Citta, cetasika and the way to NibbānaExtended version: consciousness, mental factors, the cognitive process and the path moment.

With every citta cetasikas always arise as well. A citta never occurs in isolation. citta = the bare cognising of an object (the "being aware" itself) cetasika = the mental factors that arise together with the citta, colour it and each fulfil a function They are inseparably bound by four things: the same arising, the same passing, the same object, the same basis. At least the seven universal cetasikas (sabbacittasādhāraṇa) are present in every citta: phassa (contact), vedanā (feeling), saññā (perception), cetanā (will / intention), ekaggatā (one-pointedness / concentration), jīvitindriya (mental life faculty), manasikāra (attention). The image of the tradition: citta = the king, cetasikas = his indispensable retinue. The king never appears without his retinue. Source: Abhidhammattha-saṅgaha, ch. I–II (the editions of Nārada and Bhikkhu Bodhi).

A frequent misunderstanding is that citta is "pure" and therefore nibbāna, while only the cetasikas arise and pass away. In the Theravāda Abhidhamma it is not so: citta and cetasika both arise and pass away, both are conditioned (saṅkhata), both are anicca, dukkha, anattā. The Abhidhamma knows four ultimate realities (paramattha dhamma): citta (consciousness), cetasika (mental factors), rūpa (matter) — all three conditioned, arising and passing away nibbāna — the only unconditioned (asaṅkhata) reality Nibbāna is therefore no citta and no "pure mind", but a reality of its own, a fourth one. Hence: pure citta ≠ nibbāna. (What this means for the three marks of nibbāna itself — that it is anattā, but not anicca and not dukkha — is unfolded in Part 3.e.) Nibbāna is not mind-dependent. A cetasika is not possible without citta — it co-arises with consciousness, passes away with it, shares its object and its basis (1.a). Nibbāna by contrast is no citta, no cetasika and no mental state; it does not arise together with consciousness. A supramundane citta (lokuttara) cognises nibbāna as object — but it does not produce nibbāna; nibbāna is no part of this citta and not contained in it. To the point: cetasikas are not possible without citta; nibbāna is possible without citta. With that the demarcation sharpens: nibbāna is not consciousness in a purified state and no mental "ground"; in its being it does not depend on a mind cognising it. (Caution with the language: when the texts say that the unconditioned "is" — atthi … ajātaṃ, Udāna 8.3 —, this does not mean the existence of a conditioned thing among things; see KNOWLEDGE / CONJEC‐

The confusion mostly comes from the "luminous mind" (pabhassara citta, AN 1.49–52): "Luminous is the mind, and it is defiled by incoming defilements." The commentary reads this "mind" as the bhavaṅga-citta (life continuum) — bright by nature, but conditioned nonetheless, a resultant consciousness (vipāka) that arises and passes away. The defilements are only "guests" (āgantuka); the mind itself remains a conditioned phenomenon that has to be developed (bhāvanā), no unconditioned ground. Source: AN 1.49–52 (Pabhassara Sutta) with commentary; Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary. The reading "citta = true self" exists among individuals and echoes Mahāyāna (Buddha nature) and Vedānta; the strict Theravāda Abhidhamma rejects it.

A single moment of consciousness (cittakkhaṇa) divides into three (roughly equally long) sub-moments: uppāda (arising), ṭhiti (persisting / remaining), bhaṅga (passing away / dissolving). These three together = one cittakkhaṇa. Immediately after the passing of the one, the next citta arises. This happens unimaginably fast — in the blink of an eye billions of cittas arise and pass away. The relation to matter: a piece of rūpa lasts 17 cittas, thus 17 × 3 = 51 sub-moments. The citta is accordingly 17 times "faster" than matter. An important restriction. The threefold scheme with the middle ṭhiti phase is a development of the commentaries. The canonical Abhidhamma (Yamaka, Citta-Yamaka) knows only uppāda and bhaṅga — arising and passing away. The root for the third phase is the sutta formula of the three marks of the conditioned (saṅkhata-lakkhaṇa): "An arising is discernible, a passing away is discernible, and an alteration of what persists (ṭhitassa aññathatta) is discernible." (AN 3.47 — see KNOWLEDGE / CONJECTURE.) Source: Abhidhammattha-saṅgaha, ch. IV/VI; Nina van Gorkom, Abhidhamma in Daily Life; Bhikkhu Bodhi (CMA, the note on khaṇa); Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary (khaṇa).

The starting position – bhavaṅga: as long as no active perceiving is running, the mind flows as bhavaṅga (life continuum), a passive stream (comparable to dreamless deep sleep). A vīthi is the interruption of this stream by an object. The full sense-door process (at the eye, for a "very strong" object) — exactly 17 moments:

# Moment (Pāḷi) Function Kind 1 atīta-bhavaṅga past life continuum (still flowing as the object impinges) vipāka 2 bhavaṅga-calana the life continuum vibrates / trembles vipāka 3 bhavaṅgupaccheda the life continuum is cut off vipāka 4 pañcadvārāvajjana adverting to the five-door object kiriya (functional) 5 cakkhu-viññāṇa seeing (bare eye-consciousness) vipāka 6 sampaṭicchana receiving the object vipāka 7 santīraṇa investigating the object vipāka 8 votthapana determining / fixing the object kiriya 9– javana ×7 "swift running" over the object — here kamma arises kusala / akusala (in the arahant kiriya) 16– tadārammaṇa ×2 registering / "holding on to" the object vipāka After that the mind sinks back into the bhavaṅga. 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+7+2 = 17. Why exactly 17? Because a rūpa lasts exactly 17 cittas — and a complete process fills exactly one object-lifetime. The object arises with the atīta-bhavaṅga (moment 1); since it lives 17 citta moments, it still stands after the 7th javana, so that the two tadārammaṇa (moments 16–17) can still take it up. At the end of moment 17 it goes out. That is why the length of the process depends on the strength of the object (four classes): atimahanta (very strong): the full process, ending with tadārammaṇa — the 17 moments above mahanta (strong): the object arrives somewhat later; the process already ends after the javanas, without tadārammaṇa paritta (weak): reaches only the votthapana (repeated 2–3 times), no javana — thus no kamma atiparitta (very weak): only a trembling of the bhavaṅga, no actual cognition at all Where kamma arises. Only the javana phase is karmically effective, because there the intention (cetanā) fully takes hold of the object. All the remaining moments are either vipāka (the result of earlier kamma) or kiriya (purely functional). Practical consequence: mindfulness sensibly takes hold at the votthapana, before the javanas "run off" into wholesome or unwholesome tracks. The mind-door process (manodvāra-vīthi), in brief. With an object that enters through the mind door, the sequence is shorter: bhavaṅga-calana → bhavaṅgupaccheda → manodvārāvajjana (adverting at the mind door) → javana ×7 → possibly tadārammaṇa ×2 → back into the bhavaṅga. Here there is no sense consciousness and no receiving/investigating. The manodvārāvajjana is the same citta type as the votthapana in the sense process. Through this process memories become possible, among other things — and, as Part 3 shows, the breakthrough to nibbāna as well.

Source: Abhidhammattha-saṅgaha, ch. IV (Vīthi-saṅgaha); Nārada, A Manual of Abhidhamma; N. K. G. Mendis, The Abhidhamma in Practice; Karunadasa.

The 37 factors of enlightenment (bodhipakkhiyā dhammā) are developed in a worldly (lokiya) way throughout the practice. Their actual, liberating path function they fulfil only in the supramundane path consciousness, the Magga-Citta. The 37 consist of seven groups: 4 Satipaṭṭhāna, 4 Sammappadhāna, 4 Iddhipāda, 5 Indriya, 5 Bala, 7 Bojjhaṅga, 8 Maggaṅga. But they are not 37 different qualities: the same quality appears several times (viriya nine times, sati eight times). Counted by their own nature (sabhāva), 14 actual mental factors remain: sati, viriya, paññā, samādhi, saddhā, vitakka, pīti, passaddhi, upekkhā, chanda, citta, sammā-vācā, sammā-kammanta, sammā-ājīva (of which citta is consciousness itself). — On the number 14 see KNOWLEDGE / CONJECTURE. "Full breakthrough" thus does not mean 37 single things side by side, but: these factors are completely and simultaneously effective in the path moment and all take nibbāna as object. A tangible piece of evidence: the three abstinences (right speech, right action, right livelihood) occur in ordinary wholesome consciousness only singly — only in the supramundane path do all three arise at once. Four path moments, each of them unique: Sotāpatti- (stream-entry), Sakadāgāmi- (once-return), Anāgāmi- (non-return) and Arahatta-magga. Each Magga-Citta lasts a single moment, arises only once in the whole of saṃsāra and is immediately succeeded by two or three fruition moments (phala). The phala can be entered again later (phala-samāpatti), the magga never. What is cut off is stated by the teaching of the fetters (Puggala-Paññatti 26–27, canonical): stream-entry: the first three fetters — sakkāya-diṭṭhi (view of personality), vicikicchā (doubt), sīlabbata-parāmāsa (clinging to mere rules and rituals) once-return: strongly weakens sensual desire (kāma-rāga) and ill will (paṭigha) non-return: overcomes these two entirely arahantship: the five higher fetters as well (desire for form/the formless, māna, uddhacca, avijjā) Source: Visuddhimagga XXII (Buddhaghosa); Abhidhammattha-saṅgaha ch. II/VII; Puggala-Paññatti 26–27; Ledi Sayadaw, The Requisites of Enlightenment; original passages among others AN 7.67, DN 16, MN 77, SN 46.5.

Does a single citta then take nibbāna as object? Yes. The magga-citta is a single moment of consciousness (a cittakkhaṇa) whose object is nibbāna. And it does not take nibbāna "naked": as always it carries its cetasikas with it. The path factors (the 14/37 from 1.e) direct themselves in this one moment all together upon nibbāna. That is the "full breakthrough": the whole bundle at one stroke upon the same unconditioned object. The citta takes nibbāna as object — it does not become nibbāna. Image — the eye and the sun: an eye turns for a moment towards the sun and sees it. Three things can be read off this at once: the eye is not the sun; the sun does not arise through the eye and is no part of it; and the seeing itself flares up and is over again. In just the same way: nibbāna is unconditioned and timeless and is neither produced nor contained by the cognising citta; the citta that cognises it remains a conditioned, impermanent moment. That is why citta can never be nibbāna, not even in the path moment — and nibbāna does not depend on the occurrence of this citta (cf. 1.b).

Before the path, insight meditation (vipassanā) contemplates the conditioned phenomena under the three marks (tīṇi lakkhaṇāni): anicca (impermanent), dukkha (unsatisfactory, suffering-laden), anattā (without a self). The canonical chaining stands in the Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta (SN 22.59): what is impermanent is suffering; what is suffering is not-self (yad aniccaṃ taṃ dukkhaṃ, yaṃ dukkhaṃ tadanattā). With the formations anattā is thus inferred by way of anicca — this point becomes decisive in 3.e. The contemplation intensifies through the stages of insight (vipassanā-ñāṇa, Visuddhimagga XXI) up to the saṅkhārupekkhā-ñāṇa, the equanimity towards all formations. Here what is knowable about the Saṅkhāras is exhausted. deepened in 3.d

At the threshold it is decided by which mark the insight enters. The tradition names three "gates of liberation" (vimokkha-mukha): by way of anicca → animitta-vimokkha (the signless) by way of dukkha → appaṇihita-vimokkha (the desireless) by way of anattā → suññata-vimokkha (the empty) Important: these gates concern the access, not a property of nibbāna. By whichever mark one enters — the object then grasped is the same unconditioned. Source: Visuddhimagga XXI; Paṭisambhidāmagga, Vimokkha-kathā.

The breakthrough runs as a mind-door process. It is no climax of the insight into impermanence, but a change of object — from saṅkhata (conditioned) to asaṅkhata (unconditioned). What is decisive is not the intensity of the experience, but at which point the object turns over. extended section The five threshold moments Moment Meaning Object Level Function saṅkhārupekkhā-ñāṇa equanimity towards the formations saṅkhāra (conditioned) worldly the climax of insight; effortless balance anuloma-ñāṇa knowledge of adaptation, conformity saṅkhāra (conditioned) worldly adapts itself completely to the Four Noble Truths and the path factors; maximally ripe gotrabhū-ñāṇa change of lineage nibbāna (unconditioned) threshold crosses the line puthujjana → ariya; touches nibbāna, cuts no fetter magga-citta path consciousness nibbāna supramundane cuts the respective fetters finally (samuccheda-pahāna) phala-citta fruition consciousness nibbāna supramundane experiences the effect of the path immediately; two to three moments The Visuddhimagga gathers saṅkhārupekkhā, the ripening that follows and anuloma under one term: vuṭṭhānagāminī-vipassanā — "the insight leading to emergence (to standing up)". "Emergence" (vuṭṭhāna) means the stepping out of the conditioned objects into the supramundane path. The threshold thus falls exactly between the last two of the seven purifications (satta-visuddhi, MN 24): the purity by knowledge and vision of the way (paṭipadā-ñāṇadassana-visuddhi) ends with anuloma; the purity by knowledge and vision (ñāṇadassana-visuddhi) begins with the magga. Gotrabhū lies in the gap between them. The process of consciousness at the threshold (magga-vīthi) Out of the life continuum comes the adverting at the mind door, then the javana series: … bhavaṅga → manodvārāvajjana → parikamma → upacāra → anuloma → gotrabhū → magga → phala → phala → bhavaṅga … The three preparatory moments parikamma (preparation), upacāra (approach) and anuloma (adaptation) all still have a conditioned object — they are the last worldly work of the mind at the transition. With "sharp" faculties (tikkha-puggala) the parikamma falls away, so that only two preparatory moments remain; with "slow" ones (manda) there are three. Correspondingly the number of fruition moments shifts (two or three), since the javana phase always comprises seven moments.

Gotrabhū exactly — the threshold moment The word gotrabhū (from gotta, "line/lineage", and bhū, "to become") means "the one becoming of the noble lineage". Three properties make it the hinge: It changes the object. Up to anuloma the mind takes formations as object; in gotrabhū this conditioned object falls away, and in its place there enters for the first time the signless, unconditioned nibbāna. It crosses the line from the worldling (puthujjana) to the noble one (ariya). It cuts no fetter yet. Gotrabhū touches nibbāna, but the fetters are only given up in the immediately following magga by cutting through (samuccheda-pahāna). From this the correction: gotrabhū is not "just before nibbāna", as though it were still on this side. It is the first moment beyond the object boundary — in its object already supramundane, in its liberating function not yet. It stands neither in the worldly (its object is nibbāna) nor is it already the path (it cuts nothing). This "neither-nor" makes it the threshold moment. The state of the sources: the term is attested late-canonically — the Paṭisambhidāmagga (Khuddaka Nikāya) contains a Gotrabhū-kathā of its own, which enumerates the moments of the change of lineage for the paths and the fruits; the embedding in the process (anuloma → gotrabhū → magga) is worked out commentarially (Visuddhimagga XXII). A refinement (commentarial): the transitional moment is called "gotrabhū" only at the first path — there the actual change of lineage from the worldling to the noble one takes place. At the three higher paths the practitioner is already ariya; the corresponding moment is then called vodāna ("purification"), not gotrabhū (Visuddhimagga XXII). Which mark — which gate By which of the three marks the ripe insight "stands up" into the path determines the gate (3.c): if anicca predominates, it enters through the signless (animitta); with dukkha through the desireless (appaṇihita); with anattā through the empty (suññata). Anuloma "colours" the entry according to the mark that dominated last — the target object (nibbāna) remains untouched by that. The experiential side (Mahasi) Mahasi Sayadaw describes in the Progress of Insight the stages as a progressive ripening up to the purity by knowledge and vision, with gotrabhū immediately before magga and phala. What practitioners regularly report in the saṅkhārupekkhā range: a very fine, wide equanimity; hardly any interest in the content any more; the observing "runs by itself"; a very fast, clear perception of arising and passing away; a condensation or sharpening, a feeling of a boundary; then — no more gradual continuing, but a turn-over: a cutting out, a cut, a "plop", a change of object. Read in terms of the mechanics: the condensation is the ripening from saṅkhārupekkhā through anuloma — it can sharpen to a maximum up to anuloma, because here the insight into the formations reaches its utmost. The "turn-over" is then no further intensification of the same perceiving, but the leap across the object boundary: gotrabhū → magga → phala. The emergence (vuṭṭhāna) passes over into the knowledge of review (see below).

The clarification: the turn-over lies in the object, not in the light Appearances of light, happiness, calm, fine concentration, a feeling of "emptiness" or "blackout" still belong entirely to the conditioned side. They occur typically at the knowledge of arising and passing away (udayabbaya-ñāṇa) as the ten insight defilements (vipassanūpakkilesa, Visuddhimagga XX): strong light (obhāsa), rapture (pīti), calm (passaddhi), happiness (sukha) and others. The difference from the breakthrough is categorial, not gradual: the breakthrough is no brighter light and no deeper calm, but the change of the object itself — from saṅkhata to asaṅkhata. As long as any mark, any content, any appearance is still being observed, it is not the threshold moment. The sequence and the review Three moments are thus decisive: gotrabhū (the first moment with nibbāna as object, cuts no fetter yet) → magga-citta (takes nibbāna as object and in the same moment cuts the respective fetters finally; only once per path stage) → phala-citta (the immediate fruit, with the same object; two or three moments). After that follows a reviewing cognition (paccavekkhaṇa), in which the mind looks back upon the penetrated nibbāna and upon the fetters overcome as well as those remaining. With that the "change of object" is exactly located: it begins in gotrabhū / vodāna, not only in the path moment. Sources: Visuddhimagga XX–XXII; Paṭisambhidāmagga I (Gotrabhū-kathā), Vimokkha-kathā; Abhidhammattha-saṅgaha IV/IX; Mahasi Sayadaw, The Progress of Insight (trans. Nyanaponika), Manual of Insight; MN 24 (the seven purifications); SN 56.11 (the Four Noble Truths); Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary (gotrabhū, anuloma-ñāṇa, vuṭṭhāna-gāminī-vipassanā). The counting of the moments (parikamma–upacāra–anuloma: two or three) varies according to sharpness and edition — see KNOWLEDGE / CONJECTURE.

A widespread abbreviation says that nibbāna "does not possess the three marks". That is true only for two of the three. nibbāna is not anicca — it does not arise, pass away or change. nibbāna is not dukkha — on the contrary, it is the highest happiness (nibbānaṃ paramaṃ sukhaṃ, Dhp 203). But nibbāna is anattā. The key is provided by the formula of the marks itself (Dhp 277–279): sabbe saṅkhārā aniccā — all formations are impermanent; sabbe saṅkhārā dukkhā — all formations are suffering; sabbe dhammā anattā — all things given are without a self. The change of word is deliberate: with the first two stands saṅkhārā (formations — thus only the conditioned). With the third stands dhammā (things given) — and dhammā includes the asaṅkhata, that is, nibbāna. Selflessness is the widest category: it holds without exception, for the unconditioned as well. The decisive point — it sharpens what was laid out in 3.b: with the Saṅkhāras anattā is inferred by way of anicca (SN 22.59: impermanent → suffering → not-self). With nibbāna anattā does not hold by way of anicca — for nibbāna is precisely not impermanent —, but directly: nibbāna is empty

of a self and of anything that would belong to a self. It is no "I", no substance, no owner. In the path and fruition moment the perception of impermanence and of suffering thus falls away, but the not-self nature of the object remains — only grounded by a different route. This fits exactly onto 1.b: nibbāna is a reality of its own, no "pure self". Practical consequence: whoever takes nibbāna to be "something eternal, abiding" and thereby loses the anattā dimension replaces the unconditioned unnoticed by a hidden atta. It is precisely against this that the change of word saṅkhārā → dhammā protects.

The texts describe nibbāna by what it is not and does not have: asaṅkhata — the unconditioned. Locus classicus: Udāna 8.3 — there is an unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned; were there not, no escape from the born, become, made, conditioned would be discernible. amata — the deathless dhuva — the stable (in the sense of not decaying, not in the sense of an enduring substance) amata, dhuva and others stand in the long series of synonyms of the Asaṅkhata Saṃyutta (SN 43). These epithets name no eternal thing. They name that precisely the absence of arising and passing away has become the object of cognition. "Stable" here means: not subject to decay — not: an abiding self.

The objection: the phala-citta arises and passes away — its object, however, does not. A contradiction? No, as soon as one takes 1.b seriously: consciousness (citta, conditioned) and object (nibbāna, unconditioned) are different realities. The duration of the cognising is not the duration of the cognised. Even in everyday life this holds approximately — a brief glance takes in a mountain that goes on existing (the image of eye/sun, 3.a). With nibbāna the difference is categorial: here an impermanent event cognises what is in principle imperishable. Precisely for that reason no impermanence is "seen along with" in the fruition moment — the object is no longer a conditioned phenomenon. And: an ordinary citta cannot take nibbāna as object — only gotrabhū/vodāna, magga, phala (and later again the phala-samāpatti, see 3.h).

The phala does not occur only immediately after the magga (3.d). A noble one (ariya) can enter the fruit of his stage again later and dwell in it — that is phala-samāpatti (the attainment of fruition, dwelling in fruition). Important beforehand, because a widespread confusion lurks here: there is no "phala-citta meditation" in the sense of a direct producing. The phala-citta cannot be forced. One directs the practice in such a way that the already realised fruit enters again of itself.

The course according to Mahasi Sayadaw The ariya takes up vipassanā again. First there usually appears once more the udayabbaya-ñāṇa — the knowledge of arising and passing away. The mind runs through the stages of insight rapidly. With practised training the saṅkhārupekkhā-ñāṇa (equanimity towards the formations) appears very quickly. If the concentration is ripe, the phala-samāpatti sets in. During the dwelling the mind no longer cognises conditioned appearances, but rests in the ceasing of the formations — with nibbāna as object. The difference from the first magga-phala breakthrough: the phala-samāpatti can last longer — from minutes to an hour or more. The practitioner directs himself resolutely towards repeating it, reaching it quickly and holding it longer. (Mahasi Sayadaw, The Progress of Insight — an experience-related presentation.) The process in the Abhidhamma More precise than the description of experience is the analysis of the process of consciousness: the entry is preceded by moments of adaptation (anuloma; in the full counting parikamma– upacāra–anuloma, two or three moments according to the sharpness of the faculty). These are still vipassanā cittas of the sense sphere — they do not yet have nibbāna as object, but prepare the transition. Then the phala-cittas arise in unbroken succession — without bhavaṅga in between — for the duration resolved on beforehand. Decisive: no new magga arises (that occurs only once per stage, 1.e) and no new change of lineage — the practitioner is already ariya. The process leads from the anuloma moments directly to the phala-cittas. Contrast with the magga-vīthi in 3.d: there with gotrabhū and magga With that the terminology falls into place: anuloma = the last adaptation of the mind (still a conditioned object); phala-citta = supramundane consciousness with nibbāna as object; phala-samāpatti = the series of such phala-cittas; nibbāna = the object, not the citta itself (cf. 3.a, 3.g). Signless liberation Because the object of the phala-samāpatti is nibbāna and nibbāna is signless (animitta) — free from the marks of conditioned appearances (3.f) —, the phala-samāpatti is described as animitta-cetovimutti, "the signless liberation of the mind". It counts as a pleasant dwelling here and now (diṭṭhadhamma-sukhavihāra) and is accessible to all four noble ones — Sotāpanna, Sakadāgāmi, Anāgāmi and Arahant —, each in the fruit of his own stage. (So the presentation among others in Payutto's Buddhadhamma; the equation phala-samāpatti = animitta-cetovimutti is interpretative — see KNOWLEDGE / CONJECTURE.)

Practice: do not grasp, do not force The practical instruction (among others Webu Sayadaw, Mahasi) fits exactly onto the Satipaṭṭhāna closing formula anissito… na upādiyati (to dwell independent, to grasp nothing): do not grasp after nibbāna, do not force the fruit. Instead continue vipassanā, form a clear resolve, stabilise the concentration, see the formations clearly, let go. Then the fruit can enter — it is not made. The danger of self-deception Calm, light, emptiness, a "blackout", a feeling of happiness or fine concentration are not automatically phala. Precisely at the udayabbaya-ñāṇa the ten "insight defilements" (vipassanupakkilesa, Visuddhimagga XX) occur — among them appearances of light (obhāsa), rapture (pīti), calm (passaddhi) and happiness (sukha) —, which are regularly taken for realisation. Classically a dwelling counts as a genuine phala-samāpatti only if (a) the corresponding magga has already been realised and (b) the phala-citta actually has nibbāna as object. The touchstone is not the experience, but the realised stage and the fetters dissolved.