Mental Factors Are the Mind King's Mental Activities

When the seeds of consciousness flow out, they form the substance of the mind-king (citta-rāja). The substance of the mind-king is pure, because the seeds of consciousness are pure. The seeds of consciousness have no defiled nature, nor any wholesome or unwholesome nature; but when they combine with the mental factors (caittas) and operate in the form of mental factors, wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral mental activities appear. Therefore, the mental activities of the eight consciousnesses as mind-kings and the mental activities of the mental factors are in fact one and the same: the mental factors are precisely the mental activities of the mind-kings. When the eight consciousnesses as mind-kings operate, they operate in the form of mental factors, especially in the form of the five universally present mental factors (sarvatraga-caittas).