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The Abhidhamma teaches us that in the ultimate sense our life is nama and rupa that arise because of their appropriate conditions and then fall away. What we take for person or self is citta or consciousness, cetasika or mental factors arising with the citta, and r๚pa or physical phenomena. Citta and cetasika are nๅma, they experience objects, whereas r๚pa does not know anything. Citta experiences sense objects through the five senses. The sense objects as well as the sense organs are r๚pas. The five senses by means of which cittas experience an object are called doors. When we think of something we saw or heard citta does not experience an object through a sense-door but through another door: the mind-door. Thus there are six doorways. Through the mind-door citta can experience ultimate realities, nๅma and r๚pa, as well as concepts. Citta experiences only one object and then it falls away to be succeeded by the next citta.

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