Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Attention and aspiration

Groups of five omnipresent and five object-ascertaining mental factors

Part of a series of teachings given at Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle from January 1995 to April 1996.

  • Review and continuation of omnipresent mental factors—mental engagement (attention)
  • Five object-ascertaining mental factors (determining mental factors): aspiration, appreciation, mindfulness, single-pointedness (concentration), and intelligence
  • Detailed discussion of aspiration and classification
  • How the five mental factors influence each other
  • Discussion and description of terms desire, thought, emotion, mental image
  • Examples of non-conceptual mental consciousness i.e., clairvoyance, dream

Mind and mental factors 04: Attention and aspiration (download)

Venerable Thubten Chodron

Venerable Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India, and in 1986 she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. Read her full bio.

More on this topic