There are few topics that are difficult to explain within the classical Theravada framework, and I consider this one of them. The concept of Bhavanga-citta was developed to ensure the continuity of the flow of momentary phenomena. When there is no experience of the six sense spheres, the flow of consciousness must continue, and it continues in the form of Bhavanga-citta. But there is a state in which the flow of citta is interrupted altogether - the attainment of the cessation of perception and feeling.
Given that phenomenon X must arise from a corresponding, immediately preceding phenomenon Y of the same nature as X, the interruption of the flow of citta in Nirodha-Samapati creates a problem. The problem is that for the citta of a new moment to arise, only the flow of Rupa remains, and this is not the appropriate condition for the arising of citta.
If the cause of exit from Nirodha-Samapati (arising of exit citta) is past intention/kamma etc., then these past potentials must act on the present through a momentary chain of arising, a momentary passing of the baton, an impulse, in order to carry this impulse to the present. Since Theravada denies the existence of past dharmas (unlike Sarvastivada, which introduced the existence of past dharmas for this very reason - to justify the action of past potentials of kamma/formation on the present), – since Theravada denies the existence of past dharmas, the only option for transmitting the impulse of formation/kamma is in the form of momentary dhammas arising and transmitting the potential to the next moments. Thus this potential or impulse must be carried over in something, in the form of a stream of momentary dhammas for example. It is this stream that ceases at the moment of Nirodha-Samapati, leaving only a stream of rupa.
Yogacara introduces the concept of alaya-vijnana. In one of the books devoted to this issue, I learned that they created this concept precisely to solve the issue of exiting Nirodha-Samapati, assuming that this vijnana is not aware of anything, but stores in itself the seeds of potentials of karmas, through momentary arising, momentary chain, transmitting them from the past to the future. And also serves as a mental corresponding condition for the emergence of the citta of exiting nirodha-samapati. I do not adhere to the view of Yogacara, since I am against adding new entities in addition to those described in the suttas. I would like to better understand the solution that Classical Theravada gives on this issue.
The Ālāyavijñāna is essentially the same as the Bhavaṅga. I suppose a difference is that for the Abhidhamma viññāṇa, mano and citta are synonyms whilst with Yogācāra they separate them out into the Eight Consciousnesses:
Viññāṇa: the 6 sensory consciousnesses
Mano: The 7th consciousness of Manas
Citta: the Ālāyavijñāna
From my reading of both schools, the answers will be pretty similar. The Bhavaṅga flows on until an impulsion arises.
My question was not about Bhavanga-Citta. Bhavanga-Citta ceases in Nirodha-Samapati. And with the Yogacarins, their Alaya-Vijnana is not interrupted. And their Alaya-Vijnana does not cognize anything, but only stores the potentials of past kammas and ensures the continuity of the flow of mental phenomena. What ensures the continuity of the flow in the case of Nirodha-Samapati in the Theravada view? Bhavanga-Citta ceases in this state.
Only in unconsciousness, coma, during dying and deep sleep, and also between acts of awareness of the 6 sense organs. But not in Nirodha-Samapati and not among the gods without perception.
Anantara-paccaya, contiguity condition, is as it were suspended but still active.
Guide to Conditional Relations by U
Narada :
“Rebirth takes place in the non-percipient plane where there is materiality
only and which lasts for 500 worlds. Then after death there is rebirth in
the sensuous plane. The death-consciousness in the sensuous plane (prior to
rebirth in the non-percipient plane) is related to rebirth consciousness in
the sensuous plane (after death in the non-percipient plane) by proximity
condition without the intervention of any other mentality. Here the
proximity force is not destroyed although materiality lasting for 500 worlds
intervenes.”
Then this potential of conditioning must be stored somewhere, otherwise it turns out that we believe in the existence of dharmas of the past (Sabba Atthi). And this potential must somehow be stored and transmitted moment by moment - from moment to moment, from khana to its immediately following khana. In the case of the emergence of Citta after 500 kalpas, this immediate connection of moments is apparently broken.
If the potential of the causal condition left by the extinguished mind does not arise anywhere as a momentary chain and the past dharmas are not real, then it simply disappears. This is the logic of these premises.
That doesn’t follow.
Kamma condition for example is able to give results even thousands of aeons and existences in the future.
I quote from Nina van Gorkom
Conditionality of Life
In some cases there can be temporary suspension of citta, and then
only rupas arise and fall away. Those who have developed samatha up
to the fourth stage of arupa-jhana, the �Sphere of Neither Perception
Nor Non-Perception � and who have also realized the stage of
enlightenment of the anagami, non-returner, and of the arahat, can
attain �cessation� nirodha-samapatti. This is the temporary
suspension of citta, cetasikas and mind-produced rupa. Rupas produced
by kamma, temperature and nutriment, in the case of human beings, and
rupas produced by kamma and temperature, in the case of beings in the
Brahma plane, continue to arise. When they emerge from cessation, the
first citta which arises is the phala-citta, fruition-consciousness
(lokuttara vipakacitta), which has nibbana as its object. For the
anagami it is the phala-citta of the anagami and for the arahat it is
the phala-citta of the arahat. This citta is conditioned by the
preceding citta, the arupa-jhanacitta of the fourth stage which
occurred prior to cessation. Thus, the force of proximity is not > destroyed by the temporary suspension of citta.
It is the same in the case of rebirth in the asanna-satta plane, the
plane where there is only rupa. When the lifespan in that plane is
over and there is rebirth in the sensuous plane, the rebirth-
consciousness is conditioned by the dying-consciousness which
occurred prior to rebirth in the asanna-satta-plane. Thus, the force > of proximity is not destroyed.
Just as an aside:
In the case of the Nirodha-Samapati and the beings in the non-percipient plane there is still the kamma produced matter, kammajarupa.
Bhavanga citta has the tilakkhana - anicca, dukkha and anatta- as does any citta and indeed any mentality and materiality.
Cittas cannot freeze. They arise and cease instantly whether the citta is bhavanga, seeing, hearing or any other citta, in any plane of existence. Thus all cittas are sunnata (suññatā), they cease immediately, but by conditions new cittas arise. In the unusual cases mentioned in this thread the cittas do not arise for a period.
From the Sāratthapakāsinī (Samyutta nikaya commentary by Buddhaghosa)
II 99,30-31
Ekasmiṃ hi accharā-kkhaṇe anekāni
citta-koṭi-sata-sahassāni uppajjanti
“in the timespan of a finger-snap many hundred
thousand of koṭis of minds arise and pass away.”
Mahāniddesa 42
Life, person, pleasure, pain — just these alone
Join in one conscious moment that flicks by.
Devas, though they live for eighty-four thousand kalpas,
Are not the same for two such moments…
Breakup of dhammas is foredoomed at their birth;
Those present decay, unmingled with those past.
They come from nowhere, break up, nowhere go;
Flash in and out, as lightning in the sky.
Once all mental phenomena cease during Nirodha Samāpatti, wouldn’t the potential for conditioning remain stored in the living body of the cessation-attainer? The living body, being the result of previous kamma, would still contain the seeds for further kammic results, even in the absence of active mental processes. It could also hold latent tendencies not yet eradicated in non-returners.
In the case of cessation-attainers, Nirodha Samāpatti itself doesn’t condition future bodily formations. Therefore, the only cause for the arising of future formations would be the remaining past kamma stored in the living body.
It’s also important to remember that cessation-attainers can’t remain in Nirodha Samāpatti beyond their remaining lifespan.
In the case of non-percipient beings, although mental phenomena are halted, their current existence is the result of a form attainment—a type of consciousness that conditioned the arising of a non-percipient body. This body would also contain the kammic seeds that would give rise to new existence following the death process of that non-percipient body.
I’m just speculating here. I’ll wait to hear from those with more expertise in the Abhidhamma and the commentaries.
You are right. The elements are sunnata. They utterly cease. There is not even a spec of dust in this entire universe that was there from a second ago.
The channel for the transmission of kammic influence from life to life across the sequence of rebirths is the individual stream of consciousness. Consciousness embraces both phases of our being — that in which we generate fresh kamma and that in which we reap the fruits of old kamma — and thus in the process of rebirth, consciousness bridges the old and new existences. Consciousness is not a single transmigrating entity, a self or soul, but a stream of evanescent acts of consciousness, each of which arises, briefly subsists, and then passes away. This entire stream, however, though made up of evanescent units, is fused into a unified whole by the causal relations obtaining between all the occasions of consciousness in any individual continuum. At a deep level, each occasion of consciousness inherits from its predecessor the entire kammic legacy of that particular stream; in perishing, it in turn passes that content on to its successor, augmented by its own novel contribution. Thus our volitional deeds do not exhaust their full potential in their immediately visible effects. Every volitional deed that we perform, when it passes, leaves behind a subtle imprint stamped upon the onward-flowing stream of consciousness. The deed deposits in the stream of consciousness a seed capable of bearing fruit, of producing a result that matches the ethical quality of the deed.
When we encounter suitable external conditions, the kammic seeds deposited in our mental continuum rise up from their dormant condition and produce their fruits. The most important function performed by kamma is to generate rebirth into an appropriate realm, a realm that provides a field for it to unfold its stored potentials. The bridge between the old existence and the new is, as we said above, the evolving stream of consciousness. It is within this stream of consciousness that the kamma has been created through the exercise of volition; it is this same stream of consciousness, flowing on, that carries the kammic energies into the new existence; and it is again this same stream of consciousness that experiences the fruit. Conceivably, at the deepest level all the individual streams of consciousness are integrated into a single all-embracing matrix, so that, beneath the surface of events, the separate kammic accumulations of all living beings crisscross, overlap, and merge. This hypothesis — though speculative — would help account for the strange coincidences we sometimes meet that prick holes in our assumptions of rational order.
Here, Bhikkhu Bodhi seems to be referring to certain Abhidhammic material. In any case, it is important to note that the transmission of kammic potential through the stream of consciousness persists even during temporary suspensions of this stream of consciousness, such as those occurring in non-percipient states or in Nirodha Samāpatti—states in which the bhavaṅga is theoretically absent.
In this context, the living body—being the result of past kamma and having arisen with consciousness as its condition—also serves as a condition for the arising of new conscious processes. In doing so, it causally links the stream of consciousness that was interrupted by the attainment with the one that arises afterward. This process may offer a key to understanding how the kammic connection is maintained, even when the stream of consciousness is temporarily suspended by either non-percipient attainment or cessation attainment. All of this, notably, without the need to posit a literal kammic storage mechanism—something that would go against the Theravāda understanding.
Actually to even speak of ‘somewhere’ that paramattha-dhammas arise is to misunderstand meaning of ‘paramattha’. What need be said about being stored ‘somewhere’.
The elements are sunnata. They utterly cease. There is not even a spec of dust in this entire universe that was there from a second ago.