Mental Factors of Mind Consciousness

The mental factors (caittas) of the mind consciousness are, on the one hand, influenced and perfumed by the mental factors of the manas, and on the other hand, transformed through the perfuming of the environment. At birth, the mental factors of the mind consciousness are entirely influenced by the manas, directed by the manas, with no autonomy whatsoever. As one gradually grows up, one is increasingly perfumed by the surrounding environment—such as parents, relatives, playmates, school education, television, the internet, and so on. In this way, a child who is innately kind may gradually pick up bad habits, or a child with innately bad habits may gradually become well-behaved—this is the effect of environmental perfuming. If a child's innate wholesome and unwholesome habits are both very strong, then it is not easy for the child to be influenced by the environment: a good child remains a good child and will not turn bad; a bad child remains a bad child and will not turn good. In such a case, the force of the manas appears to be quite considerable. On yet another hand, the mental factors of the mind consciousness can in turn influence and perfume the manas; after the manas has been perfumed, the karmic seeds change, the karmic force is turned around, and the retributive results undergo change.

The mind consciousness of ordinary beings (pṛthagjana) corresponds to the fifty-one mental factors, but not everyone's sixth consciousness fully possesses all fifty-one; some mental factors do not manifest, while others manifest when the conditions are complete. In some people, the afflictive mental factors manifest more, and the wholesome mental factors manifest less; a person in whom the afflictive mental factors are fully and completely manifest has extremely heavy afflictions and quite poor moral character.

The mental factors of sentient beings' sixth consciousness number at most fifty-one, and can be fewer than fifty-one. When they are reduced to only twenty-one, that is a bodhisattva of the eighth bhūmi or above; when the twenty-one mental factors are fully and completely possessed, one has completely transformed consciousness into wisdom and attained buddhahood. Therefore, sentient beings' mental factors differ from one another, with different emphases; in particular, the sixth consciousness mental factors of non-Buddhist ordinary beings who possess the four dhyānas and eight samādhis are clearly fewer than fifty-one. For bodhisattvas of the three stages of preparation (śubhās) before passing the final barrier (laoguan), and for those of the first and second fruits, the mental factors must necessarily be reduced—mainly, the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) among the root afflictions is gone, and the great derivative afflictions are also reduced and lightened. For those of the fourth fruit, all the root afflictions have been extinguished, and both the great and intermediate derivative afflictions have been extinguished, while the minor derivative afflictions still remain, only lightened. For those of the third fruit, among the root afflictions, pride and delusion have not yet been extinguished, but are clearly much lightened; the great and intermediate derivative afflictions have been extinguished, the minor derivative afflictions still remain, and their habitual tendencies are heavier than those of fourth-fruit persons.

For bodhisattvas who have passed the final barrier and for post-bhūmi bodhisattvas, the mental factors are roughly the same as those of Hīnayāna third- and fourth-fruit persons, except that for post-bhūmi bodhisattvas, the minor derivative afflictions gradually lighten and diminish beginning from the first bhūmi and are all extinguished before entering the eighth bhūmi. If the manas has no afflictions or habitual tendencies, the mind consciousness has even less. For bodhisattvas after the eighth bhūmi, the mental factors of the sixth consciousness initially correspond to the twenty-one mental factors—the five universal factors, the five object-specific factors, and the eleven wholesome factors—but they are not fully possessed; only at the buddha stage can they be completely possessed.