Pabhassara Citta, Radiant Mind, and Bhavanga

puredhamma.net/abhidhamma/pabhassara-citta-radiant-mind-bhavanga/

April 13, 2017; revised January 19, 2018; August 20, 2018 ; January 7, 2019

It is a good idea to read the posts, “Amazingly Fast Time Evolution of a Thought (Citta) ” and
“Viññāna – What It Really Means ” first.

1. Billions of citta flow in a second, and what we experience is the cumulative effect of
billions of citta, which we call a “thought”. Let us start at the base state of a citta (loosely
translated as a thought, but it is really not). Each and every citta has 7 universal cētasika
(mental factors); those universal cētasika are discussed in, “What is in a Thought? Why
Gathi are so Important?“.

Those 7 unversal cētasika are: Phassa (contact), saññā (perception), vēdanā (feeling),
cētanā (intention), ekaggata (one-pointedness), jivitindriya (life faculty), and
manasikāra (memory). This is the “baseline” state of a citta, which lasts only a
billionth of a second.
And during that brief time, many other cētasika (good or bad) can be incorporated
into a citta. But let us consider the simpler case where no other cētasika are
incorporated.
Even such a simple citta is still contaminated or defiled at the end of that brief time.
This contamination is manifested in vēdanā and saññā cētasika.

2. Each INDIVIDUAL citta — during its existence for a billionth of a second — undergoes
change in 9 stages! Such a fast process cannot be seen by any human other than a
Buddha; see, “Citta, Manō, Viññāna – Stages of a Thought “.

At the end of the 9 stages it has evolved and has become affected by the whole of
the viññānakkhandha (including past viññāna).
The contamination of a citta is manifested in saññā and vēdanā; a contaminated
citta is called viññāna.
Vēdanā at the base level is “discerning that an event took place” (“ veema” +
“danaveema” or “ ” in Sinhala). Actual “feelings” about the event
will be incorporated as the citta evolves in 9 stages, as we will discuss below.

3. The other critical universal cētasika that evolves in 9 stages is saññā. Even though it has
become standard to write is as “saññā”, that is not how it is pronounced “sangngā”:

https://puredhamma.net/wp-content/uploads/sanna.mp3
Some do indicate the correct pronunciation by writing as sañña. Even though it does
not really matter how one writes it (sanna or sañña or “sangnga”), it is critically
important to understand what is meant by it; see, “What is Saññā (Perception)?“.
Saññā provides one’s perception about a given event that led to the arising of
the citta. For example, if we see an object, the identification of that object proceeds
via those 9 stages (and vēdanā evolves accordingly).

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 So, let us briefly go through the 9 stages of the evolution of a citta using saññā as the
basis.

4. Each citta gets contaminated in those 9 stages due to anusaya that comes to the
surface as āsava (or āsaya), which are also related to one’s gati. There are many posts at
the site with details on those entities.

Those nine stages of contamination during the lifetime of the citta itself (in a billionth
of a second) are: citta, manō, mānasan, hadayan, pandaran, manō manāyatanam,
mana indriyam (or manindriyam), viññāna, viññānakkhandha.
This rapid contamination of a citta is explained in the “Paṭic​ca​samup​pāda​‐
Vibhaṅga“, in Section 2.5.1. Akusalacitta : “Tattha katamaṃ saṅ​khā​ra ​pac​cayā
viññāṇaṃ? Yaṃ cittaṃ mano mānasaṃ hadayaṃ paṇḍaraṃ mano manāyatanaṃ
manindriyaṃ viññāṇaṃ viññā​ṇak​khan​dho tajjā​mano​viñ​ñā​ṇa​dhātu—idaṃ vuccati
“saṅ​khā​ra​pac​cayā viññāṇaṃ”.
Those 9 stages are also listed in the original commentary, section 1.3.5.3. Tatiya​‐
catuk​ka​niddesa in 1.3. Ānā​pā​nassa​ti​kathā of Patisambhidamaggapakarana (or Part
I, p. 360 of Buddha Jayanati Tipitaka): “..yam cittan mano mānasan hadayan pandaran
manomanayatanan manindriyan viññānan vinnakkhandho..”. I trust only three
commentaries and all three are in the Tipitaka: Patisambhidamagga, Petakopadesa,
and Nettippakarana.
All other commentaries that are in existence today were written much later and are
not reliable; see, “Buddhaghosa and Visuddhimagga – Historical Background “.
What we actually experience is vinnanakkhandha. Even after going through the 9
stages it is still called a citta for convenience; see, “ Citta, Manō, Viññāna – Stages of
a Thought” and “Amazingly Fast Time Evolution of a Thought (Citta) “.

5. Let us consider the example of seeing one’s mother. At the initial citta stage, the only
perception is that a person is there. In the next step of “manō” (which stands for
“calibrating with respect to other persons; “maneema” in Sinhala), it is realized that the
person is woman.

In the third stage of “mānasan“, “san” comes to the picture and extra information
(which is personal) is incorporated; see, “What is “San”?“. Now, one identifies the
person as one’s mother.
By the way, we cannot live in this world without at least reaching the “ mānasan” stage
of a citta. Otherwise, we will not be able to distinguish a given person in a crowd.
Actual contamination of the citta starts at the next stage of “ hadayan“, which means
identifying whether that person is “close one’s heart” and then getting attracted or
repulsed. In our example, one identifies the person as “one’s mother” and of course
corresponding vēdanā of an attachment arises as well.

6. An Arahant‘s citta does not evolve beyond the ‘ mānasan‘ stage. So, the Buddha was able
to identify different people, but he did not form any attachment/dislike based on that
identification.

This is what is stated in the Karaniyamatta Sutta: “..mānasambhāva ye aparimānan..”.

One needs to cultivate “mānasan” as much as possible (“aparimāna” or “appramāna”
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 or without limit), but not let the citta contaminate beyond that.
That can be done only via reducing and finally removing one’s bad gati, āsava, and
anusaya, as we discuss below.

7. The next step after “hadayan” is “pandaran“, which means to “add more power”, i.e., one’s
mind will look back at past events (yes, within a billionth of a second), recall how loving she
was, and “attach more”. It is done automatically by the manasikāra cētasika.

So, the citta gets more and more contaminated and gets to the viññāna stage. Thus
viññāna is actually a citta that is very much contaminated due to one’s anusaya,
āsava, and gati.
Finally, it becomes part of the viññānakkhandha, which includes 11 types of
viññāna: past, present, future, near, far, fine (sukuma), coarse (ōlārika), likes (paneeta),
dislikes (appaneeta), internal (ajjatta), and external (bahidda).
A viññānakkhandha has incorporated not only one’s anusaya, āsava, and gati, but
also one’s past memories and future hopes, etc.

8. Now we can address the issue of a “ pabhassara citta“. First, what is meant by
“pabhassara“?

The word comes from three sounds at the root: “ pa” means again and again, “ bha” is
related to”bhava“; and “sara” or “chara” means to “sarisareema” in Sinhala or “to
participate”. Thus a “pabhasara citta” with only one “s” in the word (NOT
pabhassara) is a contaminated citta that will lead to sansaric journey or the rebirth
process.
The opposite of “pabha sara” is “pabha assara“, where “assara” means “not take part
in”. It rhymes as “pabhassara“.
This is why I say that Pāli is phonetic language. Meanings come based on sounds. I
have given many examples throughout the website.

9. Therefore, a “pabhassara citta” is that base state, or the pure state of a citta, BEFORE it
goes through the 9 stages of contamination. It has only the 7 universal cetasika.

Each and every citta of a given person starts off as a pabhassara citta, but gets
contaminated to varying degrees depending one’s personality or one’s
advancement along the Path.
Even an Arahant‘s citta is not a pabhassara citta; it will contaminate to the level of
“mānasan“, as we discussed above. However, Arahant phala citta, which lasts for only
one citta, is a pabhassara citta.
When an Arahant is in Arahant phala samapatti, he/she knows that one is alive, but
has no awareness of outside events. This is called animitta, appanihita, suññata
samādhi. That is different from the nirōdha samāpatti, where the flow of citta stops.
In Buddha Dhamma, defilements are associated with “dark”, and pure states are
associated with “bright” or “radiant”. So, we could call a pabhassara citta a “radiant
citta“, and a mind that generates AND maintains citta at that state a “radiant mind”.
The only time such radiant or pure citta flow occur, is when an Arahant is in Arahant
phala samapatti, with the Arahant phala citta flowing continuously.

10. This process of contamination of a citta is what stated in the “ Pabhassara Sutta (AN
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1.51)“: “Pabhassa​ra​midaṃ, bhikkhave, cittaṃ. Tañca kho āgantukehi upakkilesehi
upakkiliṭṭhaṃ. Taṃ assutavā puthujjano yathābhūtaṃ nappajānāti. Tasmā ‘assutavato
puthujjanassa cittabhāvanā natthī’ti vadāmī ti“.

First, “Pabhassa​ra​midaṃ” is “Pabhassa​ra ​idaṃ”. As I keep saying, words are

sometimes combined or even a bit changed to rhyme in suttas. So, the first sentence
says, “Bhikkus, citta (the first stage) is pabhassara or does not contribute to rebirth
process”.
The next sentence says how it is defiled: “ āgantuka” (which is also a Sinhala word,
“ ”) means “introduced”. What is introduced is “upakilēsa” or
defilements (that are in one’s gati, anusaya, āsava ). That leads to “upakilitta” or
contamination. Again. “kiliti” in Pāli and Sinhala means “dirty”.
The next sentence says, “those puthujjano who do not understand this, cannot
comprehend the reality (yathābhūta)”. Here puthujjana means a normal human who
has not been exposed to Buddha Dhamma; specifically, one who does not
comprehend Tilakkhana. Thus the last sentence says, “therefore, I do not recommend
citta bhavana to those who do not comprehend Tilakkhana“.

11. Another famous quote from the Kevaṭṭa Sutta in the Digha Nikaya (DN 11), says,
“Viññāṇaṃ anidassanaṃ anantaṃ sabbatō pabhaṃ ..”. This could be written as “ Viññāṇaṃ
anidassanaṃ, anantaṃ, sabbatā pabhaṃ..” in order to break into three components.

Here, “anidassana” means “cannot be seen”. Viññāna is more than a nāma dhammā
and has “kammic energy”. But it is below the “visible rūpa“; see, “Kamma Viññāna –
Link Between Mind and Matter“.
And, “ananta” is infinite; viññāna dhatu is infinite.
“sabbato” is condensed for “sabba” + atto“, where the mundane meaning of “atta” is
used to denote “people” and thus means “all people”.
As we discussed above in #8, “ pabha” means “repeated bhava” (pabham comes for
that).
Therefore, the above verse means, “viññāna is unseen, infinite, and leads to the
rebirth process for all”.
To emphasize: viññāna is a defiled citta. We all experience viññāna, not pure citta.
Even more accurately, we experience viññānakkhandha (viññāna aggregate).
However, we loosely call “a thought” a citta.
One stops the rebirth process by removing one’s bad gati, āsava, and anusaya and
not letting citta contaminate beyond the “mānasan” stage.

More details at this post: “Anidassana Viññāṇa – What It Really Means “.

12. Some commentaries say that bhavanga citta are pabhassara citta. That is absolutely
incorrect. All living beings have bhavanga citta that depend on one’s bhava; see “Bhava
and Bhavanga – Simply Explained! “.

Bhavanga comes from “bhava” + “anga“, where “anga” is “a part”. So, bhavanga
means “associated with a given bhava“. Bhavanga is obviously different for different
bhava.
An animal also get into the bhavanga state. Does that mean an animal has a “radiant

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 mind” when it is in the bhavanga state?
Furthermore, sometimes “anidassana viññāna” is also incorrectly explained as the
base level of viññāna. Per #11 above, it is clear that anidassana viññāna just explains
that viññāna cannot be “seen”.

13. In fact, it is not correct to say bhavanga citta. Bhavanga is a “state of mind”, no citta vithi
run during bhavanga.

For example, a living being in the asañña realm does not experience any thoughts.
There are absolutely no citta vithi running during the whole time there. However, the
body is maintained by bhavanga that corresponds to that bhava.

14. So, the point here is that as long as one has bad gati (or anusaya, āsava, etc., which are
all inter-related and can be just called avijjā), one’s thoughts will be contaminated as they
arise.

Therefore, we cannot control our thoughts as they arise: a citta is contaminated to

the viññāna stage in a billionth of a second, which is unimaginably fast. This is why
the Buddha said a citta is the fastest entity in the world (we loosely call “a thought” a
citta, even though it is really viññānakkhandha that we experience).
All we can do is to REDUCE avijjā (and thus all those related entities of gati, āsava,
anusaya) by learning Dhamma and then practicing Anāpāna (not breath meditation)
and Satipatthāna meditation.
As one proceeds in the Path, one’s had gati (and āsava and anusaya) will start
decreasing, one’s citta will tend to be more “cleaner and brighter”.
Once one gets to a certain level, one can start contemplating on those key concepts
like anicca, dukkha, anatta, i.e., vipassanā meditation, and attain magga phala.

15. Not all citta get contaminated at the same level. A citta arises when one of our six
sense faculties makes a sense contact, and the level of contamination of the citta depends
critically on what that sense input is.

Let us take some examples. When we taste a delicious food or see an attractive
object, greedy thoughts may arise. But we know that we all don’t have the same
cravings for a given object. Some foods that some people crave can be repulsive to
some others. In another example, a given person may be liked by some but disliked
by others (think about a famous politician).
Furthermore, we don’t generate defiled thoughts in many cases. Billions of citta flow
through our minds as we look at scenery passing by while riding in a car; they are
mostly neutral, but still are contaminated to a certain level.
But the level of contamination will be stronger when one sees an eye-catching object.

16. I have seen some people say citta that arise in a baby are pabhassara citta. One’s
anusaya are ALWAYS with oneself, whether it is a baby, animal, brahma, or any living being.

A baby’s brain has not developed so it cannot experience the world as we do, and it
also cannot express itself. But a baby’s citta are also contaminated due to anusaya
being there.
Only when one attains magga phala that a part of one’s anusaya (and āsava and
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 samyojana) is removed permanently; see, “Conditions for the Four Stages of
Nibbāna“.

17. As one starts at the Sōtapanna stage of Nibbāna, and advance through Sakadagami,
Anāgāmi stages to the Arahant stage, one’s avijjā (and thus bad gati, anusaya, āsava, etc)
decrease permanently.

Thus a Sōtapanna‘s thoughts will not be defiled beyond a certain level of

contamination. Certainly, a Sōtapanna will not generate strong akusala citta that are
capable of leading to rebirth in the apāyas.
By the time one gets to the Anāgāmi stage, one has removed all kāmāsava (kāmā
āsava), and thus will not be tempted by any sensual object in the kāmā lōka. Thus
he/she will not be reborn anywhere in the kāmā lōka (four apāyas, human realm, and
the six dēva realms).
When one gets to the Arahant stage, one has removed all avijjā (and all bad gati,
anusaya, āsava, etc): One has attained Nibbāna, and thus one will not reborn
anywhere in the 31 realms at death.
All above have been discussed in detail in many posts at the site. One can use the
site map “Pure Dhamma – Sitemap ” or use the “Search” box on top right to look for
posts for given key word(s).

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