Training of the mind
The mental factors
“What besides the cognising is contained in a moment?”
Consciousness never comes alone. Fifty-two factors can accompany it: seven in every moment without exception, six occasional ones, fourteen only with unwholesome and twenty-five only with wholesome consciousness. Along with these, the subsidiary questions of the third chapter — through which door, towards which object, on which physical base, with which task.
For reading
Editorial explanation — quotations are marked as Canonical text and linked.
In one sentence
To every moment of cognising there belong accompanying factors that arise together with it, have the same object, and pass away together with it.
In today's language
The first chapter counted which kinds of consciousness there are. The second asks what these kinds are distinguished by at all — and the answer is: by their companions.
A moment of consciousness taken by itself is astonishingly poor. It cognises something, no more. Everything that marks a moment as friendly, greedy, anxious or awake are the factors running along with it. The Abhidhamma binds them strictly: a factor arises together with consciousness, is directed at the same object, rests on the same physical base, and ceases together with it. So they are not building blocks that could be taken out one at a time — rather properties of a single event. MN 43 says it unmistakably: feeling, perception and consciousness are conjoined, not to be separated.
The compendium counts fifty-two such factors, ordered in four groups. Seven occur in every moment without exception: contact, feeling tone, perceiving, intention, one-pointedness, the life force of the mind, and the attention that turns towards. Whoever lays the list of MN 111 alongside finds it there again almost in full. Six further ones are present occasionally — initial thought, joy or the wish to act, for instance; they explain why a moment is now urgent and now quiet. Fourteen occur only with unwholesome consciousness, with delusion at their head. Twenty-five only with wholesome, led by confidence and mindfulness.
From this follows a sentence that comes as a surprise when read for the first time: the wholesome and the unwholesome cannot be in the same moment. What we experience as mixed feeling — friendliness with an ulterior motive — is a rapid alternation between moments, not one moment with two signs.
The third chapter of the compendium appends four subsidiary questions that can be put to every moment: through which door did it come in — one of the five sense doors or the mind door? Which object did it have? On which physical base did it arise? And which task did it perform in the process — seeing, receiving, examining, determining? These four questions are the tool with which the next stage works.
Why this matters
The doctrine of factors turns “I am irritated” into a description from which something can be read off: which feeling tone, which root, with or without mindfulness. What can be described can be observed — and only what is observed changes through practice.
Canonical basis
MN 43 gives the reason for the conjunction of the factors. MN 111 shows the enumeration within a discourse. MN 148 sets out the sets of six that correspond to the subsidiary questions of door, object and cognising. SN 36.6 gives the reason why so much attention goes to the feeling tone: it is the place where craving attaches itself.
Components
- Mental factor (cetasika) — what accompanies and colours the cognising
- The seven universal ones (sabbacittasādhāraṇa) — in every moment
- The fourteen unwholesome ones (akusala-cetasika) — only with unwholesome consciousness
- The twenty-five beautiful ones (sobhana-cetasika) — only with wholesome
- Feeling tone (vedanā) — pleasant, unpleasant, neutral
- Door (dvāra) — five sense doors and the mind door
- Object (ārammaṇa) — what the moment is directed at
- Physical base (vatthu) — where it arises
- Task (kicca) — which role it fills in the process
Connection with other teachings
Contact, feeling, perception and intention are the same links that stage 4 of the existing path describes. The Abhidhamma adds that they do not come one after another but with one another: a single event, described from several sides.
Significance for practice
The practice corresponding to this stage is mindfulness of the feeling tone: noticing whether a moment was pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, before the story about it begins.
Common misinterpretations
- “The 52 factors are building blocks of the mind.” — They are properties of a single event, not parts. MN 43 states this expressly.
- “You have to be able to recognise them one by one in meditation.” — The list orders experience; it is neither examination material nor a goal of meditation.
- “Neutral feeling means that nothing is there.” — The neutral tone is a feeling tone like the others. It merely does not stand out.
What you now have in hand
- explain why consciousness and mental factor do not occur one after the other but together
- name the seven factors that occur in every moment of consciousness
- distinguish the four groups of the fifty-two factors
- show by an example how the same moment is coloured by different factors
- apply the four subsidiary questions: door, object, physical base, task
Key terms of this stage
-
Mental factor cetasika
A mental factor that accompanies a citta and colours it (52 of them according to the Abhidhamma).
Note for myself
-
Universal mental factors sabbacittasādhāraṇa
The seven factors present in every moment of consciousness without exception — from contact through to one-pointedness.
Note for myself
-
Unwholesome mental factors akusala-cetasika
The fourteen factors that accompany unwholesome consciousness only — delusion, shamelessness, restlessness, greed, hate and others.
Note for myself
-
Beautiful mental factors sobhana-cetasika
The twenty-five factors that accompany wholesome consciousness only — faith, mindfulness, moral shame, non-greed and others.
Note for myself
-
Feeling vedanā
The second aggregate: the feeling tone of every experience — pleasant, unpleasant, neutral.
Note for myself
-
Object ārammaṇa
What a moment of consciousness turns towards: something seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched, or thought.
Note for myself
-
Door dvāra
The six entrances of experience: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and the mind itself.
Note for myself
-
Physical base vatthu
The place in the body at which a moment of consciousness arises: the five sense organs and the heart base.
Note for myself
-
Function kicca
The role a moment of consciousness fills within a process — seeing (dassana), receiving (sampaṭicchana), investigating (santīraṇa), determining (voṭṭhabbana), taking a position (javana), registering (tadārammaṇa).
Note for myself
Markings are stored only in this browser.
Further reading optional
Contact phassa Perception saññā Intention, volition cetanā Attention manasikāra One-pointedness ekaggatā Mindfulness sati Desire to act chanda
Source texts Canonical text
- MN 43 — Feeling, perception and consciousness are conjoined and cannot be taken apart — the discourse on which the whole doctrine of factors rests
- MN 111 — Sāriputta enumerates the individual factors in every absorption — contact, feeling, perception, intention, desire, decision, energy, mindfulness, equanimity, attention
- MN 148 — The six sets of six: door, object, cognising, contact, feeling, craving — the subsidiary questions of the third chapter in canonical form
Looking up the wording
search for “cetasika” in the Abhidhamma Piṭaka — returns passages from the Dhammasaṅgaṇī (dhs) and the Paṭṭhāna (patthana2.10).
The Pāli wording of the seven books lies in the Dhamma search; there is no translation of it here, in any language. Checked on 2026-08-08.
On this in German, in the Führer durch den Abhidhamma-Piṭaka (Nyanatiloka) — the chapter titles below are German as well:
For reflection
Are the mental factors small parts out of which the mind is assembled?
No. They are ways in which one and the same moment is constituted — as the colour, temperature and weight of a stone are not its components. MN 43 says exactly this: feeling, perception and consciousness cannot be taken apart.
If contact and feeling occur in every moment — why do I mostly feel nothing?
The feeling tone is mostly the neutral one. It does not stand out precisely because it is neither pleasant nor unpleasant. It becomes noticeable only in practice; that is one of the reasons why mindfulness of the feeling tone is trained.
Can wholesome and unwholesome factors occur in the same moment?
No — and this is one of the clearest statements of this chapter. What appears mixed is a rapid sequence of different moments, not one mixed moment. Generosity with an ulterior motive is an alternation, not a blend.