[Sachin]

Every cita has an Object associated with it. when we meditate on breath then the object of attention is breath.. and after some time suddenly a past memory image pops up.. can one explain in terms of abhidhamma mind-moment model.. How the object of attention changed. and compare it with new, medium and adapt practitioners perspective.
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I think abhidhamma, or buddhism as such has no explanation for attention Shift from one object to another. As each mind moment has object which can be different from previous and each mind moment has cetasika called manaskāra. I never understand what kind of cetasika it is.

Is it yes / No to current object.
Is it intensity of attention like 0% to 100 %.
Is it pointer to object of attention. It could be current object or another object altogether.
However Patanjali yoga sutra has more clear answer to this. they attribute it to unconscious activity. and called that ‘manasa’. ‘Manasa’ is organ of body which travels to any location of body. and then only objects of that part are thrown to consciousness. It filters the data of all sense door… This is quite close to modern neuroscience too as hypothalamus in brain. This manasa can be instructed to change its filters .

I am giving a link to a PDf document which compares buddhism and patanjali yogasutra only around this question .. Its too good. Contrasting_Nyaya_Vaiseika_and_Buddhist.pdf

[Lal]

Hello enRaiser,

You asked: “Every citta has an Object associated with it. when we meditate on breath then the object of attention is breath.. and after some time suddenly a past memory image pops up.. can one explain in terms of Abhidhamma mind-moment model?”

Abhidhamma easily explains it. It is just that the author of that paper does not understand Abhidhamma.

The basic idea is explained in: “Change of Mindset Due to an Ārammaṇa”

There are six types of “thought objects” coming through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body,and mind.
– While one is engaged in breath meditation (which is NOT a Buddhist meditation, by the way) only the mind is active. Actually, the body is active too, since one is “monitoring the breath via touch sensation.” However, since you are talking about random thoughts that come to the mind, those come in through mind: “manañca paṭicca dhamme ca uppajjāti manoviññāṇaṃ.”

Please see, “Chachakka Sutta – Six Types of Vipāka Viññāna”

I am not sure how much background you have on Abhidhamma. You can take a look at the Abhidhamma section:
“Abhidhamma“

[TripleGemStudent]

An additional post enRaiser can look into

Seeing is a series of “snapshots”

[Author]

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