Life-continuum, bhavanga-citta

There are moments when there are no sense-impressions, when one does not think, when there are no akusala cittas or kusala cittas. Even when there are no sense-impressions and no thinking there must be citta; otherwise there would be no life. The type of citta which arises and falls away at those moments is called bhavanga-citta. Bhavanga literally means “factor of life”; bhavanga is usually translated into English as “life-continuum”. The bhavanga-citta keeps the continuity in a lifespan, so that what we call a “being” goes on to live from moment to moment. That is the function of the bhavanga-citta. There are countless bhavanga-cittas arising at those moments when there are no sense-impressions, no thinking, no akusala cittas or kusala cittas. When we are asleep and dreaming akusala cittas and kusala cittas arise, but even when we are in a dreamless sleep there still has to be citta. There are bhavanga-cittas at such moments. Also when we are awake countless bhavanga-cittas arise; they arise in between the different processes of citta. It seems that hearing, for example, can arise very shortly after seeing, but in reality there are different processes of citta and in between these processes bhavanga-cittas arise. When an object contacts one of the five senses the stream of bhavanga-cittas is interrupted and a sense-cognition arises. However, there cannot be a sense-cognition immediately. When sound, for example, impinges on the earsense, there is not immediately hearing. There are still some bhavanga-cittas arising and falling away before the five-sense-door adverting-consciousness (pañca-dvārā vajjana-citta) adverts to the sound through the ear-door and hearing arises. The bhavanga-cittas do not perform the function of adverting to the sound which contacts the earsense, they do not experience the sound. They have their own function which is keeping the continuity in a lifespan. In the “Atthas ālinī”, the commentary to the first book of the Abhidhamma, the Dhammasangaṅi, the parable of the Mango is given, explaining a process of cittas after the stream of bhavanga has been arrested. We read (Expositor, 271, part X, no 2, Discourse on the moral result of the sensuous realm) that a man went to sleep under a mango-tree. A ripe mango fell down, grazing his ear. Awakened by the sound he looked, stretched out his hand, took the fruit, squeezed it, smelt it and ate it. We read:

“What does this simile signify? The function of the object striking the sentient organism. When this happens there is the function of adverting by the five doors just agitating the life-continuum, the function of just seeing by visual cognition, of just receiving the object by the resultant mind-element (receiving-consciousness], of just the examining of the object by the resultant element of mind-cognition (investigating-consciousness), the determining of the object by the inoperative element of mind-cognition (the kiriyacitta which is determining-consciousness). But verily only the apperception (the series of javana-cittas) enjoys the taste of the object.”

Processes of cittas occur at this moment: seeing, attachment to what is seen, thinking about it and taking it for a person or thing. It seems that when there is seeing we think at the same time of a person or thing, but each citta cognizes only one object at a time. It is beneficial to learn about the different processes of cittas that succeed one another extremely rapidly. When one has not studied the Dhamma one confuses the different doorways and the different objects, one “joins” them together. One is inclined to believe that there is a self who coordinates all the different expriences. In reality there are only different cittas arising because of their appropriate conditions that experience different objects one at a time. When we look at people they seem to last, and this is because we think for a long time of shape and form of people and of things. There are many different moments of thinking and these fall away. Thinking is a paramattha dhamma, but the concepts that are the objects of thinking are not paramattha dhammas. We can learn to discern when we are in the world of concepts and when in the world of paramattha dhammas.