Reply To: The role of memory in pañcadvāra and manōdvāra citta vīthi

#40228
Jorg
Participant

Thanks Lal for your response and links! I’ve reviewed the posts and also thought about it a bit. (Btw, on the mobile, the Abhidhamma section has more posts than the one in the link you provided).

The root of my confusion, had to do with the role of mana indriya. I thought that while the first pancadvara citta ran, the mana indriya is not active. Let me review it again.

Although the cittas and citta vithis follow each other up with unimaginable speed, and each citta (vithi) builds up on the previous one—strengthening/sharpening the image and possible emotions—I just focus on the first one because everything needs to be consistent starting from the first step.

1. Right from the very first citta, when the third cetasika arises (sañña), obviously memory has to get involved otherwise there can’t be any recognition whatsoever.
The mind has to make contact with the nama loka then from the start of the very first pancadvaracitta, because every single memory (and defilement) is there.
That has to be done via the mana indriya as long as our gandhabba is in the physical body. If that statement holds true, then contact with any san gati will also be made as long as there’s a particular gati matching the particular arammana received.

2. For example:
One sees one’s favorite food. The sight is recognized and, immediately after, contact with san gati is also made, resulting in the arising of craving (in the form of raga cetasika).
Although we won’t notice that until few moments have passed—and billion of citta have arisen and passed away by then—the contaminations starts in the first pancadvara citta. Then each subsequent citta will get contaminated further due to natural association.

3. If I’m correct, that first actual contamination happens in the Sampaticchana sequence step of a pancadvara citta. Here one gets bound to the iccha due to san.

4. In the post, Nāma Loka and Rupa Loka – Two Parts of Our World
It’s stated,”…in the same way, memories experienced by the gandhabba “go out” to the viññāṇa dhātu via a “transmitter” in the brain.”
This is a critical piece of information I haven’t seen in any other post before. I think it’s worth adding it to others as well. Anyway, the transmitter must be the mana indriya.

Based on this I have a question. If one citta (referring to a single citta in a citta vithi here) has run, a memory record goes out to the nama loka. The next citta that arises uses that record then to build upon the previous one. That means the mana indriya stores it away and immediately retrieves it again? Can that record stay (in the mind), let’s say “temporarily”, until the citta sequence is completed, at least? If memory can only ever be retrieved in the nama loka (even during the formation of a citta vithi), the mana indriya is basically working non-stop.