Post on “Each Citta Starts with Distorted Saññā”

Each Citta Starts with Distorted Saññā

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I think this paragraph could lead to the misunderstanding that the pabhassara citta has distorted sanna.

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Each of the “Four Levels” Associated with a Distorted Saññā

4. Saññā (together with vedanā) is a fundamental mental characteristic. Even though vedanā and saññā belong to the general category of mental factors (cetasika), they are highlighted as two of the five aggregates (rupa, vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra, viññāna), whereas the rest of the 50 cetasika are aggregated under saṅkhāra. It is necessary to get a good idea of saññā: “Saññā – What It Really Means.“

• “Kāma rāga,” or “preference for sensual pleasures,” dominates on the first floor of the “four-level house” in our analogy. Of course, the qualities of this “kāma saññā” vary drastically from the apāyās to the human realm to the six Deva realms. It can be further analyzed at subtle levels, even within the human realm. Each sentient being in the kāma loka has their intrinsic level of “kāma saññā” that one is born with. That is related to the “natural bhavaṅga state,” as we will discuss later. The critical point is that they all have a standard root level, “rupa saññā” based on all six senses or five physical senses, i.e., pañca kāma. Since the mind is present in all realms, the distinction here is the availability of five types of “sensual pleasures” or “pañca kāma.”
• A mind can overcome the “kāma dhātu” and move to the next level of “rupa dhātu,” where it will only experience sights and sounds that are not “close contacts.” These sensory contacts do not require “dense physical bodies,” and thus, rupāvacara Brahmās have invisible, subtle bodies made of only a few suddhāṭṭhaka. The burdens associated with a physical body are absent, and they enjoy long-lasting “jhānic pleasures.” They do not have any perception of tastes, smells, or touches. Even though physical suffering is absent, there is still “mental stress” stress in the rupa loka. Here, the “rupa saññā” is based on only three senses.
• Even that mental stress will become less for yogis who proceed to the next — third level — of “arupa loka” with a subtle “arupa saññā” based on only the mind. However, even that state is not permanent. Those yogis born there have long lifetimes, but those lives come to an end, and they will be reborn in lower realms. However, they did not know how to reach the next higher fourth level. Only a Buddha can discover the way to get to that fourth level.
• It is only at that fourth level that one would have the root level of saññā associated with a pabhassara citta. Only the defilement-free, pure mind of an Arahant has access to that pabhassara citta.