Volition, and the First Half of the Fifty-One
The aggregate of formations is built on volition — the sixth body of contact-born activity — but volition is only the lead item in a much larger catalogue: every mental factor apart from feeling and perception (already their own aggregates) belongs here too, fifty-one in all. This part opens that catalogue: volition itself, the two universal factors, the five particular factors, and the eleven wholesome factors — the same fifty-one-factor system used throughout this site's Cheng Weishi Lun pages.
1. Six Bodies of Volition, and the Fifty-One Named
云何建立行蘊？謂六思身：眼觸所生思、耳觸所生思、鼻觸所生思、舌觸所生思、身觸所生思、意觸所生思。由此思故，思作諸善、思作雜染、思作分位差別。又即此思，除受及想，與餘心所法、心不相應行，總名行蘊。
How is the aggregate of formations established? As six bodies of volition: volition born of eye-contact, volition born of ear-contact, volition born of nose-contact, volition born of tongue-contact, volition born of body-contact, volition born of mental contact. Through this volition, one carries out wholesome action, carries out defiled action, and carries out the distinct occasions of action. This same volition, together with every mental factor other than feeling and perception, and together with the formations dissociated from mind, is collectively named the aggregate of formations.
何等名為餘心所法？謂作意、觸、欲、勝解、念、三摩地、慧、信、慚、愧、無貪、無瞋、無癡、勤、安、不放逸、捨、不害、貪、瞋、慢、無明、疑、薩迦耶見、邊執見、見取、戒禁取、邪見、忿、恨、覆、惱、嫉、慳、誑、諂、憍、害、無慚、無愧、惛沈、掉舉、不信、懈怠、放逸、忘念、不正知、散亂、睡眠、惡作、尋、伺。
What are the further mental factors? Attention, contact; aspiration, resolve, recollection, concentration, wisdom; faith, sense of shame, sense of embarrassment, non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion, diligence, pliancy, heedfulness, equanimity, non-harming; craving, hatred, conceit, delusion, doubt, the view of a substantial body, the extremist view, clinging to views, clinging to rules and rituals, wrong view; wrath, resentment, concealment, vexation, envy, stinginess, deceit, flattery, arrogance, harmfulness, lack of shame, lack of embarrassment, torpor, restlessness, lack of faith, laziness, heedlessness, forgetfulness, incorrect knowledge, distraction; sleep, regret, coarse discursive thought, subtle discursive thought.
This is the treatise's full roll call of the fifty-one mental factors, in the same six categories used throughout this site's Cheng Weishi Lun pages: two universal factors here (attention and contact — feeling, perception, and volition, the other three classical universals, are accounted for separately, as their own aggregates or as formations' own lead item), five particular factors, eleven wholesome factors, ten root afflictions (the treatise lists the five forms of wrong view separately rather than folding them into one item, which is why this list shows ten where the standard count gives six), twenty secondary afflictions, and four indeterminates. T1606 notes that volition is singled out as formations' representative, ahead of every other factor on this list, precisely because it is what drives the mind into action in the first place — every other formation, T1606 says, ultimately serves or accompanies this driving function, even though each also has its own distinct nature worth defining individually, which the rest of this part and the next now takes up term by term.
2. Volition, the Two Universal Factors, and the Five Particular Factors
何等為思？謂於心造作意業為體，於善不善無記品中役心為業。何等作意？謂發動心為體，於所緣境持心為業。何等為觸？謂依三和合諸根變異分別為體，受所依為業。
What is volition? Its nature is producing mental karma within the mind; its function is driving the mind into wholesome, unwholesome, or morally neutral activity.
What is attention? Its nature is setting the mind in motion; its function is holding the mind to its object.
What is contact? Its nature is the discriminating alteration of the faculties that occurs through the coming-together of the three — faculty, object, and consciousness; its function is serving as the basis for feeling.
何等為欲？謂於所樂事彼彼引發所作希望為體，正勤所依為業。何等勝解？謂於決定事隨所決定印持為體，不可引轉為業。何等為念？謂於串習事令心明記不忘為體，不散亂為業。何等三摩地？謂於所觀事令心一境為體。智所依止為業。何等為慧？謂於所觀事擇法為體，斷疑為業。
What is aspiration? Its nature is hoping for whatever brings about a desired matter; its function is serving as the basis for correct effort.
What is resolve? Its nature is confirming a settled matter exactly as it has been settled; its function is being unable to be diverted by anything else.
What is recollection? Its nature is causing the mind to clearly remember a familiar matter without forgetting it; its function is preventing distraction.
What is concentration? Its nature is causing the mind to become one-pointed with respect to an object under examination; its function is serving as the basis for wisdom.
What is wisdom? Its nature is discriminating among an object under examination; its function is severing doubt.
These seven definitions are worded almost identically to the Cheng Weishi Lun's own, which is unsurprising: this treatise is one of that later work's own cited sources for exactly this system. T1606 adds one clarification worth carrying forward — attention's function, "holding the mind to its object," means repeatedly drawing the mind back to the same object again and again, which is what allows a mind to eventually become genuinely settled on it; a mind that achieves this settling is, for that reason, said to "have attained attention" in a technical sense used later in the treatise's account of meditative practice.
3. The Eleven Wholesome Factors
何等為信？謂於有體有德有能忍可清淨希望為體，樂欲所依為業。何等為慚？謂於諸過惡自羞為體，惡行止息所依為業。何等為愧？謂於諸過惡羞他為體，業如慚說。
What is faith? Its nature is settled acceptance and pure hope with respect to what is real, what possesses virtue, and what has capability; its function is serving as the basis for aspiration.
What is a sense of shame? Its nature is feeling ashamed of one's own faults and misdeeds; its function is serving as the basis for bringing wrongdoing to a halt.
What is a sense of embarrassment? Its nature is feeling ashamed of one's faults before others; its function is the same as described for shame.
何等無貪？謂於有有具無著為體，惡行不轉所依為業。何等無瞋？謂於諸有情苦及苦具無恚為體，惡行不轉所依為業。何等無癡？謂由報教證智決擇為體，惡行不轉所依為業。
What is non-greed? Its nature is non-attachment with respect to existence and the means of existence; its function is serving as the basis for preventing wrongdoing from occurring.
What is non-hatred? Its nature is non-aversion with respect to the suffering of sentient beings and its causes; its function is the same, serving as the basis for preventing wrongdoing.
What is non-delusion? Its nature is discernment through knowledge born of karmic ripening, of instruction, and of realization; its function is likewise serving as the basis for preventing wrongdoing.
何等為勤？謂心勇悍為體，或被甲、或加行、或無下、或無退、或無足，差別成滿善品為業。何等為安？謂止息身心麁重、身心調暢為體、除遣一切障礙為業。何等不放逸？謂依止正勤無貪無瞋無癡修諸善法，於心防護諸有漏法為體，成滿一切世出世福為業。何等為捨？謂依止正勤無貪無瞋無癡，與雜染住相違，心平等性、心正直性、心無功用住性為體，不容雜染所依為業。何等不害？謂無瞋善根一分心悲愍為體，不損惱為業。
What is diligence? Its nature is courage and fortitude of mind; its function, in its distinct forms — donning armor, applying effort, not faltering, not retreating, not being satisfied — is bringing the wholesome to full completion.
What is pliancy? Its nature is quieting the coarseness and heaviness of body and mind, and harmonizing and refreshing body and mind; its function is removing every obstruction.
What is heedfulness? Its nature is guarding the mind against every contaminated dharma by relying on correct effort and non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion, and cultivating wholesome dharmas on that basis; its function is bringing every mundane and supramundane form of merit to full completion.
What is equanimity? Its nature is abiding in evenness of mind, uprightness of mind, and effortless abiding of mind — opposed to dwelling in defilement — by relying on correct effort and non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion; its function is being unreceptive to defilement.
What is non-harming? Its nature is a portion of the wholesome root non-hatred, felt as compassion; its function is not injuring or distressing others.
Non-delusion's definition here — "discernment through knowledge born of karmic ripening, of instruction, and of realization" — is the very passage the Cheng Weishi Lun later cites by name from this treatise, in its own debate over whether non-delusion is simply another name for wisdom. T1606 unpacks the three sources of this discernment: knowledge born of karmic ripening is the innate discernment a being is simply born with, as a fruit of past karma; knowledge born of instruction, reflection, and cultivation (T1606 expands "instruction" into the classical triad of hearing, reflecting, and cultivating) are the three progressively deeper stages by which discernment is then actively developed on the path.
T1606 also flags heedfulness, equanimity, and non-harming as the three wholesome factors with no essence distinct from the others already listed — heedfulness is simply diligence and the three wholesome roots doing their guarding-and-cultivating work under one name, equanimity is that same guarding settling into stillness, and non-harming is simply non-hatred specifically applied to not injuring others. This matches the Cheng Weishi Lun's own treatment of these same three factors exactly, down to the same reasoning.
Part 4 Complete
Volition, the two universal factors, the five particular factors, and the eleven wholesome factors are now defined — twenty of the fifty-one named. Part 5 turns to the harder half: the ten root afflictions (with the treatise's own extended treatment of the five views), the twenty secondary afflictions, and the four indeterminates.
Continue to Part 5 — Afflictions and the Five Views →