There are 15 cittas in this category — five wholesome, five resultant and five functional. The fine-material sphere wholesome cittas can be experienced by those who develop jhanas in this life. The corresponding resulting cittas arise only in the fine-material world in beings, who have been reborn there as a consequence of their jhana development. The five functional jhana cittas are experienced only by arahants.
Jhanas are achieved by meditation types called development of tranquility (samatha). There are various such methods. One popular one is the kasina-meditation: by fixing the mind on a single chosen object (the kasina), all mental distractions and hindrances can be overcome and the mind become fully absorbed in its object.
One popular choice of kasina is a colored disk. The meditator concentrates on the disk, alternating between looking at it with open eyes and trying to visualize it with closed eyes. After repeatedly practicing this for a number of sessions, the meditator can visualize the mental image of the disk without the aid of the disk itself. At first the mental image (now called the grasped or learning sign) will be faint and unclear. Hindrances will strike and prevent the meditator from attaining the jhana state. However, through steady and continued practice the disk can gradually be made clearer and clearer and the hindrances weaker and weaker. When the obstacles have subsided and the meditator’s mind is fully concentrated on the mental image (now called the counterpart sign), the jhana state and its citta are achieved.
This category includes five cittas that are distinguished by means of five jhanas. Each jhana constitutes a distinct type of citta, listed as shown above because they are attained in that order.
Each jhana is defined by a selection of associated cetasikas — here called jhana factors. It is these factors that distinguish one jhana from the other jhanas and bring about the process of absorption. To achieve the first jhana the following five factors must all be present and well balanced.
Initial application (vitakka) is the mental factor that directs the mind to the object. Vitakka has the special task of inhibiting the hindrances sloth and torpor.
Sustained application (vicara) means sustained fixation of the mind on the object. Vicara serves to temporarily inhibit the hindrance of doubt.
Zest (piti) can be explained as delight or pleasurable interest in the object. Often translated as rapture. Piti permeates the whole body and inhibits the hindrance ill will.
Happiness (sukha) is a pleasant mental feeling identical to joy, often rendered as bliss. Sukha arises as a result of detachment from sensual pleasures and is therefore explained as non-worldly or spiritual happiness. It counteracts the hindrances of restlessness and worry.
One-pointedness (ekaggata) is the primary component of all five jhanas and the essence of concentration (samadhi). One-pointedness temporarily inhibits sensual desire, a necessary condition for any meditative attainment.
One-pointedness performs the function of closely contemplating the object — the most prominent function in jhana development — but it cannot do it alone. It requires joint action with the other four jhana factors, each performing its own special function: vitakka applies the associated states to the object, vicara holds them there, piti brings joy to the object, and sukha experiences happiness in the jhana.
The higher jhanas are achieved by successively eliminating the grosser jhana factors and by refining the subtler factors through strengthened concentration. In the second jhana, vitakka is eliminated. In the third jhana, vicara is also eliminated. In the fourth jhana, piti has disappeared, and in the fifth jhana, sukha is replaced by equanimity (upekkha) as the accompanying feeling. Where the cittas in the first four jhanas are associated with the cetasika joy, the cittas in the fifth jhana are associated with the cetasika equanimity.
The five jhanas become fifteen by appearing as wholesome cittas, as resultant cittas, and as functional cittas. Each jhana-citta at the same level is defined by the same set of factors, whether wholesome, resultant or functional.
All cittas in the fine-material sphere are associated with knowledge, although knowledge is not a specific jhana factor. Thus all fine-material sphere cittas have three roots, non-greed, non-hatred and non-delusion.
Unlike the wholesome and unwholesome cittas of the sense sphere, the fine-material sphere cittas are not distinguished by means of prompted and non-prompted. The same distinction is also omitted from the exposition of immaterial sphere cittas and supramundane cittas. This is because as long as one depends on prompting from others or on one’s own self-prompting, the mind is not yet in a suitable state to attain jhana or other higher states.
The distinction between prompted and non-prompted is appropriate in relation to the initial stage of practice towards the attainment of jhana. But the cittas by which the actual attainment takes place cannot depend on inducement.