宗鏡錄 59.5

59.5

Answer: The masters of old explained: "Mental factors have three meanings: first, they always arise depending on citta; second, they are associated with citta; third, they are bound and subordinate to citta." The principal mind apprehends general characteristics, like a master painter drawing an outline. Mental factors comprehensively apprehend both general and specific characteristics, like an apprentice filling in various colors within the master's outline. That is, the mental factor [acts] upon the principal mind's general [apprehension of] blue: when the principal mind of eye-consciousness apprehends a blue object, that is the general characteristic, without producing multiple varied modes of cognitive understanding. As for mental factors apprehending specific characteristics, like attention (manaskāra) among the five [omnipresent] mental factors, which takes alerting and directing the mind as its specific characteristic, it subsequently takes in, conceptualizes, and generates various modes of activity. This is to comprehensively apprehend both general and specific characteristics.