Classifying citta as lokiya-citta and lokuttara-citta.

First, one should understand the meaning of the word "loka" in the discipline of the ariya-puggala as manifested by the Buddha in the Samyuttanikaya Salayatana Channavagga 4th Palokasutta where there is the following passage:

 (101) Then the reverend Ananda entered the audience of the Buddha and asked "Sire, what is the reason why we call this world 'loka'?"  The Buddha said, "Behold, Ananda, what is common to destruction is called 'loka' in the ariya-vinaya.  And what is common to destruction?  The eye is common to destruction. Rupa is common to destruction. Cakkhu-vinnana is common to destruction. Cakkhu contact is common to destruction.  Sukha-vedana, dukkha-vedana or adukkhamasukha-vedana that arises from cakkhu contact as paccaya is common to destruction etc., likewise through the ears, nose, tongue, bodysense and mind.

This is common to the ariya-puggala, but not to those who have not yet realized the rising and falling away of realities.  Therefore one could see that those who are to become the ariya-puggala must realize the arising and falling away of realities that truly appear.  The Buddha said, "Behold Ananda, whatever is common to destruction is called 'loka' in the ariya-vinaya."  Loka is everything that arises and falls away.  Therefore only realities that do not rise and fall away are not loka, but the reality that is above and beyond the world, the lokuttara or nibbana.

When citta is categorized as lokiya and lokuttara, any citta that does not realize the characteristics of nibbana or does not have nibbana as arammana is a "lokiya-citta".  Any citta with nibbana as arammana by eradicating kilesa or with nibbana as arammana by having eradicated kilesa is a " lokuttara-citta".

Those who would be the ariya-puggala must develop lokiya-panna, which knows the characteristics of nama-dhamma and rupa-dhamma. Lokiya- panna is not the knowledge for construction of new scientific instruments, knowing anything other than the characteristics of nama-dhamma and rupa-dhamma is not lokiya- panna in the Buddhist religion.

Lokiya-panna knows the characteristics of the world or the realities that appear through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, bodysense and mind that is not nibbana.  Therefore other than the four magga-citta, which are lokuttara-kusala-citta with nibbana as arammana by eradicating kilesa, and the four phala-citta, which are lokuttara-vipaka-citta with nibbana as arammana after the eradication of kilesa, all citta are lokiya-citta.

 There are altogether 8 lokuttara-citta consisting of 4 pairs:
1. Sotapatti-magga-citta          and  Sotapatti-phala-citta
2.  Sakadagami-magga-citta   and Sakadagami-phala-citta
3.  Anagami-magga-citta          and Anagami-phala-citta
4.  Arahatta-magga-citta          and  Arahatta phala-citta

In the Atthasalini Atthakatha Dhammasangani Cittuppadakandha explaining Culantaraduka, there is a passage saying

Called "lokiya-dhamma" because it is part of the world, related to the world.  Called "uttara-dhamma" or supreme-dhamma because it transcends the world.  Called "lokuttara-dhamma" because it transcends the world, not related to the world.

Citta, cetasika and rupa are sankhara-dhamma, realities that arise and fall away.  Even the lokuttara citta and cetasika with nibbana as arammana must arise and fall away.  But one categorizes citta and cetasika as lokiya- and lokuttara-citta because the lokuttara-citta has nibbana as arammana by eradicating kilesa (magga-citta) and by having eradicated kilesa (phala-citta).

The passage in Khuddakanikaya Culaniddesa Second Part Mogharajamanavakapanhaniddesa is in accordance with the Samyuttanikaya Salayattanavagga Sunnasutta, 102, which says:

Then the reverend Ananda asked the Buddha, "Sire, what is the reason why we call the world 'empty'?"  The Buddha said, "Behold, Ananda, because it is empty of the self or that belonging to the self.  What is empty of the self or of that belonging to the self?  The eye is empty of the self or of that belonging to the self. Rupa is empty of the self or of that belonging to the self. Cakkhu-vinnana is empty of the self or of that belonging to the self. Cakkhu contact is empty of the self or of that belonging to the self.  Sukha-vedana, dukkha-vedana or adukkhamasukha-vedana that arises from cakkhu contact as paccaya is empty of the self or of that belonging to the self etc. The heart is empty of the self or of that belonging to the self.  Dhammarammana is empty of the self or of that belonging to the self.  Mano-vinnana is empty of the self or of that belonging to the self.  Mano contact is empty of the self or of that belonging to the self.  Sukha-vedana, dukkha-vedana or adukkhamasukha-vedana that arises from mano contact as paccaya is empty of the self or of that belonging to the self.  Therefore the world is called empty.

 Not that one can make things empty without knowing what is empty, what it is empty of, or how it is empty.  One must know accurately that to be empty of the self or that of belonging to the self because each is a reality that arises and falls away, through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, bodysense and mind.  Some might feel on some days that there seems to be nothing that is ours.  Why have we never felt that before?  We used to take things for us and ours.  But all of a sudden one day after listening to a lot of dhamma we start to think that there is nothing at all that is ours.  We should not have mistaken things for ours.  But thinking alone is not enough because it cannot eradicate kilesa.  If we do not know this, we might think we had acquired much panna already and are soon to become an ariya-puggala because we have never thought or felt this way before.  Some feel that it is a wonder to think so but one should know that that is not the path to the eradication of kilesa since one does not know the characteristics of nama-dhamma, which is a consciousness that is seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, knowing bodysense contact and thinking etc.  How is it the self?  When one has not yet been mindful, not yet studied, examined, taken note, or developed panna to know the characteristics of realities appearing, one would not yet penetrate the meaning or the true characteristics of nama-dhamma and rupa-dhamma.  Thus one would not be able to realize the characteristics of the arising and falling away of the nama-dhamma and rupa-dhamma that constitute the world that arises and falls away at this moment.  Therefore, no matter how much we think that we understand the characteristics of nama-dhamma and rupa-dhamma, we should not mistake it for panna that is able to eradicate kilesa.  Because if sati does not arise to be mindful and examine the characteristics of realities that appear until there is realization of the distinct characteristics, one by one, of the nama-dhamma and rupa-dhamma through the mind-door, which is to clearly experience the realization, panna would not have developed enough to know that all realities are only empty worlds, void of attachment as the selves, entities or persons.

 In the Khuddakanikaya Culaniddesa Second Part Mogharajamanavakapanhaniddesa, 505, the Buddha asked the bhikku, “Behold Bhikkhu, what do you think of this?  There are grass, trees, branches and leaves in the compound of this vihara.  People would take them away and burn them, or do with them as is appropriate.  Do you ever feel as if it were us that people take away, burn or do what is appropriate to?”

 Bhikkhu:  No, Sire.
 Buddha: Why not?
 Bhikkhu: Because those things are not the selves or what concerned the selves to us, Sire.
 Buddha: Behold Bhikkhu.  Likewise, whatever does not belong to you, abandon it.  Abandoning them would be beneficent, be everlasting happiness.
 Behold Bhikkhu, rupa does not belong to you.  Abandon it,  Abandoning it would be beneficent, be everlasting happiness. ...Abandoning vedana... sanna... sankhara... vinnana would be beneficent, be everlasting happiness. A person would consider the world as being void thus.

 At the end of the passage the Buddha said, “Behold, Householder, when a person sees the concurrent arising of all dhamma, the continuance of all sankhara as what they truly are, there would be no harm.  When a person considers the world in the same way that he does the grass and trees with panna , he would not desire existence, the self or anything else except for nibbana without patisandhi.  The person would consider the world as a void thus.

 While we still do not feel towards the rupa that we used to take for ours, the vedana or feelings that we used to take for ours, sanna or memories that we, so named, are in this world, with such duty, or towards all sankhara, whether kusala-dhamma or akusala-dhamma, in the same way that we do towards the grass, trees, branches and leaves, we would not be able to abandon attachment to realities that are rupa, vedana, sanna, sankhara and vinnana.

 If one has not studied and examined the dhamma that the Buddha manifested, nor developed sati-patthana, one cannot be said to know the world, even though one had lived in the world for such a long time in number of years or lifetimes.  Since one does not know the world, one cannot escape it.  Even extreme happiness cannot last forever because the feeling of happiness occurs an instant of citta that arises and falls away.  Without the study of realities as they truly are, one would not know even what the world is or what it consists of.  Everyone knows that there are things that appear through the eyes, sound, etc., because sound appears when one hears.  But without consciousness, the element that knows, that is hearing, sound cannot appear.  Therefore, arammana that appear through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, bodysense and mind would show us that there is citta, which is consciousness, the element that knows which is the world that arises and falls away each instant.  And without arammana that appears, no one would be able to know the characteristics of citta, the element that knows, arises and falls away.

 When one sees, hears, smells, tastes, knows bodysense contact without knowing the characteristics of realities as they truly are, arising and falling away in rapid continuation, one would take the signs and forms of things that appear as entities, persons and objects.  As long as one has not yet clearly realized the characteristics of arising and falling away of each instant of realities as they truly are, one cannot be said to know the world as it actually is though one has studied the world through different sciences, geographically, historically or scientifically for hundreds of millions of zillions of years.  The sciences could never emancipate us from this world because without knowledge of the world one cannot escape it.  What substance does the world have each day?  Sukha-vedana arises and falls away, gone with each instant impossible to recover ever again.  No matter how much people with unhappiness and extreme suffering wish to escape the world, they could not, because they do not know the world as it really is.

 The important point is whether one is ready to abandon the assumption that there are entities, persons and the selves.  Though as this instant there is no self, is one prepared to abandon the world?  To be able to eradicate and escape the world, one must clearly realize that there is no self, entity or person first.  Some might find unbearable even the thought that there is no self that sees or hears etc., no family, no friends, no treasured possessions.  Most would not really wish to escape the world.  Therefore, to abandon the pleasure and attachment in taking realities for the selves and ours, we must develop panna until we realize distinct realities that appear as the world, for what they truly are.

 It is not easy to know the world as it really is.  Those who have listened to the dhamma as the Buddha had manifested about the world according to the knowledge that he had become omnisciently enlightened with, should apply themselves to the consideration, practice and development of panna until it is advanced enough to experience the characteristics of the world as it really is.  Not that one should know the world in other moments but the present instant one is actually seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, knowing bodysense contact.  There is a way to develop panna until it is able to know the world that is arising and falling away now by studying and listening to the dhamma in order to understand and realize the characteristics of realities that are appearing through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, bodysense and mind.  Otherwise it is impossible to know the world in the least.

 In the Samyuttanikaya Salayattanavagga 4th Samiddhisutta, 75, the venerable Samiddhi asked the Buddha, “This so-called world, Sire, why do we call, or decree it as the world?”  The Buddha said, “Behold Samiddhi, wherever there are cakkhu, rupa, cakkhu-vinnana and realities that one can know with the cakkhu-vinnana, there would be what we call or decree the world etc.

 One is able to know the world because one has eyes thus we see colors of the world, ears to hear the sounds of the world, nose to smell, tongue to taste, the bodysense to know cold, heat, softness, hardness, tension and motion of the world.  Without these can the world appear to us?  Without seeing, hearing, tasting, knowing bodysense contact can any world appear?  None can.  Therefore, because of seeing one takes [what one sees] for the world appearing.  What does one see?  The world.  What appears through the eyes is the world.  What does one hear?  The sound of the world also.  Without sound, without hearing, the world of sound would not exist.  Therefore the world, composed of sight, sound, smell, taste, bodysense contact can appear because there are eyes, ears, nose, tongue, bodysense and mind so one does not have to search for the world elsewhere.  No matter in which world we are, that world can appear only because the eyes are paccaya for seeing, ears for hearing, nose for smelling, tongue for tasting, the bodysense for bodysense contact and the mind for thinking of the things appearing through the same eyes, ears, nose, tongue, bodysense and mind.

 The Buddha said, “Behold Samiddhi, wherever there are no cakkhu, rupa, cakkhu-vinnana and realities that one can know with the cakkhu-vinnana, there would not be what we call or decree the world.”

 Even if one desires to escape the world but one does not know the world as it really is, it is impossible to do so.  One has lived in this world for very long time, and not uniquely in this world, but for an eternity of lifetimes one has lived in other worlds as well.  And since we do not know the world one must continue to live in it for a long time, never knowing the world or seeing it as it really is, forever alternating between happiness and unhappiness.  These days some say that the Buddha, although having attained absolute nibbana, is still existing and that they had entered his audience and offered him food.  One should consider the passage in the Tipitaka in the Samyuttanikaya Salayattanavagga Phaggunasutta 99.

 Then the Reverend Phagguna entered the audience of the Buddha and asked, “Sire, when a person speaks of the eyes of the Buddha, with all obstructing tanha eradicated, the path cut, vatta controlled, and all dukkha transcended, after he has attained parinibbana, would those eyes will still be there? etc...  When a person speaks of the mind of the Buddha, with all obstructing tanha eradicated, the path cut, vatta controlled, and all dukkha transcended, after he has attained parinibbana, would that mind will still be there?

 (He asked the Buddha whether after the Buddha had attained the parinibbana he would still have eyes, ears, a nose, a tongue, bodysense and a mind.)

 The Buddha said, “Behold Phagguna, when a person speaks of the eyes of the Buddha, with all obstructing tanha eradicated, the path cut, vatta controlled, and all dukkha transcended, after he has attained parinibbana, those eyes would no longer exist. etc...  When a person  speaks of the mind of the Buddha, with all obstructing tanha eradicated, the path cut, vatta controlled, and all dukkha transcended, after he has attained parinibbana, that mind would no longer exist.

 After parinibbana there are no more eyes, ears, nose, tongue, bodysense or mind.  After parinibbana one does not go to a place to preside over merit-making ceremonies, in which case it would not be beyond the world because there would still be eyes, ears, nose, tongue, bodysense and mind that arise and fall away.  There would still be dukkha, not beyond it.

 The world is what appears through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, bodysense and mind.  Without citta arising to see, hear, smell, taste, know bodysense contact or think, the world would not appear.  Whenever sati is mindful, it examines or studies arammana or the characteristics of the world appearing through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, bodysense and mind.  Whenever one thinks of the world, at that moment, thinking is not knowing the characteristics of realities that are not entities, persons or the selves.  It is the instant of knowing the world convention terms as entities, persons, the selves or material objects.  It is the world of sammati-sacca (conventional truth), not paramattha-sacca (the ultimate truth).

 Each day one knows whether one is in the world of sammati-sacca or paramattha-sacca.  Though citta is a consciousness when there is no seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, knowing bodysense contact, nor thinking, this world would not appear at that instant.  Patisandhi-citta, or the first citta of this world, is a vipaka-citta, resulting from a kamma that causes patisandhi-citta to arise in sequence after cuti-citta, which is the last citta of the previous life.  Patisandhi-citta knows the same arammana as the citta preceding the cuti-citta of the last life.  Since it does not know this world's arammana, this world does not appear yet.  And when patisandhi-citta has fallen away, the kamma that caused it to arise would make the bhavanga-citta arise in continuation after the patisandhi-citta.  The bhavanga-citta have the same arammana as the patisandhi-citta.  While bhavanga-citta arise and fall away, maintaining this lifetime, they do not know arammana of this world.  They do not see, hear, smell, taste, know bodysense contact or think.  The world does not appear while bhavanga-citta continue to arise and fall away.

 Dvara are ways through which citta arise to know the world that is appearing.  There are altogether six, of which five are rupa and one nama respectively:

 1) Cakkhuppasada-rupa,         the cakkhu-dvara,
 2) Sotappasada-rupa,             the sota-dvara,
 3) Ghanappasada-rupa,           the ghana-dvara,
 4) Jivhappasada-rupa,            the jivha-dvara,
 5) Kayappasada-rupa,             the kaya-dvara,
 6) Bhavangupaccheda-citta,     the mano-dvara.

 This is ordinary daily life.  One should understand the characteristics of dvara so as to examine and know realities as they truly are, as well as how distinct  kinds of realities that arise and fall away are not entities, persons or the selves.

 At this moment, probably no one thinks of the cakkhuppasada-rupa, which is a rupa that really exist, arising and falling away at the center of the eye.  In the Atthasalini Rupakandha (the Pali text) cakkhayatananiddesa, 596, there is a passage saying,

 What is “rupa” called “cakkhayatana”?  Any cakkhu is pasada-rupa, based on the four mahabhuta-rupa considered part of the attabhava (self/body?) and is invisible but can be contacted.

 Cakkhayatana is a word composed of cakkhu and ayatana.

 Cakkhu is the eye; ayatana is the meeting place, birth place.  Therefore cakkhayatana is the eye which is the meeting place, the birth place.

 The Buddha manifested that when a process of vithi-citta has arisen to see and know ruparammana through the cakkhu-dvara, the bhavanga-citta would arise and fall away in sequence for several instants, then the citta would arise to know ruparammana that appears through the cakkhu-dvara and has fallen away, once again through the mano-dvara.  The mano-dvara vithi-citta would arise to know the arammana through the mano-dvara in sequence from the cakkhu-dvara-vithi-citta that had fallen away completely, very rapidly, even with the interposition of the bhavanga-citta.  Therefore one should know the beneficence of what the Buddha manifested about the dvara in detail.  Thus one would not confuse the citta that knows arammana through the cakkhu-dvara with the citta that knows arammana in sequence through the mano-dvara.  Likewise through the sota-dvara, ghana-dvara, jivha-dvara and kaya-dvara.  Each time the vithi-citta arises to know an arammana through any of the five dvara and falls away, and many instants of bhavanga-citta have arisen in between, the citta would always arise to know the same arammana through the mano-dvara.

 The nama-dhamma, or citta and cetasika, arising rapidly in continuation.  While we are sitting, we seem both to see and hear at the same time, but in reality the vithi-citta depend on a dvara to arise and know the arammana through that dvara and then fall very quickly away one process a dvara.  (A process consists of several citta that arise and fall away in sequence through the same dvara.)  The arising and falling away of citta is so rapid that one cannot know the real characteristics of citta that arise through the cakkhu-dvara as only knowing what appears through the eyes.  When the mano-dvara-vithi-citta arise in continuation to know ruparammana that appear through the eyes and remember the shapes and forms of what appears until one forgets that what appears through the eyes are really only what appears through the eyes.

 The cakkhu-dvara is like a truly vast, bottomless ocean.  It can see the moon, the sun, extremely far-off stars that come into contact with the cakkhuppasada and appear to the cakkhu-dvara-vithi-citta.  Thus it seems like the world is full of objects, universes, entities and persons.  In reality the citta thinks of the shapes and forms of the earth, water, fire and wind elements that appear as entities, persons, the moon, the sun, stars and other objects, which, whenever they come into contact with the bodysense, appear cold or hot, soft or whenever they come into contact with the bodysense, appear cold or hot, soft or hard, tense or moving.  Those who know realities as they really are would realize that the world is the reality that is not lasting, arises and falls away very rapidly with the mano-dvaravajjana-citta remembering the features of whatever appears through the eyes, the low and high pitches appearing through the ears, etc. as the conventional terms of things of which none is a reality that arises without falling away.

1.  What is the world?
2.  What is lokiya-panna?
3.  Do patisandhi-citta know arammana of this world?  Why?
4.  What arammana does the bhavanga-citta know?
5.  Is the mano-dvaravajjana-citta a dvara?
6.  What jati is the mano-dvara?
7.  What jati is the mano-dvaravajjana-citta?