Reply To: Posts Related to “Distorted Saññā”

#51217
cubibobi
Participant

Hi,

I’d like to use this thread to verify my understanding of “distorted saññā”, a topic I’ve been studying on the site — slowly. Besides reading the posts, I used the concept of a citta vithi to understand the topic, and I’d like to share it here to see if it makes sense.

First, a high-level summary of “distorted saññā” according to my understanding, and I’m limiting it to just humans and human arahants.

(1) We all have built-in “distorted saññā” due to the physical bodies. This is true for both a puthujjana and an arahant. For example, all of us likely has saññā about the sweetness of sugar, the beauty of a woman, etc.

(2) For a puthujjana, “distorted saññā” can easily lead to saññā vipallāsa; for an arahant it does not. For example, a puthujjana may want more of sugary drink or to get to know the beautiful woman (or even seduce her).

(3) For an arahant in arahant-phala samapatti, there is no “distorted saññā”.

First, to help me understand “distorted saññā”, I call it “bhavanga saññā” to note that it is saññā embedded in a bhava.

Using my understanding of citta vithi in processing sense inputs, I’m thinking something like this:

(1) In processing a sense object via the five physical senses we have: 1 pañcadvāra citta vīthi + 3 manōdvāra citta vīthī.

Each citta in a citta vīthi has a saññā cetasika since it is a universal cetasika.

(2) The saññā cetasika in a pañcadvāra citta vīthi is the “distorted saññā”.

In the 3 manōdvāra citta vīthī that follow, the saññā cetasika can become saññā vipallāsa for a puthujjana, but not for an arahant.

(3) For an arahant in arahant-phala samapatti, there is only the pabhassara citta  flowing, and thus there is no “distorted saññā”. The pabhassara citta is not a pañcadvāra citta nor even a manōdvāra citta.

Best,
Lang

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