Is the Bhavaṅga unique in being the only citta without cetasikas?
Bhavanga citta has cetasikas associated with it actually.
The seven universal cetasikas (Sabbacitta-sādhāraṇa) arise with every citta.
The bhavanga may have additional ones as well.
Abhidhamma in Daily Life
The bhavaṅga-citta is the same type of citta as the paṭisandhi-citta. There are nineteen types of paṭisandhi-citta, and thus there are nineteen types of bhavaṅga-citta.
- If the paṭisandhi-citta is akusala vipāka (which is the case when there is birth in a woeful plane), all bhavaṅga-cittas of that life are akusala vipāka as well.
- If the paṭisandhi-citta is ahetuka kusala vipāka (in which case one is handicapped from the first moment of life), all bhavaṅga-cittas of that life are ahetuka kusala vipāka as well.
- If the paṭisandhi-citta is sahetuka (arising with sobhana hetus, or beautiful roots), the bhavaṅga-citta is sahetuka as well.
All bhavaṅga-cittas during a lifespan are of the same type as the paṭisandhi-citta of that life.
They arise with the same hetus and are accompanied by the same cetasikas (mental factors).For example:
- If one is born with two hetus—alobha (non-attachment) and adosa (non-aversion), but without wisdom—then all bhavaṅga-cittas have only two hetus. Such a person can cultivate wisdom, but he cannot become enlightened during that life.
- If one is born with three hetus—alobha, adosa, and paññā (wisdom)—then all bhavaṅga-cittas are accompanied by these three sobhana hetus as well.
Thus, that person is more inclined to cultivate wisdom, and if he develops the Eightfold Path, he can attain enlightenment during that life.Likewise, if one is born with somanassa (happy feeling), all bhavaṅga-cittas of that life are accompanied by somanassa.
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How do we know who was born with two hetus and who was born with three hetus?
We don’t actually. And I think if we find ourselves wondering about this these are moments that should be understood.
I remember when I was young wanting to confirm that I was one of those who had triple hetu. What conditioned this? in my case I wanted to feel I could quickly understand Dhamma and get the results of satipatthana, so it revolved around desire and clinging to my important ‘self’.
This sort of desire can actually push one to try to prove they have the hetus - so we might try to get jhana or lokuttara - but this sort of desire is not the path. If this clinging is strong one can persuade oneself (and even others) that they have jhana and more. (On the other hand desire can be understood, and even be an object for satipatthana).
If we are double rooted then that is the way things are. We can redouble efforts to understand the nature of the present moment. The right causes bring the right results sometime in the future.
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Thanks. So is it accompanied by universal mental factors like contact etc?
Yes and others.
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I think this is where having faith is really important. We have to have faith in ourselves and try our best. Even Bodhisattas, future Paccekabuddhas, and future chief disciples have to put in 100% of their effort to become enlightened.
It’s hard to attain jhana and enlightenment in the household life even for one with great parami.
Even the wheel-turning monarch needed to practice Brahmacariya as a layman to attain jhana.
@RobertK answered this correctly. I would like to add an answer for perhaps why you ask this question. It is probably because people often fall into bhavaṅga mind and claim there is “nothing” . It is often confused with the false attainment of jhāna and the false attainment of Nibbāna. Now what do you think is easier to attain, Jhāna, Nibbāna or Bhavaṅga?
Bhavaṅga is also the only non super human citta that can occur more than 7 times in a row. That is probably why it is confused for Jhāna or Nibbāna.
Because they know “nothing” (aka blank out), this is where you get the impression that it is void of cetasikas (and a citta too). However, as Robert explained, it is a citta with very “normal” cetasikas. The Bhavaṅga is the reason why you need triple root to attain jhāna or Nibbāna because it is a citta that dominates our total percentage of consciousness moments. It happens just after every mental process. You could also say, just before, or between every mental process. All that said, it is extremely subtle. It is associate with deep sleep, but it happens billions of times while you are awake and reading this message.
I write about this relating it to the Operating system’s sleep or idles processes in my book Abhidhamma Lessons.
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I was reading the introduction to Ven. Asaṅga’s Mahāyānasaṃgraha where it talks about how Yogācārins held different views on if the ālayavijñāna had associated mental factors or not. It’s sometimes framed as having them, sometimes not. Of course if it does then this somewhat undermines the need for it when in Nirodha Samāpatti. This got me thinking if the Theravādin Bhavaṅga had mental factors or not, as it’s not something I’ve thought about before.
“views” is the keyword. I’d stay away.
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I like reading about all the different schools of Buddhism, past and present. I like to understand how they reached their conclusions, even if I don’t agree. Its something of a hobby. Plus you learn things along the way. For example, I didn’t know if the Bhavaṅga had mental factors or not. Now I do.
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Life-continuum, bhavanga-citta
There are moments when there are no sense-impressions, when one does not think, when there are no akusala cittas or kusala cittas. Even when there are no sense-impressions and no thinking there must be citta; otherwise there would be no life. The type of citta which arises and falls away at those moments is called bhavanga-citta. Bhavanga literally means “factor of life”; bhavanga is usually translated into English as “life-continuum”. The bhavanga-citta keeps the continuity in a lifespan, so that what we call a “being” goes on to live from moment to moment. That is the function of the bhavanga-citta. There are countless bhavanga-cittas arising at those moments when there are no sense-impressions, no thinking, no akusala cittas or kusala cittas. When we are asleep and dreaming akusala cittas and kusala cittas arise, but even when we are in a dreamless sleep there still has to be citta. There are bhavanga-cittas at such moments. Also when we are awake countless bhavanga-cittas arise; they arise in between the different processes of citta. It seems that hearing, for example, can arise very shortly after seeing, but in reality there are different processes of citta and in between these processes bhavanga-cittas arise. When an object contacts one of the five senses the stream of bhavanga-cittas is interrupted and a sense-cognition arises. However, there cannot be a sense-cognition immediately. When sound, for example, impinges on the earsense, there is not immediately hearing. There are still some bhavanga-cittas arising and falling away before the five-sense-door adverting-consciousness (pañca-dvārā vajjana-citta) adverts to the sound through the ear-door and hearing arises. The bhavanga-cittas do not perform the function of adverting to the sound which contacts the earsense, they do not experience the sound. They have their own function which is keeping the continuity in a lifespan. In the “Atthas ālinī”, the commentary to the first book of the Abhidhamma, the Dhammasangaṅi, the parable of the Mango is given, explaining a process of cittas after the stream of bhavanga has been arrested. We read (Expositor, 271, part X, no 2, Discourse on the moral result of the sensuous realm) that a man went to sleep under a mango-tree. A ripe mango fell down, grazing his ear. Awakened by the sound he looked, stretched out his hand, took the fruit, squeezed it, smelt it and ate it. We read:
“What does this simile signify? The function of the object striking the sentient organism. When this happens there is the function of adverting by the five doors just agitating the life-continuum, the function of just seeing by visual cognition, of just receiving the object by the resultant mind-element (receiving-consciousness], of just the examining of the object by the resultant element of mind-cognition (investigating-consciousness), the determining of the object by the inoperative element of mind-cognition (the kiriyacitta which is determining-consciousness). But verily only the apperception (the series of javana-cittas) enjoys the taste of the object.”
Processes of cittas occur at this moment: seeing, attachment to what is seen, thinking about it and taking it for a person or thing. It seems that when there is seeing we think at the same time of a person or thing, but each citta cognizes only one object at a time. It is beneficial to learn about the different processes of cittas that succeed one another extremely rapidly. When one has not studied the Dhamma one confuses the different doorways and the different objects, one “joins” them together. One is inclined to believe that there is a self who coordinates all the different expriences. In reality there are only different cittas arising because of their appropriate conditions that experience different objects one at a time. When we look at people they seem to last, and this is because we think for a long time of shape and form of people and of things. There are many different moments of thinking and these fall away. Thinking is a paramattha dhamma, but the concepts that are the objects of thinking are not paramattha dhammas. We can learn to discern when we are in the world of concepts and when in the world of paramattha dhammas.
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