When we see and lobha arises to take pleasure in the ruparammana appearing, it seems harmless because it is simply normal contentment.  But we should know that even ordinary lobha is a harmful dhamma and results in dukkha by slowly accumulating dukkha little by little.  It is not that dukkha would appear immediately there is lobha, just a little contentment.  But when lobha or pleasure is strong enough to be nivarana-dhamma (negative realities, hindrances) preoccupying the citta, then the characteristics of the reality appear, being heavy because it is akusala, restless and disturbed.

It is apparent that every waking moment the javana-citta accumulates latent tendencies in continuation, that are kusala or akusala in majority.  So what should we do?  Everyone is taking poison.  If we know that, we should seek an antidote.  If not, we are still taking and accumulating it, which will be harmful eventually.  There is only one antidote, the development of sati-patthana.  When sati-patthana does not arise, there is no way to escape from accumulating akusala because few other kusala arise.  When we develop sati-patthana, it could arise in place of akusala because votthabbana-vithi-citta is the anantara-paccaya paving the way for kusala to arise according to accumulations.  Kusala-citta could then arise simultaneously with sati that is mindful of the characteristics of realities that are appearing.

 Because javana-citta that are kusala and akusala rise and fall away accumulating [itself] continuously, they are paccaya for each person to have different characters and demeanors.  Even the arahanta have different habits.  The accumulations of each person's citta is very intricate, therefore the arahanta have distinct personalities and are etadagga or supreme in different areas.  The Venerable Sariputta, for example, is etadagga in wisdom; the Venerable Moggallana in performing miracles; the Venerable Kassapa in the practice of dhutanga and its appreciation; the Venerable Anuruddha in supernatural vision.  The accumulation of the javana-citta, which is distinct in kusala and akusala citta is also diverse in the kiriya-citta of the arahanta.  Right now everyone is thinking differently, talking diversely, acting physically and verbally not at all alike, according to one's own accumulations.

 Accumulating kusala, akusala and the mahakiriya of the lokiya type with the efficiency of the javana-citta goes on at every moment until it occasions different habits and natures, diverse physical and verbal actions.  Some could have looked down on an arahanta they saw, misled by his appearance.  For instance, Vassakara Brahmin, the chancellor of Magadha saw the Venerable Mahakaccana coming down the mountain and said "This person behaves like a monkey."  The accumulations of the javana-vithi-citta of Vassakara Brahmin made him egotistic.  When the Buddha told him to apologize and ask for the Venerable Mahakaccana's forgiveness, his accumulated mana, or self-importance, made him unable to do so.  Even when the Buddha predicted that when he died, Vassakara Brahmin would be born a monkey in the bamboo forest, the Brahmin had bananas and other monkey fruits planted in preparation for his rebirth.

 Therefore we should see the harm of accumulating akusala.  For even after one had become an arahanta, the accumulation of each citta with the efficiency of the javana-vithi that arises and falls away repeatedly for seven instants causes each person to have different physical and verbal aspects as vasana.  The word "vasana" means behavior and physical demeanors accumulated until they become habitual.  The only person who can eradicate vasana is the Sammasambuddha the Arahanta.  All the arahanta had eradicated kilesa completely with not the least vestige left.  Even so they could not eradicate vasana so long accumulated in the samsara-vatta with the efficiency of the javana-vithi.

1. Avajjana-vithi, which is the panca-dvaravajjana-vithi-citta.

2. One of the dvi-pancavinnana-citta, namely the cakkhu-, sota-, ghana-, jivha-, or kaya-vinnana.

3. Sampaticchanna-citta, which arises to receive the arammana in continuation from one of the dvi-pancavinnana-citta that had fallen away.

4. Santirana-citta, which examines the arammana.

5. Votthabbana-citta, which makes way for kusala or akusala or kiriya-citta (only for the arahanta) to ensue.

6. Javana-vithi-citta, literally "avana " means dart or run swiftly through arammana, with kusala or akusala or kiriya-citta (uniquely the arahanta)

7. Tadalambana-vithi or tadarammana-vithi. Tadalambana-vithi-citta arises to perform the function of receiving and knowing the arammana from the javana-vithi-citta when the arammana has not yet fallen away since the rupa lasts 17 instants of citta as follows:

1. The instant when rupa arises to impinge on the dvara and comes into contact with the atita-bhavanga.
2. The instant of bhavanga-jalana-citta
3. The instant of bhavangupaccheda-citta
4. The instant of panca-dvaravajjana-citta
5. The instant of dvi-pancavinnana-citta
6. The instant of sampaticchanna-citta
7. The instant of santirana-citta
8. The instant of votthabbana-citta
9. The instant of the first javana-citta
10. The instant of the second javana-citta
11. The instant of the third javana-citta
12. The instant of the fourth javana-citta          -- 7 javana-citta
13. The instant of the fifth javana-citta
14. The instant of the sixth javana-citta
15. The instant of the seventh javana-citta

 Altogether the duration of the rupa, from the atita-bhavanga-citta to the last of the javana-citta, has lasted fifteen instants of citta.  The rupa has not yet fallen away.  It endures two instants of citta more.  Normally for the kama-puggala, when the javana-citta has run through the sight, sound, smell, taste
 or body sense contact but the rupa hasn't fallen away, the accumulations of past kamma, full of attachment to the sight, sound, smell, taste or body sense contact, would be paccaya for the vipaka-citta to arise as two more tadalambana-vithi-citta to receive and know the arammana afterwards.  Tadalambana-vithi-citta, which performs the function of knowing the arammana in succession from the javana-vithi, is the last citta to arise and perceive arammana through a dvara.  After the last vithi-citta of a dvara the bhavanga-citta arise and fall away until the next vithi-citta arises to know arammana through one of the dvara.  When there is bhavanga-citta, the world does not appear; all memories of happenings, people and occurrences of this world do not appear.  When one is sound asleep, there is bhavanga-citta all through.  There is no knowledge or memory of this world at all.  When the cuti-citta arises to perform the function of leaving this being, the patisandhi-citta succeeds, then the next vithi-citta that arises would concern another world.  But while cuti-citta has not yet arisen, even though the bhavanga-citta does not know any arammana of this world, whenever vithi-citta arise, nothing can stop them from knowing arammana of this world, such as sight, sound, smell, taste or body sense contact and other matters of this world further more.

4. Panca-dvaravajjana-citta
5. Dvi-pancavinnana-citta
6. Sampaticchanna-citta                                      -- vithi-citta
7. Santirana-citta
8. Votthabbana-citta
9.  Kusala or akusala or kiriya-citta
10.  Kusala or akusala or kiriya-citta
11.  Kusala or akusala or kiriya-citta
12.  Kusala or akusala or kiriya-citta              -- the 7 javana-vithi -citta
13.  Kusala or akusala or kiriya-citta
14.  Kusala or akusala or kiriya-citta
15.  Kusala or akusala or kiriya-citta
16.  Tadalambana-citta
17.  Tadalambana-citta                                        -- the 2 Tadalambana- vithi-citta

 The duration of the sabhava-rupa [non-conscious reality] equals the arising and falling away of 17 citta.

 When the vithi-citta arises to know the arammana through one of the panca-dvara, which are the pasada-rupa, and has fallen away, the bhavanga-citta alternately arises in interposition.  Then the mano-dvara-vithi-citta, or the citta that is based on the mind (bhavangupaccheda-citta) as the dvara through which the arammana is known, would know the same arammana as the vithi-citta of the panca-dvara that has just fallen away.  In each process the vithi-citta that arise to know the the arammana through one of the mano-dvara are fewer than the vithi-citta that arise to know the arammana through the panca-dvara.  The mano-dvara process is without the atita-bhavanga because the arammana does not impinge on the cakkhuppasada, for example.  However, before the mano-dvaravajjana-citta can reflect upon the arammana that the vithi-citta knows through the panca-dvara and then fall away, the bhavanga-calana must rise and vibrate with the arammana and then fall away.  Then the bhavangupaccheda arises and falls away.  After that the mano-dvaravajjana-citta arises as the first mano-dvara-vithi-citta. The citta that performs the avajjana-kicca through the mano-dvara is not the panca-dvaravajjana-citta.  The panca-dvaravajjana-citta can only do avajjana-kicca through the panca-dvara.  It cannot perform avajjana-kicca through the mind door.  The citta that peforms this duty is the mano-dvaravajjana-citta, which performs the function of reflecting on the arammana of the mano-dvara or to think of the arammana through the mano-dvara.  Each day while we are thinking thoughts, the citta does not know any arammana through the eye, ear, nose, tongue or the body sense.  The bhavanga-calana has arisen and fallen away.  The bhavangupaccheda arises in sequence and falls away.  Then the mano-dvaravajjana-citta would arise as the first mano-dvara-vithi-citta.  When the mano-dvaravajjana-citta has fallen away, for those who are not the arahanta, kusala or akusala citta, which are javana-vithi-citta, would arise and fall away in a series of the same kind of citta for seven instants.  After the kusala- or akusala-javana-vithi-citta has fallen away, if it is a mental arammana that appears clearly, two tadalambana-vithi-citta would arise in continuation.  Thus, there are only three vithi-citta that arise to know arammana through the mano-dvara as follows:

1. One instant of mano-dvaravajjana-vithi
2. Seven javana-vithi
3. Two tadalambana-vithi

 When we see what appears through the eyes, the vithi-citta that arises to know the arammana that has not yet fallen away through the cakkhu-dvara are all seven cakkhu-dvara-vithi because they depend on the cakkhu-dvara to arise and know the arammana appearing through the eyes which has not yet fallen away.

 While hearing sound, all the seven vithi-citta that arose to know sound which has not fallen away through the sota-dvara are the sota-dvara-vithi.  The same is true of the nose, tongue, and body sense.

 In the process of knowing arammana through any of the panca-dvara, there are different numbers of citta arising as in the following four vara (processes): mogha-vara, votthabbana-vara, javana-vara and tadalambana-vara.

 A vara is a process of vithi-citta that arise and fall away in continuation and know the same arammana through the same dvara.  The number of citta in a vara-vithi differs, in some vara there are seven, in others six or five, still others have none at all, only the atita-bhavanga and bhavanga-calana.  When rupa impinges on the pasada and the atita-bhavanga, after the atita-bhavanga has fallen away, the bhavanga-calana arises, vibrates and falls away for many instants until the arammana or rupa that is in contact with the pasada is about to fall away so it is no longer paccaya for vithi-citta to arise and experience that arammana.  Since the vithi-citta did not arise to know the arammana in contact with the pasada, the process is mogha-vara.  For example, while we are sleeping so soundly that shaking or even roughly shaking do not waken us, there is mogha-vara, because the avajjana-citta does not arise and there is only atita-bhavanga and bhavanga-calana.  Since the vithi-citta does not arise to know the arammana in contact with it, the process is "mogha-vara".  Its arammana is the atiparittarammana or the arammana that is very insignificant because it only impinges on the pasada-rupa and bhavanga-citta and does not cause any vithi-citta to arise.

 In some processes, when the atita-bhavanga has risen and fallen away several instants, and the bhavanga-calana several times, the same for bhavangupaccheda, one of the panca-dvaravajjana-citta, sampaticchanna-citta, santirana-citta and votthabbana-citta, then two or three instants later the rupa falls away so that the javana-citta could not arise.  That vara is votthabbana-vara because the vithi-citta ends with votthabbana-citta.  Realities are actually like this.  Therefore, in each vara when the arammana comes into contact with the pasada, the vithi-citta does not necessarily arise in a series of seven instants.  When it does not arise at all, it is mogha-vara.  When it ends with votthabbana, it is votthabbana-vara.  The arammana of the votthabbana-vara is parittarammana or the arammana of only five of the vithi-citta.

 In any vara after votthabbana-citta has fallen away, the seven javana-citta arise consecutively then the arammana falls away so that the tadalambana-vithi-citta could not arise.  To know arammana in that vara of
vithi-citta is the javana-vara because there are only six vithi-citta since the rupa has fallen away at the javana-vithi only.  Since the vithi-citta ends at javana-vithi, to experience arammana in that vara of vithi-citta is the javana-vara.  The arammana of that javana-vara is mahantarammana or a clear arammana that can cause kusala or akusala or mahakiriya-citta (for the arahanta) to arise.

 Any vara where the javana-citta arise and fall away seven times yet the arammana has not fallen away so it conditions tadalambana-vithi-citta to arise and know the same arammana that is still there.  To know arammana in that vithi-citta vara is "tadarammana-vara or tadalambana-vara", because the last vithi-citta is the tadalambana.  The arammana of the tadalambana-vara is atimahantarammana or a very clear arammana for even after the seven javana-vithi-citta have fallen away, the arammana has not yet done so, conditioning the tadalambana-vithi-citta to arise.

 When experiencing arammana through the mano-dvara-vithi, there are only two possible vara, javana-vara and tadalambana-vara.

 The arammana of the javana-vara through the mano-dvara is avibhutarammana because it is less clear than the tadalambana-vara.

  The arammana of the tadalambana-vara through the mano-dvara is vibhutarammana because it is clearer than the javana-vara.

Dvara is the door or path through which citta arises to experience arammana that is not the arammana of the bhavanga-citta.  The dvara is, therefore, the way through which the vithi-citta experiences arammana.  There are six dvara, of which five are rupa and one nama.

1. Cakkhu-dvara, which is cakkhuppasada-rupa
2. Sota-dvara, which is sotappasada-rupa
3. Ghana-dvara, which is ghanappasada-rupa
4. Jivha-dvara, which is jivhappasada-rupa
5. Kaya-dvara, which is kayappasada-rupa
6. Mano-dvara, which is bhavangupaccheda-citta (that arises before the mano-dvaravajjana-citta)

There are six rupa where the citta in the plane of the five khandha arises, called the six vatthu-rupa, comprising:

1. Cakkhuppasada-rupa         or cakkhu-vatthu,
which is where the two cakkhu-vinnana-citta arise

2. Sotappasada-rupa             or sota-vatthu,
which is where the two sota-vinnana-citta arise

3. Ghanappasada-rupa          or ghana-vatthu,
which is where the two ghana-vinnana-citta arise

4. Jivhappasada-rupa            or jivha-vatthu,
which is where the two jivha-vinnana-citta arise

5. Kayappasada-rupa            or kaya-vatthu,
which is where the two kaya-vinnana-citta arise

6. Hadaya-rupa                    or hadaya-vatthu,
which is where all the other citta arise in the plane of the five khandha except for the ten dvi-pancavinnana-citta.

Cakkhuppasada-rupa is the cakkhu-dvara of the cakkhu -dvaravajjana-citta, cakkhu-vinnana-citta, sampaticchanna-citta, santirana-citta votthabbana-citta, javana-citta and tadalambana-citta that know the ruparammana in contact with the cakkhuppasada-rupa while the ruparammana still lasts.  But the cakkhuppasada-rupa is cakkhuvatthu, or the place where only the two cakkhu-vinnana-citta arise.  All the other citta of the same vara, or the cakkhu -dvaravajjana-citta, sampaticchanna-citta, santirana-citta votthabbana-citta, javana-citta and tadalambana-citta, arise at the hadaya-vatthu.

 The same is true for sotappasada-rupa, ghanappasada-rupa, jivhappasada-rupa, kayappasada-rupa.

 The hadaya-rupa is vatthu or the place where citta arises but it is not a dvara.

1. Why are there fewer vithi-citta in the mano-dvara process than the panca-dvara?
2. Through how many dvara can the lobha-mula-citta arise?
3. Through how many dvara can the panca-dvaravajjana-citta and the mano-dvaravajjana-citta arise?
4. What are mogha-vara, votthabbana-vara, javana-vara and tadalambana-vara?
5. What are avibhutarammana and vibhutarammana?
6. At which rupa does the patisandhi-citta arise in the plane of the five khandha?
7. At which rupa does the akusala-citta arise in the plane of the five khandha?
8. At which rupa does the kiriya-citta arise in the plane of the five khandha?
9. At which rupa does the sota-dvara-vithi-citta arise?
10. At which rupa does the cetasika arise in the plane of the five khandha?

Dec. 19, 1999
Revised May 7, 2001