Beautiful Cetasikas

There are a total of 25 beau­ti­ful cetasikas divid­ed into four groups. The first 19 are called uni­ver­sal because they will arise with any beau­ti­ful cit­ta — that is, with all cit­tas except the 12 unwhole­some and 18 root­less ones. After this large group come three groups of beau­ti­ful cetasikas, which are vari­able fac­tors not nec­es­sar­i­ly con­tained in beau­ti­ful cittas.

Faith is char­ac­ter­ized by trust. It man­i­fests as clar­i­ty and removal of the impu­ri­ties of the mind. Its prox­i­mate cause is some­thing to believe in.

Mind­ful­ness means pres­ence of mind, atten­tion to the present. It has the prop­er­ty that it does not float away from the object. Its func­tion is absence of con­fu­sion and forgetfulness.

Shame and Fear of wrong­do­ing both have the func­tion of not doing evil. They man­i­fest as turn­ing away from evil. The prox­i­mate cause of shame is self-respect, and the prox­i­mate cause of fear of wrong­do­ing is respect for others.

Non-greed is char­ac­ter­ized by the mind’s lack of desire for its object. Its func­tion is non-grasp­ing and its man­i­fes­ta­tion is detach­ment. Non-greed is not sim­ply the absence of greed, but also the pres­ence of pos­i­tive virtues such as gen­eros­i­ty and renunciation.

Non-hate has the char­ac­ter of lack of feroc­i­ty and non-resis­tance. Its func­tion is to remove nui­sance. Its man­i­fes­ta­tion is pleas­ant­ness. Non-hatred includes pos­i­tive virtues such as lov­ing-kind­ness, gen­tle­ness, friend­ship, etc.

Mind-neu­tral­i­ty is a syn­onym for equa­nim­i­ty — not as a neu­tral feel­ing, but as a men­tal atti­tude of bal­ance and impar­tial­i­ty. The func­tion of neu­tral­i­ty is to pre­vent a short­age or excess of some­thing and to pre­vent par­tial­i­ty. Mind-neu­tral­i­ty treats all beings with­out dis­crim­i­na­tion, with­out pref­er­ence and prej­u­dice, con­sid­er­ing every­one as equal.

The next twelve beau­ti­ful uni­ver­sal cetasikas are made up of six pairs, in which one cetasi­ka affects the cit­ta and the oth­er cetasi­ka affects the entire col­lec­tion of asso­ci­at­ed cetasikas.

Tran­quil­i­ty has the char­ac­ter­is­tic of sub­du­ing dis­tur­bances in the cit­ta and asso­ci­at­ed cetasikas. Its func­tion is to crush such dis­tur­bances. It man­i­fests as peace and is opposed to defile­ments such as rest­less­ness and worry.

Light­ness is char­ac­ter­ized by dimin­ish­ing heav­i­ness in the cit­ta and asso­ci­at­ed cetasikas. Its func­tion is to crush heav­i­ness. It man­i­fests as non-slug­gish­ness and is opposed to impu­ri­ties such as sloth and torpor.

Mal­leabil­i­ty is char­ac­ter­ized by dimin­ish­ing rigid­i­ty in the cit­ta and asso­ci­at­ed cetasikas. Its func­tion is to crush rigid­i­ty. It man­i­fests as non-resis­tance and is opposed to defile­ments such as wrong view and conceit.

Wield­i­ness has the func­tion of crush­ing unwield­i­ness. It is opposed to the remain­ing hindrances. 

Pro­fi­cien­cy has the char­ac­ter­is­tic of health­i­ness in the cit­ta and asso­ci­at­ed cetasikas. Its func­tion is to crush unhealth­i­ness in the cit­ta and asso­ci­at­ed cetasikas. It is man­i­fest­ed as an absence of dis­abil­i­ty and is opposed to lack of faith.

Rec­ti­tude is char­ac­ter­ized by upright­ness of cit­ta and asso­ci­at­ed cetasikas. Its func­tion is to crush tor­tu­ous­ness in the cit­ta and asso­ci­at­ed cetasikas. It is opposed to hypocrisy, deceit, fraud­u­lence, etc.

Absti­nence here includes three beau­ti­ful cetasikas which are respon­si­ble for delib­er­ate absti­nence from wrong speech, wrong action and wrong liveli­hood. These cetasikas are called right speech, right action and right livelihood.

Right speech is the delib­er­ate absti­nence from wrong speech, which includes every­thing from lying and slan­der to harsh lan­guage and friv­o­lous talk.

Right action is the delib­er­ate absti­nence from wrong actions such as vio­lence, killing, theft and sex­u­al abuse.

Right liveli­hood is the con­scious absti­nence from wrong liveli­hood, such as the trade in poi­sons, drugs, weapons, humans, or ani­mals for slaughter.

The func­tion of the three absti­nences is to avoid evil deeds. They are man­i­fest­ed as absti­nence from such deeds. They can be con­sid­ered as the mind’s aver­sion to wrongdoing.

There are four cetasikas which are called lim­it­less because they must encom­pass all liv­ing beings and thus have a poten­tial­ly lim­it­less reach. The four lim­it­less cetasikas are lov­ing-kind­ness, com­pas­sion, appre­cia­tive joy and equanimity.

Although there are four lim­it­less cetasikas, only two — com­pas­sion and appre­cia­tive joy — are includ­ed here. This is because lov­ing-kind­ness is a form of the non-hatred cetasi­ka, and equa­nim­i­ty is a form of the mind-neu­tral­i­ty cetasi­ka. Non-hate does not nec­es­sar­i­ly man­i­fest as lov­ing-kind­ness. It can also appear in oth­er ways, but when lov­ing-kind­ness aris­es in the mind, it hap­pens as a man­i­fes­ta­tion of the non-hate cetasi­ka . A sim­i­lar rela­tion­ship holds between mind-neu­tral­i­ty cetasi­ka and the sub­lime state of equi­lib­ri­um and impar­tial­i­ty towards all liv­ing beings.

Com­pas­sion has the prop­er­ty of pro­mot­ing the removal of suf­fer­ing in oth­ers. Its func­tion is to not be able to bear the suf­fer­ing of oth­ers. It is expressed as non-cru­el­ty. Its prox­i­mate cause is see­ing help­less­ness in those over­whelmed by suffering.

Appre­cia­tive joy has the char­ac­ter­is­tic of delight­ing in the suc­cess of oth­ers. Its func­tion is not to envy the suc­cess of oth­ers. It man­i­fests as the elim­i­na­tion of aver­sion. Its prox­i­mate cause is see­ing the suc­cess of others.

While non-hatred and neu­tral­i­ty of mind are present in all beau­ti­ful cit­tas, com­pas­sion and appre­cia­tive joy are present only on occa­sions when their func­tions are explic­it­ly exercised.

In the Abhid­ham­ma, the three terms — wis­dom, knowl­edge and non-delu­sion — are used syn­ony­mous­ly. Wis­dom is here called a fac­ul­ty because it pre­dom­i­nates in under­stand­ing things as they real­ly are.

Wis­dom fac­ul­ty has the char­ac­ter­is­tic that it pen­e­trates into things accord­ing to their intrin­sic nature. Its func­tion is to illu­mi­nate things objec­tive­ly. It man­i­fests as non-con­fu­sion and its prox­i­mate cause is wise attention.