Vitality and Attention
Vitality (jīvitindriya)
Jīvitindriya (life-faculty or vitality) and manasikāra (attention) are two other cetasikas among the seven universals which arise with every citta. As regards jīvitindriya,(47) this cetasika sustains the life of the citta and cetasikas it accompanies. According to the Atthasālinī (part IV, Chapter I, 123, 124)(48) the characteristic of jīvitindriya is “ceaseless watching”, its function is to maintain the life of the accompanying dhammas, its manifestation the establishment of them, and the proximate cause are the dhammas which have to be sustained.
The function of jīvitindriya is to maintain the life of citta and its accompanying cetasikas. It keeps them going until they fall away. Since jīvitindriya arises and falls away together with the citta, it performs its function only for a very short while. Each moment of citta consists actually of three extremely short periods:
the arising moment (uppāda khaṇa)
the moment of its presence, or static moment (tiṭṭhi khaṇa)
the dissolution moment (bhaṅga khaṇa)
Jīvitindriya arises with the citta at the arising moment and it maintains the life of citta and the accompanying cetasikas, but it cannot make them stay beyond the dissolution moment; then jīvitindriya has to fall away together with the citta and the accompanying cetasikas.
The Atthasālinī states concerning jīvitindriya:
…it watches over those states (the accompanying dhammas) only in the moment of (their and its) existence, as water over lotuses, etc. And although it watches over them, arisen as its own property, as a nurse over the infant, life goes on only by being bound up with these states ( accompanying dhammas) that have gone on, as the pilot on the boat. Beyond the dissolution moment it does not go on, owing to the non-being both of itself and of the states which should have been kept going. At the dissolution moment it does not maintain them, owing to its own destruction, as the spent oil in the wick cannot maintain the flame of the lamp. Its effective power is as its duration.
Citta and cetasikas cannot arise without jīvitindriya which maintains their lives and jīvitindriya cannot arise without citta and the accompanying cetasikas. When, for example, seeing arises, jīvitindriya must accompany seeing. Seeing needs jīvitindriya in order to subsist during the very short period of its life. When seeing falls away jīvitindriya also falls away. Then another citta arises and this citta is accompanied by another jīvitindriya which sustains citta and the accompanying cetasikas during that very short moment of their existence. Jīvitindriya has to arise with every citta in order to vitalize citta and its accompanying cetasikas.
The cetasika jīvitindriya which vitalizes the accompanying nāma-dhammas is nāma. There is also jīvitindriya which is rūpa.(49) Rūpa-jīvitindriya is a kind of rūpa produced by kamma and it maintains the life of the other rūpas it arises together with. Rūpas of the body arise and fall away in groups, some of which are produced by kamma, some by citta, some by nutrition and some by temperature. Jīvitindriya is part only of the groups or rūpa which are produced by kamma. It maintains the life of the rūpas it accompanies and then it falls away together with them.
We used to take life for something which lasts. We cling to life and we take it for ’mine’ and ’self’. However, there is no physical life nor mental life which lasts. Life-faculty is saṅkhāra dhamma, conditioned dhamma, which does not stay and which is not self. The study of the reality of jīvitindriya can remind us that life lasts only for a moment and then falls away to be succeeded by a next moment.
Attention (manasikāra)
Manasikāra, attention, is another cetasika among the universals which arises with every citta.(50) The Atthasālinī (I, Part IV, Chapter 1, 133) which defines manasikāra in the same wording as the Visuddhimagga (XIV, 152) states concerning the cetasika which is manasikāra:
…It has the characteristic of driving associated states towards the object, the function of joining (yoking) associated states to the object, the manifestation of facing the object. It is included in the saṅkhārakkhandha, and should be regarded as the charioteer of associated states because it regulates the object.
The Visuddhimagga (XIV, 152) adds that the proximate cause of manasikāra is an object.
The cetasika manasikāra which can be translated as attention is the ’controller of the object’ because it turns the citta towards the object. However, also at the moments we are, as we call it in conventional language, ’distracted’ and we think that we are without attention, there is still manasikāra with the citta since it accompanies every citta. Also when there is moha-mūla-citta accompanied by uddhacca (restlessness), citta cognizes an object; manasikāra accompanies the citta and ’joins’ citta and the other cetasikas to that object. Every citta needs manasikāra in order to cognize an object.
There is citta at this moment and thus there must also be manasikāra. Manasikāra is different from phassa which contacts the object so that citta can experience it, and it is different from ekaggatā cetasika which focuses on one object. Manasikāra has its own task while it assists the citta in cognizing the object. Manasikāra has attention to whatever object presents itself through one of the six doors and it ’joins’ citta and the accompanying cetasikas to that object.
Manasikāra is different according as it arises with different types of citta. When, for example, seeing arises, it is accompanied by manasikāra which joins seeing and the accompanying cetasikas to visible object. Seeing is vipāka and thus manasikāra is also vipāka. Shortly after the seeing there can be attention to the shape and form of something and then the object is not visible object but a concept. At that moment there is another type of citta accompanied by another manasikāra. At each moment manasikāra is different. When there is lobha-mūla-citta, akusala citta rooted in attachment, manasikāra which accompanies lobha-mūla-citta is also akusala. When there is kusala citta the manasikāra which accompanies the kusala citta is also kusala.
When manasikāra accompanies a citta which cultivates samatha, it ’joins’ citta and the other cetasikas to the meditation subject, such as a corpse or the Buddha’s virtues. When the citta is rūpāvacara kusala citta, the accompanying manasikāra is also rūpāvacara; it is different from manasikāra which is kāmāvacara (belonging to the sense sphere). Rūpāvacara citta experiences the meditation subject with absorption and the accompanying manasikāra ’joins’ citta and the accompanying cetasikas to that object. The manasikāra which accompanies arūpāvacara citta is still more tranquil and more refined than the manasikāra which accompanies rūpāvacara citta. When manasikāra accompanies the citta which develops vipassanā, right understanding of nāma and rūpa, there is attention towards the nāma or rūpa which is the object of mindfulness at that moment; manasikāra assists the citta and joins it to that nāma or rūpa. When manasikāra accompanies lokuttara citta, manasikāra is also lokuttara and it joins citta and the accompanying cetasikas to the object which is nibbāna.
We are likely to have a concept of self which has attention to this or that object, but attention, manasikāra, is a conditioned dhamma, it is conditioned by the citta and the cetasikas it accompanies, it arises and falls away together with them. At each moment there is a different citta and thus also a different manasikāra.
The seven universals have each their own specific characteristic, function, manifestation and proximate cause and they have different qualities as they arise with cittas of different jātis and of different planes of consciousness. Summarizing the seven ’universals’, they are:
phassa (contact)
vedanā (feeling)
saññā (remembrance)
cetanā (volition)
ekaggatā ( concentration or one-pointedness)
jīvitindriya (life faculty)
manasikāra (attention)
All the ’universals’ arise with every citta and they share the same object with the citta. They are all of the same jāti as the citta they accompany and of the same plane of consciousness. In the planes of existence where there are both nāma and rūpa, cetasikas arise at the same ’base’, vatthu, as the citta they accompany and thus, they may arise at the eye-base, ear-base nose-base, tongue-base, body-base or heart-base.
Cetasikas never arise by themselves, they always accompany citta and other cetasikas. Therefore, when we study cetasikas, we should also study the different cittas they accompany.
There are other cetasikas besides the ’universals’ which can arise with the citta, but there have to be at least the seven ’universals’ with every citta.
There are ten types of cittas which are accompanied only by the ’universals’, not by other cetasikas. These are the ’five pairs’ (dvi-pañcaviññāṇa) which are: seeing-consciousness, hearing-consciousness, smelling-consciousness, tasting-consciousness and body-consciousness. These cittas are ahetuka (rootless) vipākacittas which can be either kusala vipāka or akusala vipāka and therefore, they are “five pairs”.
When seeing-consciousness arises, each of the ’universals’ which accompanies it performs its own function. Phassa which accompanies seeing-consciousness is eye-contact (cakkhu-samphassa). It contacts visible object. When there is eye-contact there is the coinciding of eye-base, visible object and seeing-consciousness. Vedanā, which is in this case indifferent feeling, experiences the ’taste’ of visible object. Saññā ’marks’ and remembers visible object. Cetanā coordinates the tasks of the accompanying dhammas. Since seeing-consciousness is vipākacitta, cetanā merely coordinates, it does not ’will’ kusala or akusala. Ekaggatā performs its function of focusing on visible object; it does not focus on any other object. Jīvitindriya sustains citta and the accompanying cetasikas until they fall away. Manasikāra ’drives’ citta and the accompanying cetasikas towards visible object. Seeing-consciousness needs the accompanying ’universals’ in order to cognize visible object; it could not arise and cognize its object without the assistance of the accompanying cetasikas.
As we have seen, only the dvi-pañcaviññāṇas (the five pairs of sense-cognitions) are not accompanied by other cetasikas besides the ’universals’. All the other cittas which arise in the sense-door process and in the mind-door process and also the paṭisandhi-citta, rebirth-consciousness, the bhavanga-citta, life-continuum, and the cuti-citta, dying-consciousness, are accompanied by other cetasikas besides the ’universals’.
The 'universals' have different qualities as they arise with different cittas. For example, when kusala citta arises all the accompanying cetasikas, the 'universals' included, are kusala as well. Vedanā, feeling, which accompanies kusala citta can be pleasant feeling or indifferent feeling.
Cetanā, volition, which accompanies kusala citta coordinates the tasks of the accompanying dhammas and if it is of the intensity of kusala kamma patha, it produces its appropriate result. When the citta is akusala, all the accompanying cetasikas are akusala as well. Vedanā which accompanies akusala citta can be pleasant feeling (in the case of lobha-mūla-citta), unpleasant feeling (in the case of dosa-mūla-citta), or indifferent feeling (in the case of lobha-mūla-citta and moha-mūla-citta). As regards cetanā which accompanies akusala citta, this coordinates the accompanying dhammas on the object and it if it is of the intensity of akusala kamma patha, it produces its appropriate result.
Ekaggatā, concentration or one-pointedness, which accompanies akusala citta is different from ekaggatā which accompanies kusala citta. Thus we see that mental phenomena which arise together condition one another. If we have more understanding of the many different conditions for the phenomena which arise, it will help us to see them as elements, not as a person, a self.
Questions
Does manasikāra, attention, arise when we are sound asleep?
Can manasikāra be lokuttara?
Do nāma-jīvitindriya and rūpa-jīvitindriya have different functions?
Which types of citta are accompanied only by the seven ’universals’
and not by other cetasikas?
Each of the ’universals’ has its specific characteristic, function,
manifestation and proximate cause. Why can each one of them still
have different qualities at different moments?
Through how many doors can the ’universals’ experience an object?
Can the ’universals’ experience a concept?
When the citta is akusala citta, it is accompanied by akusala
cetasikas. Are the accompanying ’universals’ akusala as well?
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