The Duration of Different Processes

When we see and we are then attached to visible object and enjoy it, it seems that it is just “normal” attachment, which is not harmful. However, we should realize that even “normal” attachment is a dhamma that is harmful. Its result is suffering, dukkha, and little by little the conditions are being accumulated for more dukkha later on. It is true that dukkha does not occur immediately when there is just a slight amount of attachment. However, when attachment is accumulated more and more, it becomes powerful and it can reach the degree of a “hindrance” (nīvaraṇa), a defilement that obstructs kusala, which causes worry and is oppressive. Then the characteristic of heaviness is evident, the heaviness of akusala, the dhamma that is restless, not calm.

We can find out for ourselves whether, throughout the whole day, from the time we wake up until we go to sleep, the javana-cittas arise more often in a series of akusala cittas or in a series of kusala cittas. What can be done to cure us of akusala? In fact, we are all taking poison, the poison of akusala, and when we realize this we should look for the right medicine for a cure. If we do not realize that we are taking poison, we will accumulate the inclination to take it. Its harmful effects will gradually increase, evermore. There is only one medicine that can cure us, the development of right

understanding of realities, of satipaṭṭhāna. If sati of satipaṭṭhāna does not arise, there is no way to become free from the accumulation of akusala. Akusala will be accumulated evermore and there will not be much opportunity for the arising of different types of wholesomeness. Whereas, when one develops satipaṭṭhāna, it can arise instead of akusala, and votthapana-citta (determining-consciousness arising just before the javana-cittas) can then be contiguity-condition (anantara-paccaya) for the arising of kusala cittas according to one’s accumulations. Kusala citta can be accompanied by the degree of sati that is mindful of the reality that is appearing.

The javana vīthi-cittas that are kusala, and those that are akusala, arise and fall away in succession and they accumulate kusala or akusala all the time. This conditions each person to have different inclinations, a different character and different behaviour. The accumulations in the citta of each person are most intricate. Also the arahats, those who have reached perfection, have different inclinations; they excel in different qualities. Venerable Sāriputta was pre-eminent in wisdom, venerable Mahā Moggallāna in superpowers, venerable Mahā Kassapa in the observance of ascetical practices, which he also encouraged others to observe, and venerable Anuruddha was pre-eminent in clairvoyance. The javana vīthi-cittas of each one of us arrange themselves in their own series or sequence and accumulate different kinds of kusala and akusala time and again. This is the reason that, at the present time, we all think, speak and act in completely different ways.

Cittas that are kusala, akusala and mahā-kiriya, which arrange themselves in a series of javana, cause people to have a different behaviour through body and speech. It could happen that people who saw an arahat had contempt for him because they judged him by his outward behaviour, which he had accumulated for an endlessly long time. The Brahman Vassakāra, the Prime Minister of Magadha, for example, made a serious mistake by misjudging an arahat from his outward behaviour. When he saw Mahā Kacchana coming down from a mountain, he said that Mahā Kacchana behaved like a monkey. Vassakāra’s haughtiness was conditioned by the accumulation of his javana vīthi-cittas. The Buddha told him to ask for Mahā Kacchana’s forgiveness, but his accumulated conceit was the condition that made him unable to do so. The Buddha predicted that Vassakāra, after he had died, would be reborn as a monkey in a bamboo wood. Vassakāra had thereupon banana trees planted as well as other things monkeys could eat. Then his food would be all ready for him when he was to be reborn as a monkey in that bamboo wood.

We should see the danger of the accumulation of akusala in the javana vīthi-cittas that arise and fall away in a succession of seven cittas. Akusala is accumulated time and again so that it becomes one’s nature and appears in one’s behaviour and speech and this accumulated behaviour is called “vāsanā” in Pāli. Even when one has become an arahat, there are inclinations accumulated in the citta that condition different kinds of behaviour. The Buddha is the only person who could eradicate “vāsanā.” All arahats have eradicated defilements completely so that not even a germ is left of them, but nevertheless, they are unable to eradicate “vāsanā.” This is because they have accumulated “vāsanā” for an endlessly long time in the cycle of birth and death through the power of the javana vīthi-cittas.

Summarising the different types of vīthi-cittas in the five-sense-door process, they are the following seven types:

The first vīthi-citta is the five-sense-door adverting-consciousness, pañca-dvārāvajjana-citta.
The second vīthi-citta is one of the five pairs of sense-cognitions, dvi-pañca-viññāṇas, which are seeing-consciousness, hearing-consciousness, smelling-consciousness, tasting-consciousness and body-consciousness.
The third vīthi-citta is the receiving-consciousness,
sampaṭicchana-citta, that receives the object from the preceding
citta, one of the sense-cognitions, after this has fallen away.
The fourth vīthi-citta is the investigating-consciousness,
santīraṇa-citta, which examines and considers the object.
The fifth vīthi-citta is the determining-consciousness,
votthapana-citta, which performs the function of determining whether
it will be succeeded by kusala citta, akusala citta or kiriyacitta
(in the case of the arahat).
The sixth type of vīthi-citta is the javana vīthi-citta of which
there are usually seven types in succession. Javana can be
translated as impulsion or “running.” It goes quickly through the
object with kusala citta, akusala citta or kiriyacitta.
The seventh type of vīthi-citta is the tadārammaṇa vīthi-citta
(tadārammaṇa means: “that object”) or tadālambana vīthi-citta
(ālambana means delaying, hanging on). This citta is called in
English retention or registering-consciousness. It performs the
function of receiving the object, hanging on to the object after the
javana-cittas, if the object has not yet fallen away, since rūpa
lasts no longer than seventeen moments of citta.

The following summary shows the duration of an object that is rūpa, lasting as long as seventeen moments of citta:

When a rūpa arises and impinges on a sense-base, the first moment
of citta that arises and falls away is the bhavanga-citta that is
called past bhavanga, atīta-bhavanga.
The vibrating bhavanga, bhavanga calana, is the second moment of
citta.
The arrest bhavanga, bhavangupaccheda, is the third moment of
citta.
The five-sense-door adverting-consciousness is the fourth moment
of citta.
One of the sense-cognitions is the fifth moment of citta.
The receiving-consciousness is the sixth moment of citta.
The investigating-consciousness is the seventh moment of citta.
The determining-consciousness is the eighth moment of citta.
The first javana-citta is the ninth moment of citta.
The second javana-citta is the tenth moment of citta.
The third javana-citta is the eleventh moment of citta.
The fourth javana-citta is the twelfth moment of citta.
The fifth javana-citta is the thirteenth moment of citta.
The sixth javana-citta is the fourteenth moment of citta.
The seventh javana-citta is the fifteenth moment of citta.

From the moment of atīta bhavanga when the rūpa that is the object arose, fifteen moments have passed when the seventh javana-citta has fallen away. Thus, there are still two more moments left before the rūpa will fall away, since in comparison with the duration of nāma, rūpa lasts seventeen times longer. People who are born in the sensuous planes of existence have accumulated kamma in the past that is connected with visible object, sound, odour, flavour and tangible object, the sense objects. When the javana-cittas “run through” a sense object and it has not fallen away yet, kamma conditions the arising of vipākacitta after the javana-cittas in the form of tadālambana-citta, retention, which “hangs on” to the object. This is in accordance with the nature of those born in sensuous planes. The tadālambana-citta receives the object after the javana-cittas and there are two types of this citta in succession.

The tadālambana-citta is the last vīthi-citta that performs its function in a process and experiences the object through the corresponding doorway. Then bhavanga-cittas arise again, succeeding one another, until vīthi-cittas of a new process arise and experience an object through one of the doorways.

At the moment of bhavanga-citta, this world does not appear. There is no remembrance connected with the different people and the events of this world. The situation is the same as when one is fast asleep and one is not aware of anything that has to do with this world. At the moments one is fast asleep, and also in between processes, there are just bhavanga-cittas arising and falling away. The rebirth-consciousness, paṭisandhi-citta, the bhavanga-citta and the dying-consciousness, cuti-citta, are not vīthi-cittas, they do not experience an object through one of the six doors. The dying-consciousness is the last citta of this lifespan; it performs the function of passing away from one’s life as a particular individual. It is succeeded by the rebirth-consciousness of the next life, and then again there are vīthi-cittas experiencing objects connected with the world of the next life, which is different. So long as the dying-consciousness has not arisen, we are still leading this life. Besides the bhavanga-cittas that do not know anything connected with this world, there have to be again vīthi-cittas which know objects of this world, namely, visible object, sound, odour, flavour, tangible object, objects experienced through the mind-door and different ideas connected with this world.

Summary of a sense-door process that runs its full course, with seven types of vīthi-cittas:

atīta bhavanga, one moment
bhavanga calana, one moment
not vīthi-cittas
bhavangupaccheda, one moment

five-sense-door adverting-consciousness

-one moment of vīthi-citta

one of the sense-cognitions
one moment of vīthi-citta
receiving-consciousness
one moment of vīthi-citta
investigating-consciousness
one moment of vīthi-citta
determining-consciousness
one moment of vīthi-citta

kusala citta, akusala citta or kiriyacitta

seven javana vīthi-cittas

kusala citta, akusala citta or kiriyacitta

tadālambana-citta

two moments of vīthi-citta

tadālambana-citta

The duration of one rūpa is equal to the arising and falling away of seventeen moments of citta.

After the vīthi-cittas of a sense-door process have arisen, experienced an object through one of the five sense-doors (which is the pasāda-rūpa) and have fallen away, there will be bhavanga-cittas arising and falling away in succession, in between processes. After that, the mind-door adverting-consciousness arises and experiences through the mind-door (the bhavangupaccheda) the same object as the vīthi-cittas of the preceding sense-door process, which just before experienced that object and then fell away. The process of cittas that experience an object through the mind-door does not last as long as a sense-door process. There is no atīta bhavanga before the mind-door process begins. The object that has just been experienced by cittas of a sense-door process no longer impinges on the eyesense or one of the other senses when the mind-door process begins. There have to be bhavanga-cittas before the mind-door process and the last bhavanga-cittas that arise and fall away are the bhavanga calana that vibrates, that is stirred by the object, and the bhavangupaccheda, the arrest bhavanga.

After this citta has fallen away, the mind-door adverting-consciousness arises and this is the first vīthi-citta of the mind-door process, which experiences the same object as the cittas of the sense-door process. The mind-door adverting-consciousness, which performs the function of adverting to the object through the mind-door, is different from the five-sense-door adverting-consciousness, which performs its function only through five sense-doors. The mind-door adverting-consciousness “ponders over” the object and experiences it through the mind-door. Whenever we think about different subjects, as we do time and again, the citta at such moments does not experience objects through the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue and the bodysense.

After the bhavanga calana, the bhavangupaccheda and the mind-door adverting-consciousness have arisen and fallen away, kusala cittas or akusala cittas arise in the case of non-arahats. These types of vīthi-cittas perform the function of javana and they arise and fall away in a succession of seven cittas. After these have fallen away there are, if the object is very clear, tadālambana-cittas arising in a succession of two cittas.

Thus, there are only three types of vīthi-cittas arising that experience an object through the mind-door. They are the adverting vīthi-citta, the javana vīthi-citta, of which there are seven cittas in succession, and the tadālambana or tadārammaṇa vīthi-citta, of which there are two types in succession.

Summary of the mind-door process with three types of vīthi-cittas:

bhavanga calana, one moment

not vīthi-cittas

bhavangupaccheda, one moment

mind-door adverting-consciousness

one moment of vīthi-citta

kusala citta, akusala citta or kiriyacitta

seven moments of javana

kusala citta, akusala citta or kiriyacitta

vīthi-citta

kusala citta, akusala citta or kiriyacitta

tadālambana-citta

two moments of vīthi-citta

tadālambana-citta

When we see what appears through the eyes, all vīthi-cittas that arise in the eye-door process and experience visible object through the eye-door are eye-door process cittas. Of these vīthi-cittas, there are seven different types in all. They depend on the eye-door and they experience the object that appears through the eye-door, that has not yet fallen away. It is the same in the case of the other sense-door processes. There are in each of these processes seven different types of vīthi-cittas experiencing the object that appears through the corresponding doorway and has not yet fallen away.

The number of vīthi-cittas that experience objects in sense-door processes can be different. Four different courses or rounds (vāras) can be distinguished in sense-door processes:

the full course ending with the tadālambana-citta (tadālambana vāra);
the course ending with the javana-citta (javana vāra);
the course ending with the votthapana-citta (votthapana vāra);
the futile course (mogha vāra).

A course, or vāra, is a series of vīthi-cittas that arise and fall away in succession and experience the same object through the same doorway. In some courses, seven types of vīthi-citta arise, in others six types, in others again five types, and in some there are no vīthi-cittas arising, there are only the atīta bhavanga and the bhavanga calana.

In the case of the futile course, when a rūpa impinges on one of the senses, the bhavanga-citta that arises at that moment, the atīta bhavanga, is not succeeded immediately by the bhavanga calana, the vibrating bhavanga. There are several moments of atīta bhavanga arising and falling away before the bhavanga calana, which is stirred by the object, arises and this citta is then succeeded by several more moments of bhavanga calana, arising and falling away. Since the object, which is rūpa impinging on one of the senses, is about to fall away (lasting no longer than seventeen moments of citta), there are no conditions for vīthi-cittas to arise and to experience the object that impinged on one of the senses. In that case, it is a futile course.

The futile course of a process can be compared to the situation when someone who is fast asleep and stirred in order to be woken up, does not wake up, and who, when stirred again with force, still does not wake up. In the case of the futile course, the adverting-consciousness does not arise, there are only the atīta bhavanga and the bhavanga calana. The object that impinges when there is a futile course is called “very slight” (atiparitta), because it impinges on one of the senses and only affects bhavanga-cittas, it does not condition the arising of vīthi-cittas; it falls away before there is an opportunity for their arising.

It may also happen that there are several types of atīta bhavanga arising and falling away, followed by several types of bhavanga calana arising and falling away and that after that the bhavangupaccheda arises and the stream of bhavanga-cittas is arrested. Then, the sense-door adverting-consciousness, one of the sense-cognitions, the receiving-consciousness and the investigating-consciousness, can arise and fall away in succession. After that, the determining-consciousness arises, but since the rūpa cannot last longer than seventeen moments of citta, there is no opportunity for the arising of the javana-cittas that experience that rūpa. In that case, two or three moments of votthapana-citta arise and fall away and then, when the rūpa falls away, the process is ended. This course is called the course ending with votthapana (votthapana vāra), since the votthapana-citta is the last vīthi-citta.

All this is according to reality as it occurs in daily life. When an object impinges on one of the senses, the full course of seven types of vīthi-cittas arising and falling away does not always occur. It may happen that there are no vīthi-cittas, thus, there is a futile course, or that the course ends with votthapana-citta (votthapana vāra). In the last case, the object is called “slight” (paritta), because it is the object of only five kinds of vīthi-cittas and then it falls away.

It may also happen, when the votthapana-citta has arisen and fallen away, and is succeeded by the javana-cittas, which arise and fall away in a succession of seven cittas, that then the object falls away. In such a case, the tadālambana vīthi-citta cannot arise and there is a course ending with the javana-citta (javana vāra), with six kinds of vīthi-cittas, where the last type is javana-citta experiencing the object. The object of such a course is called “great” (mahanta), because it is clear and it conditions the arising of kusala citta, akusala citta, or, in the case of the arahat, mahā-kiriyacitta.

Lastly, it may happen that when the javana-cittas have arisen and fallen away in a succession of seven cittas, that the object has not yet fallen away. Then there is a condition for two types of tadārammaṇa-citta (or tadālambana-citta) to arise and to experience the object, which has not yet fallen away. The last vīthi-citta that experiences the object is then tadālambana-citta. This is the course ending with tadālambana-citta (tadālambana vāra). The object of such a course is called “very great” (atimahanta). This object is very clear, the process runs its full course with the tadālambana vīthi-cittas succeeding the javana vīthi-cittas and experiencing the object, which has not yet fallen away.

In the case of the mind-door process, two different courses are possible: the course ending with javana and the course ending with tadālamabana. The object of the course ending with javana is called “obscure” (avibhūta), because it is less clear than the object of the course ending with tadālambana. The object of the course ending with tadālambana is called “clear” (vibhūta), because it is clearer than the object of the course ending with javana.

There are six doorways. A doorway is the means through which vīthi-citta knows an object other than the object of the bhavanga-citta. Of these six doorways, through which vīthi-cittas experience objects, five doorways are rūpa and one is nāma. Summarizing the six doorways, they are:

the eye-door, cakkhu-dvāra, which is the cakkhuppasāda
rūpa,
the ear-door, sota-dvāra, which is the sotappasāda rūpa,
the nose-door, ghāṇa-dvāra, which is the ghāṇappassāda rūpa,
the tongue-door, jivhā-dvāra, which is the jivhāppasāda rūpa,
the body-door, kāya-dvāra, which is the kāyappassāda rūpa,
the mind-door, mano-dvāra, which is the bhavangupaccheda citta, preceding the mind-door adverting-consciousness.

Six rūpas are bases, vatthus, where cittas arise, in the planes of existence where there are five khandhas, nāma and rūpa. These rūpas are called vatthu rūpa. Summarizing them, they are:

the cakkhuppasāda rūpa, which is the eye-base, cakkhu-vatthu, the place of origin for the two types of seeing-consciousness, cakkhu-viññāṇa;
the sotappasāda rūpa, which is the ear-base, sota-vatthu, for the two types of hearing-consciousness, sota-viññāṇa;
the ghāṇappassāda rūpa, which is the nose-base, ghāṇa-vatthu, for the two types of smelling-consciousness, ghāṇa-viññāṇa;
the jivhāppasāda rūpa, which is the tongue-base, jivhā-vatthu, for the two types of tasting-consciousness, jivhā-viññāṇa;
the kāyappassāda rūpa, which is the body-base, kāya-vatthu, for the two types of kāya-viññāṇa;
the hadaya-rūpa, the heart-base, which is the place of origin in the planes where there are five khandhas for all cittas other than the five pairs of sense-cognitions.

The five pasāda rūpas can be doors as well as bases, places of origin. The cakkhuppassāda rūpa (eyesense) is the eye-door for all the cittas of the eye-door process, namely: eye-door adverting-consciousness, seeing-consciousness, receiving-consciousness, investigating-consciousness, determining-conscious-ness, javana-citta and tadālambana-citta, experiencing visible object which impinges on the eyesense and which has not yet fallen away. However, the cakkhuppasāda rūpa is also the eye-base, cakkhu-vatthu, that is the place of origin, only for the two types of seeing-consciousness (kusala vipākacitta and akusala vipākacitta). With regard to the other cittas of the eye-door process, the eye-door adverting-consciousness, the receiving-consciousness, the investigating-consciousness, the determining-consciousness, the javana-citta and the tadālambana-citta, they arise at the heart-base, hadaya-vatthu. It is the same in the case of the other pasāda rūpas that are the doors of the relevant vīthi-cittas, but which are the base, vatthu, only for the corresponding sense-cognitions.

The hadaya rūpa is the base, the place of origin, for the cittas concerned, but it is not a doorway.

Questions

Why are the vīthi-cittas of the mind-door process less in number than those of the five-sense-door processes?
Through how many doorways can lobha-mūla-citta, citta rooted in attachment, experience an object?
Through how many doorways can the five-sense-door adverting-consciousness experience an object?
Through how many doorways can the mind-door adverting-consciousness experience an object?
What are the futile course, mogha vāra, the votthapana vāra, the javana vāra and the tadālambana vāra?
What object is “obscure” (avibhūta) and what object is “clear” (vibhūta)?
Which rūpa is the base for the rebirth-consciousness arising in a plane where there are five khandhas?
Which rūpa is the base for the akusala citta arising in a plane where there are five khandhas?
Which rūpa is the base for the kiriyacitta arising in a plane where there are five khandhas?
.Which rūpas are the bases for the different ear-door process cittas?
11.Which rūpas are the bases for the different cetasikas arising in a plane where there are five khandhas?

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