What Are the Mental Sense-Objects That the Mind Consciousness Takes as Its Object?

Among the fifty-one mental factors (caittas), the wholesome mental factors, the afflictive mental factors, and so forth are associated not only with the mind consciousness but also with the manas. The mental sense-objects (dharmas) cognized by the mind consciousness include material mental sense-objects, mental mental sense-objects, and also mental sense-objects that are neither material nor mental—the twenty-four formations dissociated from mind (citta-viprayukta-saṃskāra).

Material mental sense-objects are related to form; form is formed from the seeds of the four great elements, and whatever is related to the seeds of the four great elements belongs to material mental sense-objects. Whatever is related to the seeds of consciousness, related to the eight consciousnesses, or related to the mental factors belongs to mental mental sense-objects; apart from these is the mental sense-object that is neither material nor mental. When the mind consciousness takes as its object mental mental sense-objects such as its own afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, this belongs to the mind consciousness's power of introspection—it is the self-validating cognition (sva-saṃvitti-saṃvitti-bhāga) of the mind consciousness. When the mind consciousness observes the mental factors of other consciousnesses, this belongs to the perceiving-aspect and the self-cognition (svasaṃvitti); in both cases, the objects cognized are mental mental sense-objects.