Mind – Thoughts Arise in the ‘Mental Body’

The mind is primary in the Buddha’s teachings. Thoughts arise in the ‘mental body’ (‘manomaya kāya‘) and not in the brain. I plan to discuss the basic concepts associated with the mind, starting with this post.

November 1, 2026

Unraveling Buddha’s Teachings 

1. Especially in posts published in the past 3-4 years, I have used material from two different approaches to describe the evolution of a citta, starting with a citta (with minimum cetasika) and building up to those with heaps or aggregates of cetasika (pañcupādānakkhandha). Those are: (i) Paṭicca Samuppāda in the Sutta Piṭaka, and (ii) the evolution of numerous citta vithi in Abhidhamma to a lesser extent. (Note that ‘citta’ is pronounced ‘chiththa’; see “Pāli Words – Writing and Pronunciation“).

• In addition, I also discussed the ‘growth of pañcupādānakkhandha‘ using material from the Sutta Piṭaka.
• I now realize that some of that material may not be ‘easily digestible’ to a wider audience, especially those who don’t have familiarity with Abhidhamma. 
• In this post, I will try to point out some basic material (including basic concepts in Abhidhamma) that will hopefully help everyone understand how the mind works according to the Buddha’s teachings. No prior knowledge of Abhidhamma is needed. However, one must have the ‘desire to learn.’ These are complex issues. Please feel free to ask questions in the forum. I will discuss only what is necessary. Even though these may not be familiar to many, it is necessary to spend time understanding them first.
• I mentioned cetasika above. Those are ‘mental factors’ that arise in a citta. I will discuss them in the context of pañcupādānakkhandha in upcoming posts. The basic description is in “Cetasika (Mental Factors)“.

Mind – Starts at a Common State for All Humans

2. For anyone born with a human body, the ‘mind’ is in a ‘neutral state’ in the absence of sensory input. This is obvious in deep sleep. No ‘thoughts’ (citta) are generated, but the person is alive. The mind is said to be in the ‘bhavaṅga state’, which leads the mind to generate a common set of ‘distorted saññā‘ upon receiving sensory input.

• That ‘bhavaṅga state’ differs for living beings in other realms. It differs greatly for animals, and there is also much variation among different types of animals. 
• The difference in the ‘bhavaṅga state’ for realms in the ‘rupa loka‘ is drastic; those rupa loka Brahmās‘ ‘bhavaṅga state’ would incorporate fewer types of saññā, because the three faculties of taste, smell, and touch are absent for them. If you are not familiar with the meaning of saññā, see “Saññā – What It Really Means” for an introduction. I plan to write more in this series, too.
• The ‘bhavaṅga state’ of arupa loka Brahmās would have only one type of saññā; they have only the mind and no other sensory faculties.
• Both types of Brahmās in the rupa loka and the arupa loka don’t have physical bodies. As we discuss below, their ‘manomaya kāya‘ or the ‘mental body’ is smaller than an atom in modern science, so even if they are right in front of us, we wouldn’t see them!

Manomaya Kāya – Invisible Essential Component of All Living Beings

3. ‘Manomaya Kāya‘ is the essential component of any sentient living being. Any living being in any realm would have one. No new ‘manomaya kāya‘ can be generated; a new one comes into existence only when an existing one dies. 

• ‘Manomaya‘ means ‘generated only via the mind (mano),’ and ‘kāya‘ is a collection. The ‘manomaya kāya‘ of a human has six components: The ‘hadaya vatthu‘ is the primary element, because that is where ‘thoughts’ (citta) arise. That must be present in any living being. These are five types of ‘pasāda rupa‘ that receive the five types of sensory information available in the ‘kāma loka‘.
• A hadaya vatthu, and each pasāda rupa, consists of a suddhāṭṭhaka, which is the smallest ‘material element’ in Buddha Dhamma. However, each has an essential ‘mental element’ (jivitindriya) associated with it. That is what makes them special: the five types of pasāda rupa detect sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and touches, and pass them to the hadaya vatthu. All those sensory inputs are registered in the hadaya vatthu, which generates thoughts (citta) based on them. 
• Any living being has a ‘manomaya kāya‘. The number of ‘pasāda rupa‘ varies from five in the kāma loka, three in the rupa loka, and none in the arupa loka (where only the hadaya vatthu is present, as pointed out in #2 above). 

Human Existence (Bhava) Can Last Millions of Years

4. Let us consider an example to illustrate. Suppose a Deva dies and is reborn as a human. 

• The moment the Deva disappears from that Deva realm, a human gandhabba is born. That means the appearance of a human gandhabba in the human realm. It would have only the invisible ‘manomaya kāya‘: a hadaya vatthu, and five pasāda rupa. It would remain in that state until it entered a womb. 
• With only the ‘manomaya kāya‘, that gandhabba can only see and hear. Even with all five pasāda rupa, the other three pasāda rupa are inactive because a physical body is needed to activate taste, smell, and touch. 
• That gandhabba will be ‘pulled into’ a womb (conception) when a suitable womb becomes available; here, ‘suitable’ means matching the gati of mother and father; see “Buddhist Explanations of Conception, Abortion, and Contraception“.
• When that baby grows into an adult and dies later, the gandhabba comes out of that dead physical body. It can again stay in that state until ‘pulled into’ another womb. This is why there can be multiple rebirths with a physical human body within the same human bhava (existence). In some cases, there can be thousand years of a gap between two consecutive births with a physical body; see “Rebirth Account of Dorothy Eady“. 

Three Conditions for Conception per Suttas

5. The Buddha has described how three conditions must be satisfied for a conception (a gandhabba descending to a womb) to occur. For example, in the “Mahā Tanhāsankhaya Sutta (MN 38)“: “..Tiṇṇaṃ kho pana, bhikkhave, sannipātā gabbhas­sā­vakkanti hoti. Idha mātāpitaro ca sannipatitā honti, mātā ca na utunī hoti, gandhabbo ca na paccupaṭṭhito hoti, neva tāva gabbhas­sā­vakkanti hoti. Idha mātāpitaro ca sannipatitā honti, mātā ca utunī hoti, gandhabbo ca na paccupaṭṭhito hoti, neva tāva gabbhas­sā­vakkanti hoti. Yato ca kho, bhikkhave, mātāpitaro ca sannipatitā honti, mātā ca utunī hoti, gandhabbo ca paccupaṭṭhito hoti—evaṃ tiṇṇaṃ sannipātā gabbhas­sā­vakkanti hoti. Tamenaṃ, bhikkhave, mātā nava vā dasa vā māse gabbhaṃ kucchinā pariharati mahātā saṃsayena garubhāraṃ..“.

Here is the English translation from the Sutta Central website in the above link (I have slightly modified it): “… Bhikkhus, the descent to the womb takes place through the union of three things. Here, there is the union of the mother and father, but the mother is not in season, and the gandhabba is not present—in this case, no descent of an embryo takes place. Here, there is the union of the mother and father, and the mother is in season, but the gandhabba is not present—in this case, too, no embryo can result. All three following conditions must be met: Union of the mother and father, the mother is in season, and a gandhabba is present. That leads to the formation of an embryo. The mother then carries the embryo in her womb for nine or ten months with much anxiety, as a heavy burden.”

• Even though the Bhikkhus who manage the Sutta Central website do not believe in the concept of a gandhabba, they have at least translated most of the Pāli verse correctly.
• Also see “Gandhabba State – Evidence from Tipiṭaka“.

Kāma Loka – A Physical Body Can be Associated With Manomaya Kāya

6. In most realms of the ‘kāma loka‘, a dense physical body is associated with the manomaya kāya during part of that existence, as discussed above. We will mostly focus on the human and animal realms, since we can see only those two. In the six Deva realms, the physical bodies are present at all times, but much less dense. There is no ‘Deva gandhabba‘ since those are opapātika births; they are spontaneously born with a ‘full physical body’ (with the manomaya kāya inside).

• The manomaya kāya of a human is called ‘gandhabba‘ in the suttās, as we saw above. So I may call it either manomaya kāya or gandhabba, and they mean the same thing for a human.
• A human gandhabba can see and hear even without the physical body. There are no physical eyes or brains in the gandhabba (‘manomaya kāya‘). The ‘cakkhu pasāda rupa‘ associated with the ‘hadaya vatthu‘ can see directly by itself; similarly, the ‘sota pasāda rupa‘ can hear directly by itself.
• However, when the manomaya kāya/gandhabba is ‘trapped’ inside the physical body, it cannot directly access the external world while it is trapped. This is why we don’t experience sensory information while we sleep; the physical body is inactive in sleep.

Human Gandhabba With a Physical Body

7. When the gandhabba is trapped inside the physical body, it cannot receive sensory inputs directly. For example, to see an apple on a table, first the following process must take place: (i) Light reflected from the apple must enter the eye, (ii) The tiny sensory receptors in the eye detect that reflected light, and those signals propagate to the brain, where they are processed into a form that can be understood by the ‘hadaya vatthu’ (‘seat of the mind’) located in the gandhabba. 

• The brain is in the head, and the gandhabba is trapped in the lower body area near the physical heart. 
• Thus, the brain sends that signal to the gandhabba via a pulse of electromagnetic (EM) radiation; in Pāli, these are called ‘kirana’. Scientists have observed such EM pulses.
• Therefore, there is a time delay (of the order of 10 milliseconds or about a hundredth of a second) before the signal reaches the gandhabba.
• For details, see “Vision Is a Series of “Snapshots” – Movie Analogy“. I have explained how a gandhabba ‘sees’ with the help of the brain in that post.
• However, a gandhabba waiting for a womb has no physical body, so the mind is active at all times!

Comparison – With and Without a Physical Body

8. Suppose the gandhabba of a person has come out of the physical body and there is an apple on a table.

• That gandhabba can see the apple directly. There are no physical eyes or brains in the gandhabba. The ‘cakkhu pasāda rupa‘ associated with the ‘hadaya vatthu‘ can see directly by itself. Note that it can see the ‘red color’ of the apple without having eyes with physical sensors.
• Now suppose another person with a physical body looks at the same apple. Thus, for the gandhabba of this person to see the apple, his eyes and the brain must be involved. The signal reaching the ‘trapped gandhabba‘ must first pass through the eyes and brain. 
• Thus, the first gandhabba outside the physical body can see more clearly than the second person with his gandhabba inside his physical body!

9. By the way, there are four more pasāda rupa that process sounds, smells, tastes, and body touches. Thus, altogether there are five pasāda rupa around the hadaya vatthu of the gandhabba.

• However, when the gandhabba is out of the physical body, only the ‘cakkhu pasāda rupa‘ and ‘sota pasāda pasāda rupa‘ associated with sensing sight and sound are operational (together with the hadaya vatthu). The physical body is needed to generate the signal associated with taste, smell, and touch. 
• Another point is that the gandhabba, consisting of the hadaya vatthu and five pasāda rupa, is smaller than an atom in modern science. Thus, it can move at nearly the speed of light. This is how the Buddha visited Deva or Brahma loka located far above the Earth ‘within the time taken for stretching an arm,’ as described in the suttās. See, for example, “Nanda Sutta (Ud 3.2)“.
• A gandhabba can go through walls, too, as has been confirmed by people who have had ‘out-of-body experiences’. An example is the video in #11 below.

Near-Death Experiences (NDE)

10. In rare occasions, the manomaya kāya can ‘pop out’ of the physical body. Most of such cases involve traumatic conditions like life-threatening injuries. It also happens in some people undergoing heart operations. These are ‘Near-Death Experiences (NDE)’. See “Near-Death Experiences (NDE): Brain Is Not the Mind“.

• The following video from that post describes a heart surgeon’s account. He is not a Buddhist (and is very likely not even aware of Buddha’s teachings), but he is convinced of his experience.

1. In most cases, the patient is unaware of the external world until the brain recovers. However, in this case, the patient’s gandhabba came out of her body, allowing her to see without the aid of her physical body.
2. The woman’s gandhabba may have come out of the paralyzed body at some point. It was in the room when Dr. Greyson came in and followed him to the other room, where her friend was. The gandhabba (‘mental body’) of the woman watched and listened to the conversation between her friend and Dr. Greyson.
3. Once medical treatment restored her brain function, she could recall the conversation and tell Dr. Greyson about it in great detail. She not only heard but also saw the full details. That is why she noticed the red stain on Dr. Greyson’s tie! This also confirms that a gandhabba can see ‘colors’ without having physical eyes or a brain.
4. So, she was able to see (in color) with her gandhabba body. Can there be any doubts about that?
5. The gandhabba emerging from the physical body is not common.  However, Dr. Greyson mentioned (perhaps in another video) that approximately 10% of people have experienced such out-of-body experiences. It is more common among patients who undergo heart surgery because the hadaya vatthu in the mental body overlaps the heart in the physical body.

Seeing for the First Time in Life!

11. The following video is from a woman born blind and could see for the first time in her life during an NDE. She may not be able to see while in the physical body because the optic nerve, which carries signals from the eyes to the brain, was damaged at birth. Once out of the physical body, her gandhabba could see.

Seeing and Hearing Is Better During an NDE

12. The mental body (gandhabba) is trapped inside the physical body. The brain processes the visuals captured by the eyes and passes them to the mental body trapped inside. I have discussed that complex process in “Vision Is a Series of ‘Snapshots’ – Movie Analogy“ and “Brain – Interface between Mind and Body.”

• Humans are born with dense physical bodies because such bodies are required to sense smells, tastes, and touch, including sexual sensation. The mental body (gandhabba) is almost devoid of matter, and an average human cannot see it. However, once outside the physical body, the ability to see and hear is vastly enhanced. Furthermore, the woman in the video above confirmed that her “weightless” mental body could pass through the ceiling. Thousands of people have experienced those phenomena. 
• We don’t realize the burden of “bearing a dense physical body.” But those who experience NDEs do not experience bodily pains. Thus, it is an indescribable relief to be outside that “suffering-filled physical body.” That is why some even say they visited heaven!

Gandhabba Is the ‘Essence of a Human’

13. From the above discussion, it should be clear that the gandhabba (or the manomaya kāya) is the essence of a human. All sensory information is registered in the ‘hadaya vatthu‘ of the gandhabba. 

• Therefore, the brain plays two critical roles in all these processes for a human with a physical body: (i) It collects sensory information coming through the five ‘doors’ in the physical body (eyes, ears, tongue, nose, and the body/skin) and passes it to the hadaya vatthu via the five pasāda rupa, and (ii) It moves the body parts per the instructions received from the hadaya vatthu, the ‘seat of the mind’.
• The reception of sensory information and the response are registered in the hadaya vatthu (seat of the mind) in a series of 17 cittās, called a ‘citta vithi‘. 
• If the sensory input is deemed important (which is determined by the ten saṁyojana), then more citta vithi will flow when the mind engages with that sensory input. I will discuss that in the next post.
• For example, when you hear a loud noise, the mind directs the brain to move the body as needed to avoid danger.