Lal,
I understand that tanha may not necessarily lead to upadana if the being is aware of what is going on and decides not to engage in vaci sankhara about the object of one’s tanha. However, suppose that the being is either unaware of, or chooses not to obstruct tanha, so that it smoothly leads to upadana without much hindrance.
In such a case, do my questions above still hold true? I.e. Tanha paccaya vinnana and tanha paccaya rupa (assuming upadana is there in both cases)?
I have also read somewhere that vinnana can occur three times in one PS cycle: as vinnana, or as one of the sub-factors of phassa (e.g. when cakkhu vinnana arises due to phassa between vanna rupa and cakkhu indriya), or as upadana (I am not very sure how to explain this connection though). Unfortunately I cannot locate the commentary anymore, so maybe we can ignore it if it arouses more questions than answers.