Mundane Sense Sphere Rootless Cittas

Root­less cit­tas are results of past kam­ma, mean­ing they are results of roots in the past. When they arise, they are not accom­pa­nied by any of the unwhole­some roots — greed, hatred and delu­sion — nor by any of the bright roots — non-greed, non-hatred and non-delu­sion. Roots are men­tal fac­tors that help estab­lish sta­bil­i­ty in a cit­ta, so root­less cit­tas are weak­er than those that have roots.

The root­less unwhole­some resul­tant cit­tas are results of unwhole­some kam­ma in the past. They are not unwhole­some them­selves, but kam­mi­cal­ly indeterminate.

The first five types of resul­tant cit­tas in both the group of unwhole­some resul­tants above and the group of whole­some resul­tants below are those based on sen­si­tive mat­ter in the eye, ear, nose, tongue or body. These cit­tas are col­lec­tive­ly called sense-cit­tas. Each type of sense-cit­ta aris­es based on its respec­tive sen­si­tiv­i­ty, and its func­tion is sim­ply to cog­nize its respec­tive objects — to see vis­i­ble objects, to hear sounds, to smell odors, to taste tastes, and to feel tan­gi­ble things.

In the case of unwhole­some resul­tants, the object is unpleas­ant or unde­sir­able. The objec­t’s impact on the first four sens­es is weak, so the asso­ci­at­ed feel­ing is neu­tral. In the case of unwhole­some result­ing tac­tile-cit­ta, the impact of the object is stronger and the asso­ci­at­ed feel­ing is bod­i­ly discomfort.

When a sense object hits one of the five sense doors, a cit­ta first aris­es that announces the object. Imme­di­ate­ly there­after the rel­e­vant sense-cit­ta which cog­nizes the object aris­es. This act of cog­ni­tion lasts only for a sin­gle mind-moment, where­after a cit­ta aris­es and catch­es the cog­nized object. This cit­ta is called the receiv­ing citta.

Imme­di­ate­ly after the receiv­ing cit­ta the inves­ti­gat­ing cit­ta aris­es. The func­tion of this cit­ta is to exam­ine the object, which had just been cog­nized by the sense-cit­ta and appre­hend­ed by the receiv­ing cit­ta. The receiv­ing and the inves­ti­gat­ing cit­tas arise only at the five sense-doors. Both are results of past kamma.

The root­less whole­some resul­tant cit­tas are results of whole­some kam­ma. Sev­en of these types of cit­tas cor­re­spond to the unwhole­some resul­tants, except that the whole­some resul­tants arise in rela­tion to desir­able objects rather than the unde­sir­able objects of their unwhole­some counterparts.

The first four sense-cit­tas here also are asso­ci­at­ed with neu­tral feel­ing, but due to the stronger impact of the pleas­ant sense-object on the tac­tile-sense, the accom­pa­ny­ing feel­ing is bod­i­ly pleasure.

One type of root­less whole­some resul­tants is unpar­al­leled among the unwhole­some resul­tants. While the unwhole­some resul­tant inves­ti­gat­ing cit­ta is always accom­pa­nied by neu­tral feel­ing, the whole­some coun­ter­part may be accom­pa­nied by either a neu­tral or a pleas­ant feel­ing. The feel­ing will be neu­tral if the sensed object is only mod­er­ate­ly desir­able, and it will be pleas­ant if the object is par­tic­u­lar­ly desirable.

The func­tion­al cit­tas nei­ther gen­er­ate kam­ma nor are results of kam­ma — they are just functional.

The five-sense-door advert­ing cit­ta has the func­tion of announc­ing any object that presents itself at one of the five sense-doors. This cit­ta nei­ther sees, hears, smells, tastes nor touch­es the object. It sim­ply turns towards the object and there­by caus­es the rel­e­vant sense-cit­ta to imme­di­ate­ly arise.

The mind-door advert­ing cit­ta can arise either at one of the five sense-doors or at the mind-door. In a mind-door process, its func­tion here is to announce objects that appear at the mind’s door. In a five-sense-door process, its func­tion is to deter­mine objects that have been cog­nized by the sense-cit­ta. After the object is appre­hend­ed by the receiv­ing cit­ta and exam­ined by the inves­ti­gat­ing cit­ta, the deter­min­ing cit­ta deter­mines what the object is.

The smile-form­ing cit­ta is a spe­cial­ty of ara­hants. Its func­tion is to make ara­hants smile at sense sphere phe­nom­e­na. Accord­ing to the Abhid­ham­ma, ara­hants can smile with one of five cit­tas — four beau­ti­ful sense sphere func­tion­al cit­tas and the root­less smile-form­ing cit­ta list­ed here.