The Five Object-Specific Mental Factors Cannot Manifest Universally

If one cultivates meditative concentration without subduing the manas, the manas will chase after objects everywhere, the mind will be scattered and distracted, and there will be no concentration. The five specific mental factors indicate that the functions of the consciousness-mind are powerful and its discernment is strong. When bodhisattvas on the bhūmis eliminate afflictions, and the manas and mind consciousness undergo the transformation of consciousness into wisdom, the mental factors change: some afflictive mental factors are removed, and the eleven wholesome mental factors increase. The specific mental factors appear individually and separately, not at all times. No matter how far sentient beings progress in cultivation, the specific mental factors always manifest as specific factors, arising only at particular times and in particular states; they cannot manifest universally and constantly. For the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of certain bhūmis and above, however, their determination (adhimokṣa), meditative concentration, and wisdom appear at all times and in all places.

If the specific mental factors manifested universally, the mind would be busy and chaotic—desires at every moment, thoughts in every place—and the mind could not be at peace, except for the mental factor of meditative concentration. The manas cannot always have desires, cannot always have thoughts; otherwise there would be no concentration. When the manas constantly possesses determination, that wisdom is extraordinarily vast and profound—roughly at the level of the eighth bhūmi and above—but bodhisattvas at the ninth and tenth bhūmis still have ignorance and delusion that have not been completely eliminated. The mind consciousness and the five sense consciousnesses also cannot always have the five specific mental factors; they cannot always discern objects, cannot always have mindfulness, cannot always have desires. Otherwise the mind would be tangled like hemp and the power of concentration would vanish. Nor can the profound concentrations of the second dhyāna and above be constantly present; otherwise sentient beings in the desire realm could not live normal lives.

At the Buddha-stage, all eight consciousnesses possess twenty-one mental factors. The undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna) has mental factors exactly identical to those of the mind consciousness, the manas, and the five sense consciousnesses—this is beyond imagination. The mental factors of an ordinary person's mind consciousness correspond with all fifty-one mental factors, but not necessarily all fifty-one can manifest. Apart from the five universal mental factors, the other mental factors manifest intermittently, and some mental factors never get the chance to manifest. Among the fifty-one mental factors, afflictive mental factors make up the majority. If the mental factors do not change, this person has no real cultivation at all, and cultivation would be meaningless. The transformation of consciousness into wisdom is precisely the transformation of the consciousness-mind's mental factors: the unwholesome are removed, and the wholesome are increased and strengthened. Once cultivation achieves some accomplishment, this is the result.