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Mundane Fine-material Sphere Cittas

Artistic micro-cosmos
Artistic micro-cosmos

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.

Mundane fine-material sphere wholesome cittas

  • 1st jhana: initial application, sustained application, zest, happiness, one-pointedness
  • 2nd jhana: sustained application, zest, happiness, one-pointedness
  • 3rd jhana: zest, happiness, one-pointedness
  • 4th jhana: happiness one-pointedness
  • 5th jhana: equanimity, one-pointedness

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.

Mundane fine-material sphere resultant cittas

  • 1st jhana: initial application, sustained application, zest, happiness, one-pointedness
  • 2nd jhana: sustained application, zest, happiness, one-pointedness
  • 3rd jhana: zest, happiness, one-pointedness
  • 4th jhana: happiness one-pointedness
  • 5th jhana: equanimity, one-pointedness

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. 

Mundane fine-material sphere functional cittas

  • 1st jhana: initial application, sustained application, zest, happiness, one-pointedness
  • 2nd jhana: sustained application, zest, happiness, one-pointedness
  • 3rd jhana: zest, happiness, one-pointedness
  • 4th jhana: happiness one-pointedness
  • 5th jhana: equanimity, one-pointedness


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.

May 2024.