if you have a mind moment, the entire world would have to suspend causality or isolate mind from the world. I mean it’s just some medieval dark ages philosophy and it is obviously not Early Buddhism..
The contradictions are many and blatant.
This is essentially some sort of “mind-atomism” and these mind-moments make no sense.
What connects them?
What is in between them?
What is the difference between the end of one and the beginning of the next one?
What is half of this mind moment?
What is its beginning middle and end?
it is a completely underdeveloped metaphysics philosophy.
And it is not canonical, some foolish people made it up and it is straight embarassing
Robert: These are very good questions and appreciated.
I think it is very useful to learn what the Buddha said in the Patthana - the last book of the Abhidhamma Pitaka.
Just a taste related to your questions:
In Analytical Exposition, II, 23 about the arising and falling away of cittas in contiguity; the citta with its accompanying cetasikas that has just fallen away conditions the next citta by way of absence-condition:
States, citta and cetasikas, which have just disappeared in contiguity, are related to present states, citta and cetasikas, by absence-condition.
It is rather hard going reading the Patthana as it can seem dry but when we see how it pertains exactly to what life is right now it starts to engage and delight.
I recommend the Guide to Conditional Relations U Narada, Mula Patthana Sayadaw
I give some quotes now from Nina Van Gorkom’s Conditionality of Life :
Decisive Support-Condition (Part II)
As we have seen, there are three kinds of decisive support-condition: decisive support
of object, ¯aramman. ¯upanissaya-paccaya, decisive support of proximity, anantarupanissayapaccaya, and natural decisive support-condition, pakatupanissaya-paccaya.
With regard to the third decisive support-condition, the natural decisive
support-condition, pakatupanissaya-paccaya, the Commentary to the “Patt.hana” (the
Pa~ncappakaran. atthakath¯a) explains the term “pakata” in pakatupanissaya. Pakata means
done properly, done thoroughly. Kusala and akusala which were “done thoroughly”, often
performed, can become firmly accumulated, they can become habitual. In this way they
are a cogent reason, a powerful inducement for the arising of kusala and akusala later on,
which are the dhammas conditioned by them, the paccayupanna dhammas. Also external
conditions, such as temperature, food, dwelling place and friends one associates with can
be cogent reasons for the dhammas which they cause to arise.
The Commentary defines in addition the term pakatupanissaya, as natural condition,
explaining the word “pakati” which is connected with “pakatupanissaya”, as naturally, by
nature. The conditioning factor conditions the arising of other dhammas naturally, and it
can condition them without the assistance of decisive support-condition of object or decisive
support-condition of proximity. For example, when there is strong confidence (saddha) in
kusala, this can be a cogent reason for the arising of kusala citta later on, without the need
to be dependent on decisive support-condition of object or decisive support-condition of
proximity.
The “Patt.hana” explains that kusala, which formerly arose, such as confidence, sıla, the
study of the Dhamma and generosity, are natural decisive support-condition for their arising
again, later on. We read in the “Patthana” (Faultless Triplet, VII, Investigation Chapter,
Conditions Positive, paragraph 423,c, Natural strong dependence):
“By the strong dependence of confidence. . . of precept (sıla). . . of learning. . .
generosity. . . By the strong dependence of wisdom, (one) offers the offering,
undertakes the precept, fulfils the duty of observance, develops jhana, develops
insight, develops Path, develops superknowledge, develops attainment. Confidence, precept, learning, generosity, wisdom is related to confidence, precept,
learning, generosity, wisdom, by strong dependence condition.”
Good and bad qualities accumulated in the past become our nature, they condition the
different cittas in the present life by way of natural decisive support-condition.
p.5 It is not by mere chance that we are born in planes of existence where we can experience objects through the senses and that we are equipped with sense-organs through which we
can experience such objects. During previous lives as well we experienced colour, sound
and other sense-objects. We were clinging to these objects in the past and we are clinging
to them at present again and again, so that attachment has become a deep rooted tendency.
Attachment does not arise with each moment of consciousness, citta, but the tendency to > attachment is “carried on” from one moment to the next moment, from life to life. Each > citta which arises falls away completely, but it is succeeded by the next citta. In the
uninterrupted series of cittas which are succeeding one another continuously, inclinations
to both good and evil are carried on.
p. 37 Cittas arise and fall
away succeeding one another continuously because of conditions and we never know what
the next moment will bring. We may be surprised that we quite suddenly have to suffer
great pain or an accident. We are surprised, because we do not see proximity-condition and > contiguity-condition which occur all the time within the cycle of birth and death.
p. 98 People are
born with different inclinations, different talents, different potentialities. Our life is an
unbroken series of cittas and thus, inclinations can be accumulated from one moment to
the next moment. The bhavanga-citta which succeeds the patisandhi-citta is conditioned by that citta by way of proximity-condition, anantara-paccaya, and each following citta is conditioned by the preceding one by way of proximity-condition. Cittas are conditioned by
many different factors; there is no self who could alter the cittas which arise.
It is sort of weird though, especially with rūpa.
rūpa is sustained by its own oja and ahara (external digested food kalapa).
But when that “fed” kalapa dies after 17 mind moments (which has been made stronger but still dies), that energy should be depleted. However, it lasts for 7 days.
It is easier to see the chain reaction of consciousness moments, but rūpa is difficult to grasp perhaps because it is physical substance which we can understand easier. But that makes it more complicated because we think we know how it should work according to our own experience in the regular world.
However, rūpa and how it works from generation to generation is based on the law of how kalapas work. And the previous rūpa generation affects the others. For instance.. a lot of the human body is utuja that came from kammaja kalapa. That utuja rūpa takes the form of its original from what I’ve been told. So even though a dead male still has what appears as bhava rūpa, that is only utuja kalapas that take that form.
Dear Venerable
yes and I also think it is hard to understand.
I write for all readers here:
The first point to grasp is that rupa falls away instantly. It is slower to cease than nama but still it is gone much sooner than we imagine. There are causes for each rupa and if those causes were not then this entire physical universe would disappear instantly.
I wrote to someone who had questions about this:
According to Abhidhammic theory what we call (for example) a block of concrete is actually a mass of trillions of kalapas (a group of matter), each with tiny spaces between them. And each of these kalapas arises and falls away instantly - but is replaced by new kalapas due to temperature (utu-samutthana) primarily in the kalapa that has just fallen away.
All matter outside the body is only composed of eight types of rupa yet the intensities of these eight can vary enormously and so we see a huge type of differing matter - water , snow, wood, plastic, flower, and coffee etc. So there is a kind of law that as you suggest “one moment of a particular type must give rise to the next, of a very similar type?” But of course this is very dependent and all sorts of events can happen so that deterioration in the conventional sense occurs…
