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Mind and Mental Factors

Mind vs Mental Factors

Maitreya's Discrimination of the Middle and the Extremes (Madhyantavibhaga, stanza 1.8cd) says:
That which sees an object is a primary consciousness.
That which sees its attribute is a mental factor.

Consciousness

Clear and knowing

  • clear = non-physical, intangible
  • knowing = knows objects

Helpful analogies: clear glass, mirror

Synonymous:

  • awareness
  • knower
  • consciousness

Six Primary Consciousness

  1. Eye primary consciousness
  2. Ear primary consciousness
  3. Nose primary consciousness
  4. Tongue primary consciousness
  5. Body primary consciousness
  6. Mental primary consciousness

These primary consciousnesses are differentiated by their respective uncommon empowering condition (e.g. sense power - eye sense power (not the eye ball, but the subtle physical faculty within the eye ball), ear sense power, nose sense power, tongue sense power, tactile sense power, and mental sense power).

Their main focal object respectively are forms (colour and shape), sounds, smells, tastes, tactile, and phenomena.

3 Conditions for a consciousness to arise

  1. Focal condition
    • The main observed object that is the condition for production of that mind
  2. Uncommon empowering condition
    • The sense power that supports its production
  3. Immediately preceding condition
    • The immeditately prior moment of consciousness

Mind Synonyms

  • sentience (aka "mind")
  • main mind
  • primary consciousness

Main Mind

A knower distinguished by mere observation of the object itself and does not need to be posited in terms of the other attributes.

Mental Factor

A knower that, taking the observation of that very object as its basis, engages the object by means of the isolates of other attributes.

Five similarities

  • Mind and mental factors are a single entity

Just as it has been said above, [a main mind and its mental factors] arise together simultaneously. Not being different entities, they are the same entity.

These apply to a mind and mental factors that are the same entity:

  1. similar support
    • both arise from same sense power
  2. similar object of observation
    • both observe the same object of observation
  3. similar [subjective] aspect
    • both are generated in the same aspect
  4. similar time
    • both arise, abide and cease simultaneously
  5. similar substance
    • both produced together as the same substance

Divisions of Mental Factors

There are 51 mental factors presented in the text:

  • 5 opmnipresent mental factors
  • 5 object ascertaining mental factors
  • 11 virtuous mental factors
  • 6 root afflictions
  • 20 secondary afflictions
  • 4 changeable mental factors