Abhidhamma in Daily life
Chapter
9
THE AHETUKA CITTAS
WHICH ARE UNKNOWN IN DAILY LIFE

There
are eighteen types of ahetuka citta, or cittas arising without hetu (root).
Fifteen types of ahetuka citta are vipaka. As we have seen, ten of these
fifteen cittas are dvi-panca vinnanas. They are:
two seeing-consciousness
two hearing-consciousness
two smelling-consciousness
two tasting-consciousness
two body-consciousness
Seeing-consciousness is the result
of kamma. When it is the result of an ill deed, seeing-consciousness is
akusala vipakacitta which experiences an unpleasant object; when it is
the result of a good deed, it is kusala vipakacitta which experiences a
pleasant object. The function of seeing consciousness is to experience
visible object.
Kamma which produces seeing-consciousness
does not only produce the vipakacitta which is seeing-consciousness, it
also produces two other kinds of vipakacitta, which succeed seeing-consciousness.
Seeing-consciousness is succeeded by vipakacitta which receives the object.
This citta, which is called sampaticchana-citta (receiving-consciousness).
Visible object which is experienced by seeing-consciousness does not fall
away when seeing-consciousness falls away, because it is rupa; rupa does
not fall away as rapidly as nama. When an object is experienced through
one of the six doors, there is not merely one citta experiencing that object,
but there is a series of cittas succeeding one another, which share the
same object.
If the seeing-consciousness
is akusala vipaka, the sampaticchana-citta (receiving-consciousness) is
also akusala vipaka; if the seeing-consciousness is kusala vipaka, the
sampaticchana-citta is also kusala vipaka. Thus there are two types of
sampaticchana-citta: one is akusala vipaka and one is kusala vipaka. Sampaticchana-citta:
is ahetuka vipaka; there are no akusala hetus (unwholesome roots) or sobhana
hetus (beautiful roots) arising with this type of
citta. Sampaticchana-citta succeeds
seeing-consciousness; seeing-consciousness
is a condition for the arising of
sampaticchana-citta. Likewise, when there is a process of cittas experiencing
sound, sampaticchana-citta succeeds hearing-consciousness. It is the same
with regard to nose, tongue, and body.
Sampaticchana-citta always arises
with upekkha (indifferent feeling), no matter whether the sampaticchana-citta
is akusala vipaka or kusala vipaka.
After the sampaticchana-citta has
arisen and fallen away, the process of cittas is not yet over. The
sampaticchana-citta is succeeded by another ahetuka vipakacitta which is
still the result of kamma. This type of citta is called santirana-citta
(investigating-consciousness). Santirana-citta investigates or considers
the object which was 'received' by the sampaticchana-citta. Santirana-citta
succeeds sampaticchana-citta through five sense-doors; sampaticchana-citta
is a condition for the arising of santirana-citta. When seeing has arisen,
sampaticchana-citta succeeds the seeing-consciousness, and santirana-citta
succeeds the sampaticchana-citta in the process of cittas which experience
visible object through eye-door. It is the same with the santirana-citta
which arises in the process of cittas experiencing an object through ear-door,
nose-door, tongue-door, body-door. It succeeds the sampaticchana-citta.
We cannot choose whether santirana-citta should arise or not; cittas arise
because of conditions, they are beyond control.
Santirana-citta is also an ahetuka
vipakacitta. When the object is unpleasant (anittharammana), the santirana-citta
is akusala vipaka and it is accompanied by
upekkha (indifferent feeling). As
regards santirana-citta which is kusala vipaka,
there are two kinds. When the object
is pleasant (ittharammana), but not
extraordinarily pleasant, santirana-citta
is accompanied by upekkha. When the
object is extraordinarily pleasant
(atittharammana), the santirana-citta is
accompanied by somanassa. Thus,
there are three kinds of santirana-citta in all. It depends on conditions
which kind of santirana-citta arises.
Thus, there are fifteen types of
ahetuka citta which are vipaka. Summarizing
them, they are:
10 cittas which are dvi-panca-vinnana (five pairs)
1 sampaticchana-citta (receiving-consciousness) which is
akusala vipaka
1 sampaticchana-citta which is kusala vipaka
1 santirana-citta (investigating-consciousness) which is
akusala vipaka, accompanied by upekkha
1 santirana-citta which is kusala vipaka, accompanied by
upekkha
1 santirana-citta which is kusala vipaka, accompanied by
somanassa
Seven types of the ahetuka vipakacittas
are akusala vipaka and eight types are
kusala vipaka, since there are two
types of santirana-citta which are kusala vipaka.
As we have seen, there are altogether
eighteen ahetuka cittas. Of these eighteen
ahetuka cittas fifteen are vipakacittas
and three are kiriyacittas. Kiriyacittas are
different from akusala cittas and
kusala cittas and from vipakacittas. Akusala
cittas and kusala cittas are cittas
which are cause; they can motivate ill deeds and
good deeds which are capable of
producing their appropriate results. Vipaka-cittas are cittas which are
the result of akusala kamma and kusala kamma. Kiriyacittas are cittas which
are neither cause nor result.
One type of ahetuka kiriyacitta is
the 'five-door-adverting-consciousness', in Pali: panca-dvaravajjana-citta.
('Panca' is five, 'dvara' is door, 'avajjana' is adverting or turning towards.’)
When an object impinges on one of the five senses, there has to be a citta
which adverts or turns towards the object through that sense-door. When
visible object impinges on the eye-sense, there has to be the adverting-consciousness
which adverts towards visible object through the
eye-door, or cakkhu-dvaravajjana-citta
(eye-door-adverting-consciousness),
before there can be seeing-consciousness
(cakkhu-vinnana). When sound
impinges on the ear-sense, the ear-door-adverting-consciousness
(sota-dvaravajjana-citta) has to advert to the sound through the ear-door
before there can be hearing-consciousness (sota-vinnana). The panca-dvaravajjana-citta
merely turns towards the object which impinges on one
of the five sense-doors. But it
does not see or hear. The panca-dvaravajjana-citta
is an ahetuka kiriyacitta, it arises
without hetu (root); there is not yet like or dislike. The panca-dvaravajjana-citta
is succeeded by one of the dvi-panca-vinnanas (five pairs), which is vipakacitta.
Each citta which arises in the process
of cittas experiencing an object has its own
function.
The cittas which experience an object
through one of the senses do not know
anything else but that object. When
one, for example, is reading, the citta which
sees experience only visible object
and it does not know the meaning of the
letters. After the eye-door process
has been completed visible object is
experienced through the mind-door
and then there can be other mind-door
processes of cittas which know the
meaning of what has been written and which
think about it. Thus, there are
processes of cittas which experience an object
through one of the senses and processes
of cittas which experience an object
through the mind-door.
Another type of ahetuka kiriyacitta
is the mano-dvaravajjana-citta (mind-door-adverting-consciousness), which
arises both in the sense-door
process and in the mind-door process
but performs two different functions
according as it arises in each of
those two kinds of processes. When an object
contacts one of the sense-doors,
the panca-dvaravajjana-citta (five-door-adverting-consciousness) turns
towards the object, one of the dvi-panca-vinananas experiences it, sampaticchana-citta
receives the object and
santirana-citta investigates it.
The santirana-citta is succeeded by an ahetuka
kiriyacitta which experiences the
object through that sense-door and 'determines' (votthapana) the object.
It is actually the same type of citta as the mano-dvara vajjana-citta,
(mind-door-adverting-consciousness, the first citta of the mind-door process),
but when it arises in the sense-door process it can be called votthapana-citta,
since it performs the function of determining the object in the sense-door
process. The votthapana-citta, after it has determined the object, is,
on the case of non-arahats, followed by akusala cittas or by kusala cittas.
It depends on one's accumulations of akusala and kusala whether the votthapana
citta will be succeeded by akusala cittas or by kusala cittas.
After the cittas of the sense-door
process have fallen away the object can be
experienced through the mind-door.
The mano-dvaravajjana-citta is the first citta of the mind-door process
which experiences that object which has fallen away already. In the sense-door
process the panca-dvara vajjana-citta adverts to the object which has not
fallen away yet. For example, it adverts to visible object or sound which
is still impinging on the appropriate sense-door. The mano-dvaravajjana-citta
which arises in the mind-door process however, can
experience an object which has fallen
away already. After the
mano-dvaravajjana-citta has adverted
to the object it is succeeded by either kusala cittas or akusala cittas
(in the case of non-arahats), which experience that same object. The mano-dvaravajjana-citta
itself is neither akusala citta nor kusala citta; it is kiriyacitta.
Although the votthapana-citta in
the sense-door process and the
mano-dvaravajjana-citta in the mind-door
process are the same type of citta, an
ahetuka kiriyacitta, their functions
are different. In the sense-door process this
citta performs the function of votthapana
(determining the object) and in the
mind-door process it performs the
function of avajjana (adverting). Thus,
whenever we deal with the mano-dvaravajjana-citta
we have to know what
function it is performing.
When sound impinges on the earsense
it can be experienced by cittas arising in
the ear-door process and after that
it is experienced by cittas arising in a
mind-door process. Processes of
cittas which experience in object through one of
the five senses and through the
mind-door succeed one another time and again.
How can there be akusala cittas or
kusala cittas in the process of cittas which
experience an object through one
of the sense-doors, when one does not even
know yet what it is that is experienced?
There can be akusala cittas or kusala cittas before one knows what it is.
One can compare this situation with the case of a child who likes a brightly
coloured object such as a balloon before it knows that the object is a
balloon. We can have like or dislike of an object before we know what it
is.
Another ahetuka kiriyacitta is the
hasituppada-citta
(smile-producing-consciousness).
Only arahats have this kind of citta. Laughing
and smiling can be motivated by
different kinds of cittas. When people who are
not arahats smile, it is usually
motivated by lobha or by kusala citta. Arahats do
not have any defilements; they do
not have akusala cittas. Neither do they have
kusala cittas; they do not accumulate
any more kamma. Instead of kusala cittas
they have kiriyacittas, accompanied
by sobhana (beautiful) roots, sobhana
kiriyacittas. Arahats do not laugh
aloud, because they have no accumulations for
laughing; they only smile. When
they smile the smiling may be motivated by
sobhana kiriyacitta or by the ahetuka
kiriyacitta which is called hasituppada-citta.
Thus, of the eighteen ahetuka cittas,
fifteen are vipakacittas and three are
kiriyacittas. The ahetuka kiriyacittas
are:
1. Panca-dvaravajjana-citta (five-door-adverting
consciousness)
2. Mano-dvaravajjana-citta (mind-door-adverting-
consciousness), which performs the function of
adverting to the object through the mind-door
when it arises in the mind-door process and
which performs the function of votthapana
(determining the object) when it arises in the
sense-door process
3. Hasituppada-citta (smile-producing-consciousness)
Those who are not arahats can have
only seventeen of the eighteen ahetuka cittas. These seventeen types of
ahetuka citta arise in our daily life. When an object impinges on one of
the five senses, panca-dvaravajjana-citta (five-door-adverting consciousness)
turns towards the object through that sense-door. This citta is followed
by panca-vinnana which experiences the object, by sampaticchana-citta which
receives it, by santirana-citta which investigates it and by votthapana-citta
which determines the object and then by akusala cittas or kusala cittas.
When the cittas of the sense-door process have fallen away the object is
experienced through the mind-door. The mano-dvaravajjana-citta adverts
to the object through the mind-door and is then followed by akusala cittas
or kusala cittas. There is 'unwise attention' (ayoniso manasikara) to the
object which is experienced if akusala cittas arise, and there is 'wise
attention' (yoniso manasikara) to the object if kusala cittas arise. For
example, when we see insects there may be dosa-mula-cittas (cittas rooted
in aversion). Thus, there is ayoniso manasikara (unwise attention). The
dosa may be so strong that one wants to kill the insects; then there is
akusala kamma. If one realizes that killing is akusala and one abstains
from killing, there are kusala cittas and thus there is yoniso manasikara
(wise attention). If one studies Dhamma and develops vipassana (insight)
it is a condition for yoniso manasikara. When we are mindful of the nama
or rupa which appears through one of the six doors, there is yoniso manasikara
at that moment.
When there are two people in the
same situation, one person may have ayoniso
manasikara and the other may have
yoniso manasikara. This depends on their
accumulations. We read in the 'Kindred
Sayings' (lV, Salayatanavagga, Kindred
Sayings on Sense, Fourth Fifty,
Ch.V, par. 202, Lustful) about the monk who,
after he has experienced an object
through one of the six doors, has ayoniso
manasikara, and about the monk who
has yoniso manasikara. We read that
Maha-Moggalla-na said to the monks:
Friends, I will teach you the way of lusting and also
of not lusting....
And how, friends, is one lustful?
Herein, friends, a monk, seeing object with the eye,
feels attachment for objects that charm, feels aversion
from objects that displease, abides without mindfulness
of the body, and his thoughts are mean. He realizes
not, in its true nature, that emancipation of heart,
that emancipation of wisdom, wherein those evil,
unprofitable states that have arisen cease without
remainder.
This monk, friends, is called 'lustful after objects
cognizable by the eye, nose, tongue…objects cognizable
by the mind’ When a monk so abides, friends, if Mara
come upon him by way of the eye, Mara gets an
opportunity. If Mara come upon him....by way of the
mind, Mara gets access, gets opportunity....
So dwelling, friends, objects overcome a monk, a
monk overcomes not objects. Sounds overcome a monk,
a monk overcomes not sounds. Scents, savours,
tangibles and mind-states overcome a monk, a monk
overcomes not sounds, scents, savours, tangibles and
mind-states. This monk, friends, is called 'conquered
by objects, sounds, scents, savours, tangibles and
mind-states, not conquerer of them.’ Evil, unprofitable
states, passion-fraught, leading to rebirth overcome him,
states unhappy, whose fruit is pain, whose future is
rebirth, decay and death. Thus, friends, one is lustful.
And how, friends, is one free from lust?
Herein, friends, a monk, seeing an object with the
eye, is not attached to objects that charm, nor averse
from objects that displease....
Tasting a savour with the tongue...with mind cognizing
a mind-state, he is not attached to mind-states that
charm, nor is he averse from mind-states that displease,
but dwells with mindfulness of the body, his thought
is boundless. So that he realizes in its true nature that
emancipation of heart, that emancipation of wisdom,
wherein those evil, unprofitable states that have arisen
come to cease without remainder.
This monk, friends, is called 'not lustful after
objects cognizable by the eye... not lustful after
mind-states cognizable by mind.' Thus dwelling, friends,
if Mara come upon him by way of the eye, of the
tongue,... of the mind, Mara gets no access, gets no
opportunity....
Moreover, friends, so dwelling a monk conquers
objects, objects do not conquer him. He conquers
sounds, scents, savours, tangibles, mind-states. They
do not conquer him. Such a monk, friends, is called,
'conquerer of objects, sounds, scents, savours, tangibles
and mind-states,’ He is conquerer, not conquered. He
conquers those evil, unprofitable states, passion-fraught,
inciting to lust, leading to rebirth, states unhappy, whose
fruit is pain, rebirth, decay and death. Thus, friends,
is one free from lust.
Questions
1. What is kiriyacitta?
2. When we smile, is it always
motivated by lobha?
3. Can akusala cittas and
kusala cittas and arise in a sense-door process?

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