The Five Specifically Investigated Mental Factors

Meditative concentration, wisdom, and the power of decisive understanding are mental factors of the conscious mind, and they are also the functions of the conscious mind. They belong to the category of the five object-specific mental factors. For the seventh consciousness, these manifest separately and intermittently, not constantly. What manifests constantly are the five universal mental factors. However, the seventh consciousness of all Buddhas and great bodhisattvas constantly and pervasively possesses meditative concentration, wisdom, and the power of decisive understanding. While the five object-specific mental factors are not always manifesting, they can be constantly manifesting. Yet, the meditative concentration, wisdom, and power of decisive understanding of the tathāgatagarbha are constantly and pervasively manifesting; even in the state of Nirvana without remainder, this is so.

How is the meditative power of the tathāgatagarbha? Through observation, one can know it is exceedingly powerful. In the operation of all dharmas, no matter what realms it encounters, it remains unmoving like thusness. Regardless of the winds from east, west, south, or north, it itself remains serene and unmoved. Even if Mount Tai were to press down upon it, its waist would not bend. No matter what is right or wrong, straight or crooked, it naturally pays no heed, operating spontaneously according to the established laws. The Buddha said it is the śūraṅgama samādhi. It never emerges from samādhi nor needs to enter samādhi. It is unmoving and unshaken in all dharmas, matchless, a true precious mountain. In Nirvana without remainder, if the tathāgatagarbha lacked meditative concentration, then the tathāgatagarbha would have a scattered mind. However, since the tathāgatagarbha is the śūraṅgama samādhi, neither emerging nor entering, it is forever not out of samādhi. How could it be scattered and without meditative concentration?

How is the wisdom power of the tathāgatagarbha? Even in Nirvana without remainder, it must constantly cognize karmic seeds. If the tathāgatagarbha lacked wisdom and the power of decisive understanding, it would not know what the karmic seeds are or whether they are mature. Then, Arhats would never be able to emerge from Nirvana and possess manas and the five-aggregate body. The wisdom of the tathāgatagarbha neither increases nor decreases; it eternally possesses the great wisdom of prajñā, capable of cognizing all dharmas, creating all dharmas, and upholding all dharmas. In Nirvana without remainder, there are still dharmas faced by the tathāgatagarbha; therefore, the mental factors of the tathāgatagarbha still exist.

If, when the tathāgatagarbha is giving birth to the ear faculty, giving birth to the five-aggregate body, or giving birth to all dharmas, its meditative power were suddenly insufficient, its wisdom power also insufficient, and it did not know what the karmic seeds were like, what would be the result? The result would be that the tathāgatagarbha, through a moment of carelessness, might deliver too few of the four great elements, get the proportional structure wrong, or deliver the wrong seeds. Then, the dharmas born would be like putting the wrong head on the right body; all dharmas would become unrecognizable, and the world would descend into chaos. If the tathāgatagarbha lacked an extremely powerful power of decisive understanding and did not comprehend the thoughts of manas, what would be the result? All dharmas would not appear reasonably or as wished. The vows of sentient beings would be useless, all thoughts would be useless, and the five-aggregate world would become abnormal.