, and thereby knows what dharmas the seventh consciousness is attending to and how it wishes to act. When the karmic seeds permit, the eighth consciousness will satisfy the desires and thoughts of the seventh consciousness.

Among the five object-specific mental factors, the eighth consciousness possesses the mental factor of determination (adhimokṣa). After the eighth consciousness has discerned the karmic seeds, the five aggregates body, the material world, and the mental activities of the manas, it can accurately know these dharmas and cognize them reasonably, and the mind can accept and accord with them; only afterward can there be any activity. This process is determination (adhimokṣa). If it cannot correctly interpret these dharmas, then it cannot subsequently generate and change all dharmas reasonably and truthfully.

For example, after the eighth consciousness discerns the decision of the manas's volition mental factor, it can correctly and accurately know what the manas's decision is, and only by acknowledging and trusting the manas's decision can it accord with the manas's intentions to transform and create dharmas. If the eighth consciousness could not determine (adhimokṣa) the manas's intentions, it would give birth to and change dharmas in a chaotic, erroneous way, and could not normally cooperate with the manas, and the world would fall into chaos.

Another example: the eighth consciousness has discerned the karmic seeds and can determine (adhimokṣa) what the karmic seeds are, and thus knows how to give birth to dharmas in accordance with the karmic seeds. If it could not determine what the karmic seeds are, it could not normally produce dharmas, and the world would be thrown into great disorder. For instance, if the karmic seeds indicate that this person should have a car accident, but the eighth consciousness cannot correctly discern and cannot determine (adhimokṣa) this information—so that not only does the car accident not occur, but the person's illness is eliminated, or he gets promoted and becomes wealthy—then cause and effect cannot be realized truthfully: good would have no good retribution, evil no evil retribution, and the world would be abnormal. Therefore it is said that the eighth consciousness definitely has the mental factor of determination (adhimokṣa).

Acceptance (kṣānti) means acknowledgment, meaning to accord with and not oppose. The patience of non-arising and the patience of non-arising dharmas (anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti) also carry this meaning: not resisting, but acknowledging. This is utterly different from the ordinary person's "patience" of a knife over the heart. The patience of a knife over the heart involves a mind and concept of forbearance; the patience of non-arising and the patience of non-arising dharmas are not like this, and the eighth consciousness's acceptance is even less so. Without realizing the eighth consciousness, one cannot truly understand the difference between the eighth consciousness and the minds of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, and cannot fathom His mental activities.

The eighth consciousness also has the mindfulness (smṛti) mental factor. For example, while in the womb, the eighth consciousness discerns the karmic seeds on the one hand, and on the other outputs the four great seeds to transform into the fetus's material body. Having discerned the karmic seeds, the mind can remember them, and according to the karmic seeds outputs the corresponding four great seeds onto the material body. When the eighth consciousness transforms and generates the ears and other organs, as it creates a little, the mind can remember how much it has created and what it has created, and it thinks about how to create further in the next step, when to create what, how many four great seeds to use, and what the proportional structure should be—the mind keeps track of all this. Keeping track in the mind is precisely the mindfulness (smṛti) mental factor; it simply cannot be articulated, being merely not as eloquent as the mind consciousness. Whatever dharmas the eighth consciousness is upholding and creating that are not yet finished, He will remember when to continue creating them, when to create what, and in what place to create it. The eighth consciousness thinks of all this, and His mind keeps track. He has these mindful thoughts; all dharmas are brought forth by the mindfulness of the eighth consciousness, just as the Sixth Patriarch said: 真如无念无不念。

The eighth consciousness also has the meditative concentration (samādhi) mental factor. "The nāga is always in samādhi, with no time not in samādhi," the great Śūraṅgama samādhi, the vajra jewel samādhi, and so forth—all of these speak of the eighth consciousness's samādhi, which is extremely solid, with neither exiting nor entering. No dharma can destroy the eighth consciousness's samādhi, and no dharma can cause the eighth consciousness to leave samādhi, nor can any dharma make the eighth consciousness's mind scattered, drowsy (styāna), or restless (auddhatya). No worldly samādhi comes anywhere near even one ten-thousandth of the eighth consciousness's samādhi. If the eighth consciousness intends to realize wholesome and unwholesome karmic seeds and to realize cause, condition, and retribution, no dharma can stop Him. He is not subject to coercion or enticement—"unmoved by the eight winds, seated upright on the purple-gold lotus." Among all dharmas, worldly and beyond-worldly, the eighth consciousness does not cling or seek; He touches no benefit whatsoever, does not even wish to become a Buddha—without desire, without seeking, His power of samādhi like a vajra.

The eighth consciousness also has the wisdom (prajñā) mental factor. The wisdom of the eighth consciousness is called prajñāpāramitā—the great wisdom that can reach the farther shore of birth-and-death, the great wisdom that can avoid being immersed in birth-and-death and be liberated from all dharmas, the great wisdom that can discern all dharmas and create all dharmas. The eighth consciousness's wisdom to truthfully discern karmic seeds, and its wisdom to output the six great seeds according to the karmic seeds—gradually transforming or swiftly transforming all dharmas—even if the sixth and seventh consciousnesses were to become a Buddha, they could still come nowhere near it.

The great wisdom of the eighth consciousness, which truthfully knows the states of all dharmas, can never be matched by the sixth and seventh consciousnesses no matter what. Even the wisdom of the Buddha's sixth and seventh consciousnesses, though perhaps able to deliberate (manasikāra) exhaustively, still cannot compare with the wisdom of the eighth consciousness. That incomparable great Śūraṅgama samādhi, that unsurpassed great wisdom of the eighth consciousness—can at the same time universally attend to all dharmas, and also at the same time process all dharmas; whether far or near, ancient or modern, without any obstruction of time and space, it can bless and process them all. Therefore the eighth consciousness has both samādhi and wisdom, which the samādhi and wisdom of the seven consciousnesses can by no means match, and which surpasses the imagination of pre-bhūmi bodhisattvas (pūrvabhūmika bodhisattva).