Reply To: Citta Bhavana

#15745
Lal
Keymaster

Embodied is referring to the post: “Citta, Manō, Viññāna – Stages of a Thought“, which is an advanced post.

Here is #16 from that post:

Aṅguttara Nikāya 1; Accha­rā­saṅghā­ta­vagga; Sutta #51 is a very short sutta. Here is the complete sutta: “Pabhassa­ra­midaṃ, bhikkhave, cittaṃ. Tañca kho āgantukehi upakkilesehi upakkiliṭṭhaṃ. Taṃ assutavā puthujjano yathābhūtaṃ nappajānāti. Tasmā ‘assutavato puthujjanassa cittabhāvanā natthī’ti vadāmī”ti.

Translated:Bhikkhus, a (pure) citta has pabhassara nature. That citta is contaminated by defilements (keles or klesha). A normal human who has not heard my Dhamma (assutavā puthujjano) is not aware of this true nature. I do not recommend citta bhāvana to them“.

The citta bhavana referred to here is the same as anywhere else: It is always the Anapanasati/Satipattahana. One needs to be mindful always, and cultivate good thoughts that come to the mind and reject bad thoughts.

That becomes really effective only when one starts comprehending Tilakkhana. Anyone who has not, is an assutavā puthujjano. Then they do it at the mundane level. One who is doing “breath meditation” is even below that, because that does absolutely nothing to purify the mind.