The Four Paramattha Dhammas
There are two kinds of reality: mental phenomena or nāma and physical phenomena or rūpa. Nāma experiences something; rūpa does not experience anything. What we take for “self” are only nāma and rūpa which arise and fall away. The Visuddhimagga (Path of Purification chapter XVIII, 25) explains:
For this has been said:
...So in many hundred suttas there is only mentality-materiality which is illustrated, not a being, not a person. Therefore, just as when the component parts (of a chariot) such as axles, wheels, frame, poles... are arranged in a certain way, there comes to be the mere conventional term ‘chariot’, yet in the ultimate sense, when each part is examined, there is no chariot ... so too, when there are the five khandhas of clinging there comes to be the mere conventional term ‘a being’, ‘a person’, yet in the ultimate sense, when each component is examined, there is no being as a basis for the assumption ‘I am’ or ‘I’; in the ultimate sense there is only mentality-materiality. The vision of one who sees in this way is called correct vision.
All phenomena in and around ourselves are only nāma and rūpa which arise and fall away; they are impermanent. Nāma and rūpa are absolute realities, in Pāli: paramattha dhammas. We can experience their characteristics when they appear, no matter how we name them; we do not necessarily have to call them nāma and rūpa. Those who have developed “insight” can experience them as they really are: impermanent and not self. Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, experiencing tangible object through the bodysense and thinking, all these nāmas are impermanent. We are used to thinking that there is a self who performs different functions such as seeing, hearing or thinking; but where is the self? Is it one of those nāmas? The more we know different nāmas and rūpas by experiencing their characteristics, the more will we see that “self” is only a concept; it is not a paramattha dhamma (absolute or ultimate reality).
Nāmas are mental phenomena, rūpas are physical phenomena. Nāma and rūpa are different types of realities. If we do not distinguish them from each other and learn the characteristic of each we will continue to take them for self. For example, hearing is nāma; it has no form or shape, it has no ears. Hearing is different from earsense, but it has earsense as a necessary condition. The nāma which hears experiences sound. Earsense and sound are rūpas, they do not experience anything; they are entirely different from the nāma which hears. If we do not learn that hearing, earsense and sound are realities which are altogether different from each other, we will continue to think that it is self who hears.
The Visuddhimagga (XVIII, 34) explains:
Furthermore, nāma has no efficient power, it cannot occur by its own efficient power ...It does not eat, it does not drink, it does not speak, it does not adopt postures. And rūpa is without efficient power; it cannot occur by its own efficient power. For it has no desire to eat, it has no desire to drink, it has no desire to speak, it has no desire to adopt postures. But it is when supported by rūpa that nāma occurs; and it is when supported by nāma that rūpa occurs. When nāma has the desire to eat, the desire to drink, the desire to speak, the desire to adopt a posture, it is rūpa that eats, drinks, speaks and adopts a posture...
Furthermore (XVIII, 36) we read:
There are two kinds of conditioned nāma : citta (consciousness) and cetasika (mental factors arising together with consciousness). They are nāmas which arise because of conditions and fall away again.
As regards citta, citta knows or experiences an object. Each citta has its object, in Pāli: ārammaṇa. Knowing or experiencing an object does not necessarily mean thinking about it. The citta which sees has what is visible as object; it is different from the cittas which arise afterwards, such as the cittas which know what it is that was perceived and which think about it. The citta which hears (hearing-consciousness) has sound as its object. Even when we are sound asleep and not dreaming, citta experiences an object. There isn’t any citta without an object. There are many different types of citta which can be classified in different ways.
Cittas can be classified by way of jāti (jāti literally means “birth” or “nature”). There are four jātis:
kusala
akusala
vipāka
kiriya
Both kusala vipāka (the result of a wholesome deed) and akusala vipāka (the result of an unwholesome deed) are one jāti, the jāti of vipāka.
It is important to know which jāti a citta is. We cannot develop wholesomeness in our life if we take akusala for kusala or if we take akusala for vipāka. For instance, when someone speaks unpleasant words to us, the moment of experiencing the sound (hearing-consciousness) is akusala vipāka, the result of an unwholesome deed we performed ourselves. But the aversion which may arise very shortly afterwards is not vipāka, but it arises with akusala citta. We can learn to distinguish these moments from each other by realizing their different characteristics.
Another way of classifying citta is by plane of consciousness, in Pāli: bhūmi. There are different planes of consciousness. The sensuous plane of consciousness (kāmāvacara cittas) is the plane of sense-impressions, which are: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and the experiencing of tangible object through the bodysense. On account of pleasant and unpleasant objects experienced through the senses, kusala cittas (wholesome cittas) and akusala cittas (unwholesome cittas) arise. There are other planes of citta which do not experience sense-impressions. Those who cultivate samatha (tranquil meditation) and attain absorption (jhāna), have jhānacittas. The jhānacitta is another plane of citta; it does not experience sense-impressions. The lokuttara citta (“supramundane consciousness”) is the highest plane of consciousness because it is the citta which directly experiences nibbāna.
As we have seen, feeling, vedanā is a cetasika which arises with every citta. Contact, in Pāli: phassa, is another cetasika which arises with every citta; it “contacts” the object so that citta can experience it. Perception or remembrance, in Pāli: saññā, is also a cetasika which arises with every citta. In the Visuddhimagga (XIV, 130) we read that saññā has the function of perceiving:
...Its function is to make a sign as a condition for perceiving again that “this is the same”, as carpenters, etc., do in the case of timber...
Citta only experiences or cognizes an object; it does not “mark” the object. Saññā marks the object so that it can be recognized later. Whenever we remember something it is saññā, not self, which remembers. It is saññā which, for example, remembers that this colour is red, that this is a house, or that this is the sound of a bird.
Although citta and cetasika are both nāma, they each have different characteristics. One may wonder how cetasikas can be experienced. When we notice a change in citta, a characteristic of cetasika can be experienced. For instance, when akusala cittas with stinginess arise after kusala cittas with generosity have fallen away, we can notice a change. Stinginess and generosity are cetasikas which can be experienced; they have different characteristics. We may notice as well the change from attachment to aversion, from pleasant feeling to unpleasant feeling. Feeling is a cetasika we can experience, because feeling is sometimes predominant and there are different kinds of feeling. We can experience that unpleasant feeling is different from pleasant feeling and from indifferent feeling. These different cetasikas arise with different cittas and they fall away immediately, together with the citta they accompany. If we know more about the variety of citta and cetasika, it will help us to see the truth.
“A hard thing there is, O King, which the Blessed One has done.” “And what is that?” “The fixing of all those mental conditions which depend on one organ of sense, telling us that such is contact, such is feeling, such is saññā (perception), such is volition and such is citta.” “Give me an illustration.” “Suppose, O King, a man were to wade down into the sea, and taking some water in the palm of his hand, were to taste it with his tongue. Would he distinguish whether it were water from the Ganges, or from the Jamunā, or from the Aciravatī, or from the Sarabhū, or from the Mahī?” “Impossible, Sir.” “More difficult than that, great King, is it to have distinguished between the mental conditions which follow on the exercise of any one of the organs of sense!”
Citta and cetasika are paramattha dhammas (absolute realities) which each have their own unchangeable characteristic. These characteristics can be experienced, regardless how one names them. Paramattha dhammas are not words or concepts, they are realities. Pleasant feeling and unpleasant feeling are real; their characteristics can be experienced without having to call them “pleasant feeling” or “unpleasant feeling”. Aversion is real; it can be experienced when it presents itself.
Element of Earth or solidity (to be experienced as hardness or
softness)
Element of Water or cohesion
Element of Fire or temperature (to be experienced as heat or cold)
Element of Wind or motion (to be experienced as oscillation or
pressure)
These “Great Elements” are the principle rūpas which arise together with all the other kinds of rūpa, which are the derived rūpas (in Pāli: upādā-rūpa). Rūpas never arise alone; they arise in “groups” or “units”. There have to be at least eight kinds of rūpa arising together. For example, whenever the rūpa which is temperature arises, solidity, cohesion, motion and other rūpas have to arise as well. “Derived rūpas” are, for example, the physical sense-organs of eyesense, earsense, smellingsense, tastingsense and bodysense, and the sense-objects of visible object, sound, odour and flavour.
Different characteristics of rūpa can be experienced through eyes, ears, nose, tongue, bodysense and mind. These characteristics are real since they can be experienced. We use conventional terms such as “body” and “table”; both have the characteristic of hardness which can be experienced through touch. In this way we can prove that the characteristic of hardness is the same, no matter whether it is in the body or in the table. Hardness is a paramattha dhamma; “body” and “table” are not paramattha dhammas but only concepts. We take it for granted that the body stays and we take it for “self”, but what we call “body” are only different rūpas arising and falling away. The conventional term “body” may delude us about reality. We will know the truth if we learn to experience different characteristics of rūpa when they appear.
Summarising the four paramattha dhammas, they are:
citta
cetasika
rūpa
nibbāna
When we study Dhamma it is essential to know which paramattha dhamma such or such reality is. If we do not know this we may be misled by conventional terms. We should, for example, know that what we call “body” are actually different rūpa-paramattha dhammas, not citta or cetasika. We should know that nibbāna is not citta or cetasika, but the fourth paramattha dhamma. Nibbāna is the end of all conditioned realities which arise and fall away: for the arahat, the perfected one, who passes away, there is no more rebirth, no more nāmas and rūpas which arise and fall away.
All conditioned dhammas, citta, cetasika and rūpa, are impermanent,
“anicca”.
All conditioned dhammas are “dukkha”; they are “suffering” or
unsatisfactory, since they are impermanent.
All dhammas are non-self, “anattā” (in Pāli: sabbe dhammā anattā,
Dhammapada, vs. 279).
Thus, the conditioned dhammas, not nibbāna, are impermanent and dukkha. But all dhammas, that is, the four paramattha dhammas, nibbāna included, have the characteristic of anattā, non-self.
Questions
What is the difference between nāma and rūpa?
What is the difference between citta and cetasika?
Do cetasikas experience an object?
Is there more than one cetasika arising together with the citta?
Can nibbāna experience an object?
Is nibbāna a “self”?
Last updated
Was this helpful?