The Mental Factors of the Eighth Consciousness

The mental factors of the eighth consciousness of sentient beings include the five universal mental factors: mental engagement (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 a 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-harm. It does not have the twenty-six afflictive mental factors, nor the four indeterminate mental factors. The Buddha's eighth consciousness has the five universal mental factors, the five object-specific mental factors, and the eleven wholesome mental factors, 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 by moment, never departing from it even for an instant. Because the eighth consciousness is constantly operating upon all dharmas—discerning karmic seeds, discerning the five-aggregate body, discerning the material world (bhājana-loka), and 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 mental engagement (manaskāra), the eighth consciousness directs attention to all the dharmas it discerns, directing 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; afterward, as it discerns the received dharmas, the appearances of those dharmas arise in its mind. This differs greatly from the dharma-appearances arising in the minds of the seven consciousnesses: the eighth consciousness does not have the appearances of worldly dharmas, and the specific appearances of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and mental objects do not appear, but it will certainly discern the distribution and operation of the six great seeds within the dharmas; afterward, the mental factor of volition (cetanā) of the eighth consciousness arises, deciding how to bring forth the corresponding dharmas or change the corresponding dharmas. By regulating and outputting the six great seeds, it causes the phenomena of arising, ceasing, and change of dharmas to appear.

In the eighth consciousness's discernment of the seventh consciousness, the manas, it mainly discerns the mental factors of the manas and the dispersion and concentration of the consciousness seeds, and thereby knows what dharmas the seventh consciousness is attending to and what it wishes to do. When the karmic seeds permit, the eighth consciousness will satisfy the desires and intentions 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-aggregate 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 it engage in any activity—this process is determination. If it cannot correctly interpret these dharmas, then it cannot subsequently produce and change all dharmas reasonably and in accordance with reality.

For example, after the eighth consciousness discerns the decisions of the manas's mental factor of volition, it can correctly and accurately know what the manas's decisions are, and only by accepting and trusting the manas's decisions can it create and transform dharmas in accordance with the manas's intentions. If the eighth consciousness could not properly determine the manas's intentions, it would bring forth and change dharmas in a confused and erroneous way, and could not normally cooperate with the manas, and the world would fall into chaos.

Another example: when the eighth consciousness discerns karmic seeds and can properly determine what the karmic seeds are, it will know how to bring forth dharmas in accordance with those karmic seeds. If it could not properly determine what the karmic seeds are, it could not produce dharmas normally, and the whole world would be thrown into great disorder. For instance, if a karmic seed indicates that a person should have a car accident, but the eighth consciousness fails to discern it correctly and cannot properly determine this information—so that not only does the car accident not occur, but the person's illness is eliminated, or he is promoted and becomes wealthy—then cause and effect could not be realized as they truly are; good would receive no good retribution and evil no evil retribution, and the world would be abnormal. Therefore it is said that the eighth consciousness certainly possesses the mental factor of determination (adhimokṣa).

To accept (忍可) means to acknowledge, to accord with and not oppose. The patience with non-arising (无生忍) and the patience with the non-arising of dharmas (无生法忍) also carry this meaning: not resisting, but acknowledging and accepting. This is utterly different from the ordinary person's "endurance" of a knife over the heart (忍). The endurance of a knife over the heart involves a mind and a concept of forbearance; the patience with non-arising and the patience with the non-arising of dharmas are not like that, 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, nor can one appreciate His mental activities.

The eighth consciousness also has the mental factor of mindfulness (smṛti). For example, while in the mother's womb, the eighth consciousness discerns karmic seeds on the one hand, and on the other outputs the four great seeds to transform and generate the fetus's material body. Having discerned the karmic seeds, the mind can remember them, and outputs the corresponding four great seeds onto the material body according to those seeds. When the eighth consciousness transforms and generates the ears and other organs, as soon as it has created a little, the mind can remember how much it has created and what it has created, and it also considers how to continue creating in the next step, when to create what, how many four great seeds to use, and what the proportional structure should be—the mind has it all clearly in view. Having it clearly in view is precisely the mental factor of mindfulness; it is just that it cannot be articulated, not being as articulate as the mind consciousness. When the dharmas that the eighth consciousness is upholding and creating are not yet finished being created, He remembers when to continue creating them. When to create what, and in what place to create it—the eighth consciousness keeps all this in mind. He has these mindful intentions; 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 mental factor of meditative concentration (samādhi). "The Nāga is always in samādhi, with no time when he is not in samādhi," the great Śūraṅgama samādhi, the vajra jewel samādhi, and so forth—all of these speak of the samādhi of the eighth consciousness, which is extremely firm, with neither emerging nor entering. No dharma can destroy the eighth consciousness's samādhi, and no dharma can cause the eighth consciousness to emerge from samādhi, nor can any dharma make the eighth consciousness's mind scattered, drowsy, or restless. No worldly samādhi comes even to one ten-thousandth of the eighth consciousness's samādhi. When the eighth consciousness intends to realize wholesome and unwholesome karmic seeds and to realize causes, conditions, and their retributions, no dharma can stop Him; He is not subject to coercion or enticement—unmoved by the eight winds, seated at ease upon the purple-gold lotus. Among all dharmas worldly and transcendent, the eighth consciousness does not cling to or pursue any, touches no benefit whatsoever, and does not even wish to become a Buddha—without desire and without seeking, His power of concentration is like a vajra.

The eighth consciousness also has the mental factor of wisdom (prajñā). 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 submerged 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 of discerning karmic seeds as they truly are, and its wisdom of transmitting the six great seeds in accordance with the karmic seeds to create all dharmas bit by bit or to create them rapidly—even if the sixth and seventh consciousnesses were to become a Buddha, they would still fall far short of it.

The great wisdom of the eighth consciousness, which knows the states of all dharmas as they truly are, can never be matched by the sixth and seventh consciousnesses no matter what. Perhaps the wisdom of the Buddha's sixth and seventh consciousnesses can deliberate exhaustively, yet it still cannot compare with the wisdom of the eighth consciousness. With that unsurpassable Śūraṅgama samādhi and that supreme great wisdom of the eighth consciousness, at one and the same time He can universally attend to all dharmas and also process all dharmas at the same time; regardless of near or far, ancient or modern, He can bless and process them without any obstruction of time and space. Therefore the eighth consciousness possesses both samādhi and wisdom, which the samādhi and wisdom of the seven consciousnesses can in no way match, and which surpasses even the imagination of pre-bhūmi bodhisattvas (pūrvabhūmika bodhisattva).