Training of the mind
The course of an act of cognising
“What happens between the stimulus and what I notice of it?”
A single sense impression is not processed in one moment but in a fixed series of moments, each of which has its own task. This stage goes through the series, shows the place at which kamma is formed, and treats the moments outside every series: rebirth, the resting state, death.
For reading
Editorial explanation — quotations are marked as Canonical text and linked.
In one sentence
A sense impression is processed in an ordered series of moments, each of which has its own task — and only one of them forms kamma.
In today's language
What looks like a single instant — hearing a sound and knowing what it was — is on this account a whole chain. It does not begin at zero. As long as nothing touches the senses, the mind runs on in a resting state that one would most readily suppose in dreamless sleep; the Abhidhamma assumes it between two perceptions as well. Now if something does touch, this resting state is interrupted. One moment turns towards. A second merely hears — no more, without any evaluation. A third receives what was heard, a fourth examines it, a fifth determines what it is.
Only then comes the section towards which everything runs: a short sequence of moments in which the mind takes a position towards the object. Here — and only here — kamma is formed, because here is where intention sits (AN 4.171). After this a brief registering may still follow, then the mind sinks back into the resting state and the next series is due.
The use of this analysis is not the number of its links. It lies in the boundary it draws: the bare hearing is fruit and cannot be changed; the taking of a position is the only place where practice takes hold. Whoever has ever noticed how a tiny gap lies between a word and the annoyance about it has found the place described here.
The fifth chapter then treats the moments that belong to no such series. There are three, and they are curiously alike: the linking to a new existence, the resting state in between, and the death moment. The Abhidhamma says that within one life all three are of the same kind and have the same object — that which showed itself in the last taking of a position in the previous life. What is described here is not a soul that moves on. MN 38 expressly rejects this notion: one moment conditions the next, nothing more is claimed. SN 12.64 says the same from the other side — where consciousness gains a footing, new existence comes about.
To the same chapter belongs the enumeration of the realms of existence in which such a linking can take place; the usual count names thirty-one.
An honest word belongs at this point. The terms for series, resting state and taking of a position are vocabulary of the commentaries, not of the seven books: the Dhamma search returns no Piṭaka passage for them. For the linking, by contrast, it does find one, in the Paṭṭhāna. The course is therefore a later elaboration upon canonical material — usable, but not of the same rank as what went before.
Why this matters
This stage names exactly the gap in which freedom is possible. Everything before the taking of a position is decided, everything after it follows from that. Practice means noticing this gap before it has closed.
Canonical basis
MN 38 draws the boundary against a consciousness running through. SN 12.64 describes under which condition new existence comes about. AN 4.171 sets intention as that out of which welfare and woe arise. DN 15 names the descent of consciousness as the condition for name-and-form.
Components
- Cognitive series (citta-vīthi) — the ordered sequence of moments
- Series-free (vīthimutta) — moments outside every series
- Linking (paṭisandhi) — the first moment of an existence
- Death moment (cuti) — the last
- Task (kicca) — what a moment does within the series
- Door (dvāra) — through which the impression entered
- Realm of existence (bhūmi) — where a linking can take place
Connection with other teachings
The series is a fine drawing of the same chain that stage 4 of the existing path treats as dependent arising: contact, feeling, craving. The Abhidhamma merely enlarges the section between feeling and craving.
Significance for practice
The practice for this is old and simple: to notice the stimulus before the evaluation is there. Not in order to count the moments, but in order to hold the gap open.
Common misinterpretations
- “The cognitive series stands in the Abhidhamma Piṭaka.” — Not in this form. It is teaching material of the commentaries and of the compendium; the search in the canon confirms this.
- “Seven moments of taking a position — that can be observed.” — The number is systematics. What can be observed is the place, not its articulation.
- “The linking moment is the soul moving house.” — It is a new moment under conditions. MN 38 was spoken against exactly this view.
What you now have in hand
- name the sections of the series of a sense cognition
- say at which place in the series kamma is formed and at which it is not
- recognise the resting state, the rebirth-linking and the death moment as the same kind of moment
- explain what the Abhidhamma means by “rebirth” without assuming a travelling soul
- distinguish which terms of this stage stand in the Piṭaka and which come from the commentaries
Key terms of this stage
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Cognitive process citta-vīthi
The ordered succession of single moments by which one sense impression is taken in. An ordering of the commentaries, not of the canon.
Note for myself
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Process-freed consciousness vīthimutta
Moments outside any process: rebirth-linking, the life-continuum, and death consciousness.
Note for myself
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Rebirth-linking paṭisandhi
The first moment of consciousness of a life, following directly on the last moment of the life before.
Note for myself
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Death consciousness cuti
The last moment of consciousness of a life.
Note for myself
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Function kicca
The role a moment of consciousness fills within a process — seeing (dassana), receiving (sampaṭicchana), investigating (santīraṇa), determining (voṭṭhabbana), taking a position (javana), registering (tadārammaṇa).
Note for myself
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Door dvāra
The six entrances of experience: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and the mind itself.
Note for myself
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Plane of existence bhūmi
The thirty-one planes in which rebirth takes place: four planes of misery, the sense sphere, sixteen fine-material and four immaterial planes.
Note for myself
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Further reading optional
Intention and action kamma Intention, volition cetanā Consciousness viññāṇa Formation saṅkhāra Object ārammaṇa
Source texts Canonical text
- MN 38 — The reproof of Sāti: consciousness is not something running through but arises each time out of conditions — and with it the conditions for a new conception
- SN 12.64 — Where consciousness gains a footing and grows, new existence comes about — the canonical description of what the Abhidhamma calls linking
- AN 4.171 — Intention in deed, speech and thought as that out of which welfare and woe arise — the place in the series at which kamma is formed
Looking up the wording
search for “patisandhi” in the Abhidhamma Piṭaka — returns one passage from the Paṭṭhāna (patthana1.9).
The Pāli wording of the seven books lies in the Dhamma search; there is no translation of it here, in any language. Checked on 2026-08-08.
On this in German, in the Führer durch den Abhidhamma-Piṭaka (Nyanatiloka) — the chapter titles below are German as well:
For reflection
Does this series really run like that, or is it a model?
It is a description worked out in the commentaries, not in the Piṭaka itself. The Dhamma search shows this verifiably: for “vithi”, “bhavanga” and “javana” no passage is to be found in the seven books. Whoever takes the series for canonical overestimates its rank.
Does something travel across into the next birth at death?
No — that is exactly what MN 38 rejects. The linking moment is a new moment conditioned by the preceding one, not the same one travelling on. The Abhidhamma describes a sequence of conditions, not a migration.
If kamma is formed at only one place — are the remaining moments of no consequence?
They are not of no consequence, but they form no new kamma. Seeing, receiving and examining are resultant moments: they carry the fruit of earlier deeds without laying down any themselves. That is the practical point of the classification in stage 2.