It is important to get a good understanding of the key Pāli words regarding the mind.
Pre-2016 post; rewritten May 12, 2025
Introduction
1. It will be beneficial to read this post even if one is not interested in learning Abhidhamma.
- After writing a few posts in the Abhidhamma section, I realized it is a good idea to write introductory posts on the English meanings of some Pāli keywords related to the mind. In the end, words do not matter, and grasping the concepts involved matters. But conveying the concept correctly REQUIRES the use of the right words.
- This is a bit of a problem because there are no words in English that truly convey the meaning of some Pāli keywords when talking about the mind (like mano and viññāṇa).
- More details will be given in the Abhidhamma section, but the posts in this section provide just the basics.
Pāli Words Related to the Mind
2. A Citta (pronounced “chiththa”; see Ref. 1) is widely translated as a “thought,” viññāṇa as “consciousness,” and mano as “mind.” Those are all incorrect.
- A “conscious thought” would have many cittās; viññāṇa is much more than “mere consciousness”; mano is an “evolved state of citta.” Cittās arise in hadaya vatthu (“seat of the mind).” Let us first discuss the reason for using this term for the mind.
- Hadaya vatthu is where citta (thoughts) arise; thus, it is appropriate to call it the mind or, even more appropriately, “seat of the mind”. Hadaya vatthu is the “link” between the “mano loka” (mind plane) and the “material plane,” whether it is in kāma loka, rupa loka, or arupa loka (i.e., anywhere in the 31 realms). Mind or the hadaya vatthu is a very fine rupa (matter); in technical terms, hadaya vatthu is formed at paṭisandhi as a vatthu dasaka.
- This hadaya vatthu is the only trace of matter associated with a living being in the arupa loka. It is much smaller than an atom; only a form of “suddhāṭṭhaka” (sometimes written as “suddhāshtaka“) in the form of a “dasaka.”
- For example, suppose a cuti-paṭisandhi transition occurs from a cat to a human. In that case, the “cat hadaya vatthu” dies and a “human hadaya vatthu” is formed, and the very next citta arises in the “human hadaya vatthu” or the “human mind” in the “human gandhabba”; see, “Cuti-Patsandhi Transition – Abhidhamma Description.” With that in mind, let us discuss the ultimate “primary elements.”
Four Paramatta Dhamma
3. In the absolute sense (paramatta), there are four entities: citta, cetasika (pronounced “chethasika”; see Ref. 1), rupa (pronounced “rūpa”), and Nibbāna.
- The last one, Nibbāna, does not belong to “this world” of 31 realms. Therefore, citta, cetasika, and rupa represent anything and everything in this world.
- There are 89 (or 121) types of citta, 52 kinds of cetasika, and 28 kinds of rupa. See “Rupa (Material Form) – Table.”
- These are all listed in the “Tables and Summaries” section.
Citta and Cetasika
4. Citta and cetasika are “nāma” and all tangible things are made of “rupa”.
- A citta (“thought”) does not arise by itself but occurs with several cetasika (mental factors). There are seven cetasika that arise with ANY citta, and normally, there are other cetasika that arise in addition to those seven. This is discussed in “Cetasika (Mental Factors).”
- There are “good” and “bad” cetasika. The familiar ones are lobha, dosa, moha, alobha, adosa, and amoha, but many others exist. These determine whether a given citta is a “good” (kusala) citta or a “bad” (akusala) citta. There are only good or bad cetasika in a given citta; they do not mix.
5. Even though a citta arises and perishes within less than a billionth of a second, it gets contaminated during its lifetime. Starting as a “pure citta” (“pabhassara citta”; “prabhasvara citta” in Sanskrit) with the seven universal cetasika, it gradually degrades by incorporating many other cetasika into a “contaminated citta” or viññāṇa. Without going into details, the nine steps are:
- citta, mano, mānasan, hadayaṃ, pandaran, mana indriyan, mano manāyataṃ, viññāṇa, viññāṇakkhandha. But this happens during the life of the citta itself (in a billionth of a second) according to the “gati” we have. See “Citta, Manō, Viññāna – Nine Stages of Mind Contamination.”
- This is why we cannot control our initial thoughts, but as they turn to speech and bodily actions, we may have time to control them.
- But we still use the term “citta” to denote the outcome; to differentiate the one that the sequences started, we call it a “pure citta” or a “pabhassara citta.”
- What we end up with is basically what we call viññāṇakhandha, and all this happens within a billionth of a second. This “contamination process” cannot be controlled at that early stage; it happens automatically based on one’s “gati” (pronounced “gathi”). The only thing we can do is to change our “gati.”
6. We can use the following analogy: If we start with a glass of pure water, that can be compared to a pure citta with just the seven universal cetasika. Adding some sugar (mano) and salt (mānasan) makes it contaminated, but we cannot see the contamination. Now, if we add a bit of brown sugar, we can see the water turning brown; this is like the hadayaṃ stage. Then, we add bits of dirt, and the water gets further contaminated, but it is still mostly water. A contaminated citta is at the viññāṇa stage; it is a citta that is defiled.
- The citta of an Arahant does not contaminate beyond the masanan stage (While in the “Arahant phala samāpatti” enjoying Nibbānic bliss, an Arahant has the pabhassara citta or the pure citta). All others get to the viññāṇa stage, but of course, the “level of contamination” is much lower even by the time one gets to the Sotāpanna stage because one has gotten rid of any “gati” associated with the apāyā.
- As we can see, it is impossible to control such a fast process by sheer willpower; it is a matter of “cleansing the mind” progressively of the contaminants of greed, hate, and ignorance.
- Now we can see why “mano” cannot be the mind. “Mano” is just a bit “contaminated” citta. It gets progressively contaminated, and by the time it comes to the “viññāṇa” step, it has captured all relevant cetasika for that arammana or the “thought object.”
- At the last step, a very profound thing happens. The manasikara cetasika brings into play all relevant past viññāṇa (which are fixed as “nāma gotta”) as well as one’s “hopes and dreams” for the future that are relevant to the “event in question.” For example, if the thought occurs due to seeing a nice house, one may compare that house with houses like that one has seen before, AND one’s “dream house” that one hopes to build one day. Therefore, in the “final version,” a citta is a very complex entity that reflects the “nature of the object seen” and one’s likes/dislikes for it.
- This last stage of the citta or viññāṇa is the “composite awareness” for that particular event, which also has one’s likings, dislikings, etc. for that particular event; see, “Citta, Manō, Viññāna – Stages of a Thought.”
7. And we do not, and cannot, just perceive a single or even a few viññāṇakkandha; rather, what we “feel” as a “thought” is the sum of many such viññāṇakkandhö, and we still call that a “citta” or a “thought”; see, “What is a Thought?” and “Citta and Cetasika – How Viññāṇa (Consciousness) Arises.”
- We also alternatively call such sense experiences “citta,” “thoughts,” “consciousness,” and “viññāṇa.”
- Thus, it is critical to understand that what we mean by viññāṇa, in general, is the total of many cittās; in Paṭicca Samuppāda, at the “avijjā paccayā saṅkhāra,” viññāṇa means this total of many cittās or, even more accurately, the total of many of viññāṇakkhandha.
8. Now, I would like to point out a few important conventions:
- It is important to remember that thought can have many meanings, even in English: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought
- Normally, “citta” is used to denote a thought, and “viññāṇa” is used to denote the “awareness” associated with a thought. But that is not correct, as we discussed above.
- And as you can imagine, such an “average of thoughts” may have many types of cognitions and underlying “awarenesses,” and we will talk about the different types of viññāṇa in the next post, “2. Viññāṇa (Consciousness) can be of Many Different Types and Forms”.
References
1. In the 1800s, the Pāli Text Society adopted a specific writing convention to write Pali words using the English alphabet. See “Pāli Words – Writing and Pronunciation.”
2. Further details on rupa, vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra, and viññāṇa in “Rupa – What It Really Means,” “Vedanā (Feelings) Arise in Two Ways,” “Saññā – What It Really Means,” “Saṅkhāra – What It Really Means,” and “Viññāṇa – What It Really Means,.”
