The Mental Factors (Caittas) Contained in Deliberation

The term "tuiqiao" (deliberating and weighing) originates from an anecdote about the Tang dynasty poet Jia Dao composing poetry; it originally described Jia Dao's manner of thinking and state of diligent effort in selecting words and phrases while composing poems. In order to find the right words, the poet continually searched in his mind for expressions that would convey the artistic conception the poem was meant to express, with body and hands simultaneously gesturing the deliberation. At first, the mind consciousness deliberates and examines (vitarka-vicāra), and gradually this transitions to the manas deliberating and examining. 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 Jia Dao was pondering and weighing his words and phrases, what mental factors (caittas) arose? There were the five universal mental factors and the five particular mental factors, and perhaps also wholesome mental factors and afflictive mental factors. When deliberating, one must first raise the mental factor of attention (manaskāra) toward the object being deliberated, directing the mind onto the dharma to be deliberated; the mental factor of contact (sparśa) arises, and the mind contacts the dharma to be deliberated; the mental factor of feeling (vedanā) arises, 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) arises, continually deliberating on this dharma until finally it is thoroughly understood and determined, and then subsequent actions follow. When gesturing the motions of pushing and knocking with the hands, the five universal mental factors of the five sense consciousnesses and the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses (pañcavijñāna-sahagata-manovijñāna) also arise.

During attention (manaskāra), the mind is relatively concentrated, with the mind consciousness and manas focused on the corresponding dharma; the arising of the mental factor of feeling may be less frequent than at other times, as the mind is busy calculating and pondering the problem. During the process of deliberation, if one happens upon images to which the manas is especially sensitive, the mental factor of feeling may arise; this feeling is a mental stirring and inner 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 exercise volition (cetanā), cannot arrive at the final result of volition, cannot make a decision and engage in subsequent actions, and still 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 mean having correctly understood the general meaning of the dharma—that is, grasping the gist, being able to derive a relatively reasonable answer, view, concept, and conclusion 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 and to select words and compose phrases; after determination, the mental factor of mindfulness (smṛti) forms regarding the meaning of the words; and focusing on the deliberation is the merit of the mental factor of meditative concentration.