Hii everyone,
May the blessings of the Triple Gem be with you always !
In this thread, basically two questions have been asked:
(1) If mind creates matter, then what creates mind ?
(2) What happens to a suddhatthaka when its lifetime ends ?
First of all, we all have different mind(s).
Every sentient being has its own stream of consciousness (separate from others).
So my stream of consciousness is different from your stream of consciousness.
And each individual stream of consciousness had NO BEGINNING (always existed in Sansara).
This mind-matter creation process is fueled by avijja (and tanha) and hence continuing this rebirth process (of mind AND matter) from beginningless time !
Avijja paccaya Sankhara…
Sankhara paccaya Vinnana…
Vinnana paccaya “Nama-Rupa”…
So this “Nama-Rupa” comes from vinnana.
Vinnana has kammic energy which creates mind AND matter.
And this vinnana was created by abhi-sankhara (done in past lives and also in present life) via javana citta.
Roughly translated in English, mind means “citta and cetasika”. And matter means “rupa”.
Citta, cetasika and rupa, all are “Sankata”.
So not going into detail, giving answer to (1) in simple language :
Your present “mind” was created by your own kammic energy from past lives.
And your future “mind” will be created by your kammic energy from present life (and also past lives).
Now coming to the second question.
Rupa can be classified into four categories:
(a) Kammaja rupa (Rupa produced by Kamma)
(b) Cittaja rupa (Rupa produced by Citta)
(c) Utuja rupa (Rupa produced by Utu)
(d) Aharaja rupa (Rupa produced by Ahara)
Different rupas have different lifetimes (but every Sankata has a FINITE lifetime).
A suddhatthaka is the smallest fundamental unit of matter (unknown to modern science).
A suddhatthaka gets converted into another type of suddhatthaka when the proportion of its constituents (patavi, apo, tejo, vayo, vanna, gandha, rasa, oja) are changed. In modern language we call this as one form of energy gets converted into another.
But the so called “conservation of energy theorem” holds only within the lifetime of a suddhatthaka.
But when the lifetime of a suddhatthaka ends, its energy runs out and it gets completely destroyed i.e, it vanishes completely.
But the problem is, new suddhatthakas are created by sentient beings all the time.
This is what we all have been doing from beginning-less time !
Sentient beings create suddhatthakas (due to avijja) so that they can enjoy pleasures from them (i.e, tanha).
Hope this helps.
MAY ALL BEINGS ATTAIN NIBBANA !!!