The Mental Factors of the Sixth Consciousness Differ Among Sentient Beings

The mental factors (caittas) of the mind consciousness are, on the one hand, influenced by the perfuming of 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 and directed by the manas, with no autonomy whatsoever. As one gradually grows up, one is increasingly influenced 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 is born with both heavy wholesome and unwholesome habits, then it is not easy for the environment to influence them: 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 cases, the operative force of the manas appears 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 corresponds to the fifty-one mental factors, but not everyone's sixth consciousness fully possesses all fifty-one; some mental factors do not become manifest, while others become manifest when the requisite 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 the quality of his character is quite vile.

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 each differ, and their emphases differ as well. In particular, the sixth consciousness mental factors of non-Buddhist ordinary beings who possess the four dhyānas and eight samāpattis are markedly fewer than fifty-one. For bodhisattvas of the three stages of wisdom (śrāvaka-vimukta... the three virtuous stages) before passing the final barrier (mokṣa-vajra-pāda, "tight barrier"), and for those of the first and second fruits, the mental factors must certainly 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 a person of the fourth fruit, all the root affliction mental factors have been extinguished, and both the great and intermediate derivative afflictions have been extinguished; the minor derivative afflictions still remain, only lightened. For a person of the third fruit, among the root afflictions, conceit (māna) and delusion (moha) have not yet been extinguished, but are markedly much lighter; the great and intermediate derivative afflictions have been extinguished, the minor derivative afflictions still remain, and their habituated tendencies are heavier than those of a fourth-fruit person.

For bodhisattvas who have passed the final barrier and post-bhūmi bodhisattvas, the mental factors are roughly the same as those of Hīnayāna practitioners of the third and fourth fruits. The only difference is 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 habituated tendencies, the mind consciousness has even less. After the eighth bhūmi, the mental factors of the bodhisattva's sixth consciousness preliminarily correspond to the twenty-one mental factors—the five universal factors, the five particular factors, and the eleven wholesome factors—but they are not fully possessed; only at the buddha stage can they be completely possessed.