"A king sleeps on a royal bed with an attendant massaging his feet, a deaf doorman standing at the door, and three guards standing in a row.  Then a peasant, bearing tribute, comes to knock upon the door.  The deaf doorman does not hear, so the attendant massaging the feet signals, upon which the deaf doorman opens the door.  The first guard receives the tribute and hands it to the second, who passes it on to the third.  The third guard presents it to the king who partakes of the tribute." 

This analogy demonstrates how the arammana that comes into contact with the cakkhuppasada is comparable to the peasant bearing tribute to the palace door.  The attendant massaging the king's feet is like the panca-dvaravajjana-citta that knows there is a visitor knocking and signals the deaf doorman or the cakkhu-vinna-citta, after which it falls away.  Without the panca-dvaravajjana-citta the deaf doorman wouldn't know that the arammana or the peasant and the tribute is there nor would it arise in sequence to see through the cakkhuppasada.  After that the first guard, or the sampaticchanna-citta, receives the tribute and passes it on to the second, or the santirana-citta, who then passes it on to the third or votthapana-citta.  The third presents it to the king, or javana-citta, and the king absorbs the tribute, or that arammana.

 This personification demonstrates that the kicca [function] of the arammana is only to come into contact with the pasada-rupa [the physical sensory element] which serves as vatthu [sense base to the citta that arises there, since there can be several pasada rupas arising at the time, but only one serves as vatthu to the citta of the instant], as well as dvara [sense door through which the arammana arises/is experienced].  The peasant does not enter the palace door but the tribute is passed from the first to the second then the third guard until it reaches the monarch or the javana citta who experiences the arammana.

 The arammana can only impinge upon the pasada-rupa, and only the cakkhu-vinna-citta [seeing consciousness] performs the function of experiencing the arammana in contact with the dvara.  The cakkhu-vinna-citta sees, at the cakkhuppasada-rupa, like a doorman opening the door to look outside; then it falls away, having done its duty of experiencing the arammana. 

The sampaticchanna that arise in sequence is compared to the first guard that receives the tribute and hands it to the the the second or santirana citta, which examines the arammana and passes it on to the votthapana-citta to 'judge' or prepare the way for the javana or the king, which can be kusala [good cittas that will bring good results] or akusala [bad ones that will bring corresponding results] and the rare kiriya cittas of the arahant [that do not bring any further results].  The king, usually kusala or akusala javana vithi-cittas [arising in a set of seven cittas in a row generally], absorb or experience the tribute or arammana.

All this in a tiny split second, beyond anyone's control, only satipatthana would be fast enough to arise and experience the process that had just fallen away and gradually develop panna to know clearly, at that moment, the ruparammanas [rupas that can only come into contact with specific dvaras] or the exact quality of the cittas that had just disappeared, having done their duties in the panca dvara vithi vara or the process of the cittas that arise through one of the five senses. 

November 28, 2002