What Is Consciousness?
This page carries Ru-Yi's complete translation of the Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha's chapter 1, Cittasaṅgahavibhāga ("The Compendium of Consciousness") — Ācariya Anuruddha's opening verse of homage, the fourfold division of ultimate reality, and the full analysis of consciousness (citta) into its 89 types — or, by the finer method of division, 121 — from the twelve unwholesome cittas through the rootless, the sense-sphere beautiful, the fine-material, the immaterial, and finally the eight (or forty) supramundane cittas, closing with the chapter's own colophon.
Translation Method
The Pāli source is the Pali Text Society's critical edition of the Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha, edited by Ven. Hammalawa Saddhātissa (1989), cross-checked against the Chaṭṭha Saṅgāyana (Sixth Council) romanized text maintained online by the Vipassana Research Institute (VRI, tipitaka.org) for internal consistency of readings. Both are used only to establish the wording of the root text, not copied wholesale.
The English translation is Ru-Yi's own, made directly from the Pāli. No existing English translation of the Saṅgaha was consulted, paraphrased, or used as a guide for wording or structure — including Bhikkhu Bodhi's copyrighted A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma (BPS, 1993/2000, itself a revision of Ven. Nārada Mahāthera's earlier translation), which carries both its own translation and an extensive explanatory Guide by Bhikkhu Bodhi. That volume is acknowledged here as the standard modern edition of this text and as the occasion for this page — Luke asked for a fresh Pāli translation precisely because that edition remains in copyright — but neither its translated wording nor its Guide's explanations were drawn on for anything below. The chapter divisions and traditional chapter title ("Cittasaṅgaha") are simply how this text has always been divided, in every edition; that structure belongs to Anuruddha's original composition, not to any translator.
Reading notes below are grounded only in the chapter's own internal structure — how the root text itself numbers, groups, and cross-references its 89 cittas — and in classifications that are standard, uncontested Abhidhamma doctrine taught identically in every school of this tradition (the Dhammasaṅgaṇī's own fourfold scheme, for instance, which this chapter follows). They do not draw on any modern scholar's specific interpretive framing. Each translated passage also carries a short vocabulary list for readers learning Pāli alongside the text.
Words of Praise
The Saṅgaha opens, as Pāli expository works conventionally do, with a verse of homage to the Triple Gem before the author states what he is about to do.
Sammāsambuddham atulaṃ
Sasaddhammagaṇuttamaṃ
Abhivādiya bhāsissaṃ
Abhidhammatthasaṅgahaṃ.
Having bowed in homage to the Peerless One, the Fully Enlightened Buddha, together with the excellent true Dhamma and the Noble Order, I shall now speak this Compendium of the Things Contained in the Abhidhamma.
peerless, unequalled — a- (not) + tula ("weighed, matched"). One of the Buddha's standard epithets.
"the finest of communities" — gaṇa (group, company) + uttama (foremost); here the Saṅgha, the Noble Order.
"I will speak" — future tense of bhāsati. A reminder that this text was composed to be recited and memorized, not merely read.
compendium, collection, synthesis — from saṃ- (together) + gah ("to grasp"). The word that gives the whole work, and each of its nine chapters, their name.
The Fourfold Ultimate Reality, and the Four Planes of Consciousness
Having paid homage, the author states in a single verse what the whole work will cover, then immediately opens his first topic — consciousness — with its broadest division.
Tattha vutt'ābhidhammatthā
Catudhā paramatthato
Cittaṃ cetasikaṃ rūpaṃ
Nibbānam iti sabbathā.
Tattha cittaṃ tāva catubbidhaṃ hoti: (i) kāmāvacaraṃ; (ii) rūpāvacaraṃ; (iii) arūpāvacaraṃ; (iv) lokuttarañ cā ti.
The things contained in the Abhidhamma, spoken of there, are, from the standpoint of ultimate reality, entirely fourfold: consciousness, mental factors, matter, and Nibbāna.
Among these, consciousness, to begin with, is fourfold: (i) belonging to the sense sphere; (ii) belonging to the fine-material sphere; (iii) belonging to the immaterial sphere; and (iv) supramundane.
ultimate reality — parama ("highest") + attha ("thing, meaning"). The chapter's governing standard: only what remains after every concept is analyzed away.
the four ultimates themselves: consciousness, the factors that arise with it, matter, and the unconditioned element. This chapter takes up only the first.
"sphere, that which frequents" — the suffix distinguishing kāmāvacara (sense-sphere), rūpāvacara (fine-material-sphere), and arūpāvacara (immaterial-sphere) consciousness.
supramundane — loka ("world") + uttara ("beyond"). Consciousness that takes Nibbāna itself as its object.
Notice the method before the content: the chapter does not first tell you what consciousness is — that citta is "the knowing of an object" — before dividing it. It divides first, by plane (bhūmi), and only the division is stated as root text; everything explaining why this fourfold split works, or what citta means as a word, belongs to the explanatory-guide layer that later commentators built around this terse verse-and-prose skeleton. The Saṅgaha itself is meant to be recited whole and unpacked afterward — which is exactly why what follows, section by section, is mostly bare enumeration: numbered lists of cittas defined by a handful of recurring variables, each list closed with a summary formula ("Imāni aṭṭha pi ... nāma," "these eight are called...").
Unwholesome Consciousness — Rooted in Greed
The chapter takes up the sense sphere first, and within it, unwholesome consciousness first. It opens with the eight cittas rooted in greed (lobha), each fixed by three variables: the accompanying feeling, the presence or absence of wrong view, and whether the citta is prompted.
Tattha katamaṃ kāmāvacaraṃ?
- Somanassasahagataṃ diṭṭhigatasampayuttaṃ asaṅkhārikam ekaṃ.
- Somanassasahagataṃ diṭṭhigatasampayuttaṃ sasaṅkhārikam ekaṃ.
- Somanassasahagataṃ diṭṭhigatavippayuttaṃ asaṅkhārikam ekaṃ.
- Somanassasahagataṃ diṭṭhigatavippayuttaṃ sasaṅkhārikam ekaṃ.
- Upekkhāsahagataṃ diṭṭhigatasampayuttaṃ asaṅkhārikam ekaṃ.
- Upekkhāsahagataṃ diṭṭhigatasampayuttaṃ sasaṅkhārikam ekaṃ.
- Upekkhāsahagataṃ diṭṭhigatavippayuttaṃ asaṅkhārikam ekaṃ.
- Upekkhāsahagataṃ diṭṭhigatavippayuttaṃ sasaṅkhārikam ekan ti.
Imāni aṭṭha pi lobhasahagatacittāni nāma.
Among these, what belongs to the sense sphere?
- One: accompanied by joy, associated with wrong view, unprompted.
- One: accompanied by joy, associated with wrong view, prompted.
- One: accompanied by joy, dissociated from wrong view, unprompted.
- One: accompanied by joy, dissociated from wrong view, prompted.
- One: accompanied by equanimity, associated with wrong view, unprompted.
- One: accompanied by equanimity, associated with wrong view, prompted.
- One: accompanied by equanimity, dissociated from wrong view, unprompted.
- One: accompanied by equanimity, dissociated from wrong view, prompted.
These eight, all together, are called the cittas accompanied by greed.
joy and equanimity — su ("pleasant") + manas ("mind"); and neutral feeling, leaning toward neither gladness nor dejection.
"gone into a view" — a settled opinion; unqualified, it means wrong view. Sampayutta / vippayutta: associated with / dissociated from.
unprompted (spontaneous) / prompted (induced by another's suggestion or one's own deliberation) — a distinction that recurs through the unwholesome and beautiful sense-sphere cittas.
"one" — each item in these lists is literally "one [consciousness], [qualified thus]." The numbering (1, 2, 3…) is not a modern editorial addition; it is how the root text itself counts its cittas.
Unwholesome Consciousness — Rooted in Hatred and in Delusion
The text continues its numbering without a break — items 9 and 10 for the two cittas rooted in hatred, 11 and 12 for the two rooted in sheer delusion — then closes the whole class of twelve with a summary formula and a memorial verse.
- Domanassasahagataṃ paṭighasampayuttaṃ asaṅkhārikam ekaṃ.
- Domanassasahagataṃ paṭighasampayuttaṃ sasaṅkhārikam ekan ti.
Imāni dve pi paṭighasampayuttacittāni nāma.
- Upekkhāsahagataṃ vicikicchāsampayuttam ekaṃ.
- Upekkhāsahagataṃ uddhaccasampayuttam ekan ti.
Imāni dve momūhacittāni nāma. Icc'evaṃ sabbathā pi dvādasākusalacittāni samattāni.
- One: accompanied by displeasure, associated with resistance, unprompted.
- One: accompanied by displeasure, associated with resistance, prompted.
These two, together, are called the cittas associated with resistance.
- One: accompanied by equanimity, associated with doubt.
- One: accompanied by equanimity, associated with restlessness.
These two are called the cittas of sheer delusion. Thus end, altogether, the twelve types of unwholesome consciousness.
Aṭṭhadhā lobhamūlāni
Dosamūlāni ca dvidhā
Mohamūlāni ca dve'ti
Dvādas'ākusalā siyuṃ.
Eightfold are those rooted in greed; those rooted in hatred, twofold; and those rooted in delusion, two: thus the unwholesome number twelve.
displeasure, unpleasant mental feeling — du- ("bad") + manas. Unlike somanassa and upekkhā, domanassa is always unwholesome; it accompanies these two cittas alone among all 89.
resistance, aversion — literally "striking against." The term the root text actually uses for hatred (dosa) in this passage.
doubt and restlessness — the two cittas "of sheer delusion" (momūha) are distinguished from each other only by which of these two factors is prominent; neither carries the prompted/unprompted pair.
root — the organizing principle of this whole opening section: consciousness classed by which of the three unwholesome roots (greed, hatred, delusion) is dominant in it.
The numbering pattern already tells you the doctrine: greed and hatred never appear in the same citta (hence eight distinct greed-cittas and a separate two hatred-cittas, never combined), while delusion is present as an undercurrent in all twelve — it is simply named outright only in the last two, where nothing else is strong enough to eclipse it. That asymmetry is also why the greed-rooted and hatred-rooted cittas carry the prompted/unprompted distinction and the delusion-rooted pair does not: prompting describes how forcefully an unwholesome impulse was induced, and the text treats sheer confusion or agitation as something that simply arises, not something one is talked into.
Rootless Consciousness — The Resultants
The text turns from unwholesome cittas to those that are "rootless" (ahetuka) — lacking any of the six roots, unwholesome or wholesome alike. Here the root text switches its numbering style from plain digits to parenthesized ones, and starts again from (1). The first fifteen are resultants: seven from unwholesome kamma, eight from wholesome kamma.
(1) Upekkhāsahagataṃ cakkhuviññāṇaṃ; tathā (2) sotaviññāṇaṃ, (3) ghānaviññāṇaṃ, (4) jivhāviññāṇaṃ; (5) dukkhasahagataṃ kāyaviññāṇaṃ; (6) upekkhāsahagataṃ sampaṭicchanacittaṃ; (7) upekkhāsahagataṃ santīraṇacittañ cā ti. Imāni satta pi akusalavipākacittāni nāma.
(8) Upekkhāsahagataṃ cakkhuviññāṇaṃ; tathā (9) sotaviññāṇaṃ, (10) ghānaviññāṇaṃ, (11) jivhāviññāṇaṃ; (12) sukhasahagataṃ kāyaviññāṇaṃ; (13) upekkhāsahagataṃ sampaṭicchanacittaṃ; (14) somanassasahagataṃ santīraṇacittaṃ; (15) upekkhāsahagataṃ santīraṇacittañ cā ti. Imāni aṭṭha pi kusalavipākāhetukacittāni nāma.
(1) Eye-consciousness accompanied by equanimity; likewise (2) ear-consciousness, (3) nose-consciousness, (4) tongue-consciousness; (5) body-consciousness accompanied by pain; (6) receiving consciousness accompanied by equanimity; (7) investigating consciousness accompanied by equanimity. These seven, together, are called the unwholesome-resultant cittas.
(8) Eye-consciousness accompanied by equanimity; likewise (9) ear-consciousness, (10) nose-consciousness, (11) tongue-consciousness; (12) body-consciousness accompanied by pleasure; (13) receiving consciousness accompanied by equanimity; (14) investigating consciousness accompanied by joy; (15) investigating consciousness accompanied by equanimity. These eight, together, are called the wholesome-resultant rootless cittas.
rootless — a- + hetuka. Lacking all six roots (the three unwholesome and the three "bright" wholesome-or-indeterminate roots), which makes these cittas weaker and less stable than rooted ones.
eye-, ear-, nose-, tongue-, and body-consciousness — the five kinds of sense-door cognition, collectively called dvi-pañcaviññāṇa, "the two sets of fivefold sense-consciousness" (one set as unwholesome-resultant, one as wholesome-resultant).
receiving and investigating consciousness — the two cittas that arise, one after the other, immediately following a sense-consciousness, apprehending and then examining what was just cognized.
resultant — the "ripening" of past kamma. Note that only body-consciousness carries a bodily feeling (pain or pleasure); the other four sense-doors and the two rootless mind-doors here all carry the mental feeling of equanimity, with one single exception (item 14).
Rootless Consciousness — The Functionals
The last three rootless cittas belong to neither kamma nor kamma-result: they simply perform a function. The chapter closes the whole class of eighteen, then gives two summary verses — one tallying the rootless, the second naming, for the first time, the word that will govern everything from here on: "beautiful."
(16) Upekkhāsahagataṃ pañcadvārāvajjanacittaṃ; tathā (17) manodvārāvajjanacittaṃ; (18) somanassasahagataṃ hasituppādacittañ cā ti. Imāni tīṇi pi ahetukakiriyacittāni nāma. Icc'evaṃ sabbathā pi aṭṭhārasāhetukacittāni samattāni.
Satt'ākusalapākāni puññapākāni aṭṭhadhā
Kriyācittāni tīṇī ti aṭṭhārasa ahetukā.
Pāpāhetukamuttāni sobhanānī ti vuccare
Ekūnasaṭṭhi cittāni ath'ekanavutī pi vā.
(16) Five-door-adverting consciousness accompanied by equanimity; likewise (17) mind-door-adverting consciousness; (18) smile-producing consciousness accompanied by joy. These three, together, are called the rootless functional cittas. Thus end, altogether, the eighteen rootless types of consciousness.
Seven are unwholesome resultants, wholesome resultants are eightfold, and functional cittas are three: thus the rootless number eighteen.
Excluding the evil and the rootless, [the remaining cittas] are called "beautiful" — fifty-nine in number, or, by the other count, ninety-one.
adverting, turning toward — the citta that simply turns the mind's attention to an object presenting itself, before any actual seeing, hearing, or knowing occurs. Pañcadvāra- (five-door) and mano-dvāra- (mind-door) name where it occurs.
smile-producing consciousness — hasita ("smiling") + uppāda ("arising"). Said to occur only in Arahants, including Buddhas, when they smile at some sense-sphere phenomenon.
beautiful — the term that now takes over as the organizing word for the rest of the chapter. As the very next verse states, "beautiful" is broader than "wholesome": it includes resultant and functional cittas too, so long as they carry beautiful mental factors.
evil, bad — used here as a plain synonym for akusala, unwholesome, in a verse that needed a shorter word to fit its metre.
Fifty-nine or ninety-one is arithmetic, not ambiguity: 24 sense-sphere-beautiful + 15 fine-material + 12 immaterial + 8 supramundane = 59; or the same first three groups (51) plus 40 supramundane, once the eight are further divided by jhāna level, as the chapter itself will do near its close. Both totals describe exactly the same set of cittas, counted at two different levels of resolution — the first hint, this early, that the entire chapter is heading toward the 89-versus-121 question its final verses answer directly.
Sense-Sphere Beautiful Consciousness
The numbering resets again, now running continuously from 1 to 24 across three groups of eight: wholesome, resultant, and functional — each fixed by the same three variables as the greed-rooted cittas, but with "associated with / dissociated from knowledge" replacing "wrong view."
- Somanassasahagataṃ ñāṇasampayuttaṃ asaṅkhārikam ekaṃ.
- Somanassasahagataṃ ñāṇasampayuttaṃ sasaṅkhārikam ekaṃ.
- Somanassasahagataṃ ñāṇavippayuttaṃ asaṅkhārikam ekaṃ.
- Somanassasahagataṃ ñāṇavippayuttaṃ sasaṅkhārikam ekaṃ.
- Upekkhāsahagataṃ ñāṇasampayuttaṃ asaṅkhārikam ekaṃ.
- Upekkhāsahagataṃ ñāṇasampayuttaṃ sasaṅkhārikam ekaṃ.
- Upekkhāsahagataṃ ñāṇavippayuttaṃ asaṅkhārikam ekaṃ.
- Upekkhāsahagataṃ ñāṇavippayuttaṃ sasaṅkhārikam ekan ti.
Imāni aṭṭha pi sahetuka-kāmāvacara-kusalacittāni nāma.
- One: accompanied by joy, associated with knowledge, unprompted.
- One: accompanied by joy, associated with knowledge, prompted.
- One: accompanied by joy, dissociated from knowledge, unprompted.
- One: accompanied by joy, dissociated from knowledge, prompted.
- One: accompanied by equanimity, associated with knowledge, unprompted.
- One: accompanied by equanimity, associated with knowledge, prompted.
- One: accompanied by equanimity, dissociated from knowledge, unprompted.
- One: accompanied by equanimity, dissociated from knowledge, prompted.
These eight, together, are called the sense-sphere wholesome cittas with roots.
The eight resultants and eight functionals that follow repeat this exact pattern of feeling, knowledge, and prompting — differing from the wholesome set only in what the citta is (kamma, its ripening, or a bare function), not in how it is classified:
[9–16, as resultants:] ... Imāni aṭṭha pi sahetuka-kāmāvacara-vipākacittāni nāma.
[17–24, as functionals:] ... Imāni aṭṭha pi sahetuka-kāmāvacara-kriyācittāni nāma. Icc'evaṃ sabbathā pi catuvīsati sahetuka-kāmāvacara-kusala-vipāka-kriyācittāni samattāni.
[9–16, as resultants:] ... These eight, together, are called the sense-sphere resultant cittas with roots.
[17–24, as functionals:] ... These eight, together, are called the sense-sphere functional cittas with roots. Thus end, altogether, the twenty-four sense-sphere cittas with roots — wholesome, resultant, and functional.
Vedanā-ñāṇa-saṅkhārabhedena catuvīsati
Sahetu-kāmāvacarapuññapākakriyā matā.
Kāme tevīsapākāni puññāpuññāni vīsati
Ekādasa kriyā cā ti catupaññāsa sabbathā.
By division through feeling, knowledge, and prompting, the sense-sphere wholesome, resultant, and functional cittas with roots are known as twenty-four.
In the sense sphere, twenty-three are resultant, twenty are wholesome-and-unwholesome, and eleven are functional. Thus, altogether, fifty-four.
knowledge — here specifically the mental factor of wisdom (paññā), which is also the wholesome root non-delusion (amoha). Its dissociated counterpart still lacks wisdom, but is not thereby deluded; delusion belongs only to unwholesome consciousness.
"with roots" — the qualifier distinguishing these rooted sense-sphere cittas from the rootless resultants and functionals of the previous section.
functional — active but kammically inert; these arise in Buddhas and Arahants as the exact counterparts of the wholesome cittas of worldlings and trainees.
Fine-Material-Sphere Consciousness
The chapter now leaves the sense sphere for consciousness attained through jhāna. Each of the five jhānas is defined purely by which jhāna factors it retains — a scheme that repeats, unchanged, across wholesome, resultant, and functional cittas, so the text gives the full formula once for each class, numbering 1 to 5 afresh each time.
- Vitakka-vicāra-pīti-sukh'-ekaggatā-sahitaṃ paṭhamajjhāna-kusalacittaṃ.
- Vicāra-pīti-sukh'-ekaggatā-sahitaṃ dutiyajjhāna-kusalacittaṃ.
- Pīti-sukh'-ekaggatā-sahitaṃ tatiyajjhāna-kusalacittaṃ.
- Sukh'-ekaggatā-sahitaṃ catutthajjhāna-kusalacittaṃ.
- Upekkh'-ekaggatā-sahitaṃ pañcamajjhāna-kusalacittañ cā ti.
Imāni pañca pi rūpāvacara-kusalacittāni nāma.
- First-jhāna wholesome consciousness, together with initial application, sustained application, zest, happiness, and one-pointedness.
- Second-jhāna wholesome consciousness, together with sustained application, zest, happiness, and one-pointedness.
- Third-jhāna wholesome consciousness, together with zest, happiness, and one-pointedness.
- Fourth-jhāna wholesome consciousness, together with happiness and one-pointedness.
- Fifth-jhāna wholesome consciousness, together with equanimity and one-pointedness.
These five, together, are called the fine-material-sphere wholesome cittas.
The same five formulas repeat verbatim for the resultant cittas (as vipākacittaṃ) and again for the functional cittas (as kriyācittaṃ), closing with:
Icc'evaṃ sabbathā pi paṇṇarasa rūpāvacara-kusala-vipāka-kriyācittāni samattāni.
Pañcadhā jhānabhedena rūpāvacaramānasaṃ
Puññapākakriyābhedā taṃ pañcadasadhā bhave.
Thus end, altogether, the fifteen fine-material-sphere cittas — wholesome, resultant, and functional.
Fine-material-sphere consciousness is fivefold by division through the jhānas. By further division into wholesome, resultant, and functional, it becomes fifteenfold.
initial and sustained application [of mind to the object] — the first two jhāna factors, both dropped by the second jhāna.
zest and happiness — pīti (a kind of joyful interest or rapture) drops away at the fourth jhāna; sukha, pleasant feeling, remains through the fourth and gives way to upekkhā only at the fifth.
one-pointedness [of mind] — the single factor present in every jhāna citta without exception, from the first through the fifth.
absorption — from jhāyati, "to meditate, to burn up [the hindrances]." Each successive jhāna is reached by dropping the coarsest remaining factor of the one before it.
Two things the root text passes over in silence here, without comment or justification: the prompted/unprompted distinction, present in every sense-sphere formula so far, simply disappears — these fifteen formulas never mention it. And no formula for fine-material-sphere consciousness ever mentions knowledge (ñāṇa) either, though every one of these cittas is in fact accompanied by wisdom; the text only names a factor when it varies from citta to citta within a set, and knowledge does not vary here, so it goes unstated. Both omissions are simply how compression works in this genre: state only what needs to be said to distinguish one citta from its neighbor.
Immaterial-Sphere Consciousness
The four immaterial attainments are classified not by jhāna factor — all four share the same two, equanimity and one-pointedness — but purely by object: infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, and neither-perception-nor-non-perception.
- Ākāsānañcāyatana-kusalacittaṃ.
- Viññāṇañcāyatana-kusalacittaṃ.
- Ākiñcaññāyatana-kusalacittaṃ.
- N'evasaññān'āsaññāyatana-kusalacittañ cā ti.
Imāni cattāri pi arūpāvacara-kusalacittāni nāma.
- Wholesome consciousness pertaining to the base of infinite space.
- Wholesome consciousness pertaining to the base of infinite consciousness.
- Wholesome consciousness pertaining to the base of nothingness.
- Wholesome consciousness pertaining to the base of neither-perception-nor-non-perception.
These four, together, are called the immaterial-sphere wholesome cittas.
The same four bases repeat for the resultant and the functional cittas, closing:
Icc'evaṃ sabbathā pi dvādasa arūpāvacara-kusala-vipāka-kriyācittāni samattāni.
Ālambanappabhedena catudh'āruppamānasaṃ
Puññapākakriyābhedā puna dvādasadhā ṭhitaṃ.
Thus end, altogether, the twelve immaterial-sphere cittas — wholesome, resultant, and functional.
Immaterial-sphere consciousness is fourfold by division through its object. By further division into wholesome, resultant, and functional, it stands at twelve.
base — here, a dwelling-place for the citta of an attainment, not the sense-base sense of the word used elsewhere in the Abhidhamma.
base of infinite space — ākāsa ("space") + ānañca ("infinity"). The first immaterial attainment, reached by contemplating the space left behind once a kasina sign is removed.
base of neither-perception-nor-non-perception — the fourth and subtlest immaterial attainment, where perception is present only in a residual, barely describable form.
Supramundane Consciousness
The chapter's last division: consciousness that takes Nibbāna itself as object. Four stages of enlightenment, each with a path citta (arising once, cutting off defilements) and a fruition citta (its immediate result).
- Sotāpatti-maggacittaṃ.
- Sakadāgāmi-maggacittaṃ.
- Anāgāmi-maggacittaṃ.
- Arahatta-maggacittañ cā ti.
Imāni cattāri pi lokuttara-kusalacittāni nāma.
- Sotāpatti-phalacittaṃ.
- Sakadāgāmi-phalacittaṃ.
- Anāgāmi-phalacittaṃ.
- Arahatta-phalacittañ cā ti.
Imāni cattāri pi lokuttara-vipākacittāni nāma. Icc'evaṃ sabbathā pi aṭṭha lokuttara-kusala-vipāka-cittāni samattāni.
- Path consciousness of stream-entry.
- Path consciousness of once-returning.
- Path consciousness of non-returning.
- Path consciousness of Arahantship.
These four, together, are called the supramundane wholesome cittas.
- Fruition consciousness of stream-entry.
- Fruition consciousness of once-returning.
- Fruition consciousness of non-returning.
- Fruition consciousness of Arahantship.
These four, together, are called the supramundane resultant cittas. Thus end, altogether, the eight supramundane wholesome-and-resultant cittas.
Catumaggappabhedena catudhā kusalaṃ tathā
Pākaṃ tassa phalattā ti aṭṭhadh'ānuttaraṃ mataṃ.
Wholesome [supramundane consciousness] is fourfold by division through the four paths; and so is its result, being its fruit. Thus the supreme is reckoned eightfold.
stream-entry, once-returning, non-returning, and Arahantship — the four stages of awakening, each cutting off a further set of fetters binding one to future rebirth.
path and fruit — the path citta arises once only and does the work of eradication; the fruition citta follows immediately after as its result, and (unlike the path) can recur many times in the meditative attainment called phalasamāpatti.
unsurpassed, supreme — a- (not) + anuttara's own negation, i.e. "having no [anu]uttara above it"; used here as a poetic synonym for lokuttara to fit the verse's metre.
Notice what is missing from this list that was present everywhere else since the sense-sphere-beautiful section: no functional (kiriya) supramundane cittas at all. The text doesn't remark on the gap; the reason is structural, not stated here — an Arahant's fruition citta, arising in the attainment of fruition, is still classified as a resultant, because it remains the ripening of the supramundane path that produced it, even though the Arahant who experiences it generates no further kamma from it.
The Eighty-Nine Cittas Summarized
Before moving to the finer 121-fold analysis, the chapter pauses to re-sort all 89 cittas it has just enumerated by two different principles at once — kind (jāti) and plane (bhūmi) — in a pair of tallying verses.
Dvādas'ākusalān'evaṃ kusalān'ekavīsati
Chattiṃs'eva vipākāni kriyācittāni vīsati.
Catupaññāsadhā kāme rūpe paṇṇaras'īraye
Cittāni dvādas'āruppe aṭṭhadh'ānuttare tathā.
Thus, unwholesome cittas are twelve, wholesome cittas twenty-one; resultants are exactly thirty-six, and functional cittas twenty.
In the sense sphere there are fifty-four, in the fine-material sphere fifteen are declared; in the immaterial sphere, twelve cittas; and likewise, in the supreme, eight.
kind, nature — the first verse's axis: is this citta unwholesome, wholesome, resultant, or functional? Resultant and functional cittas are together called abyākata, "indeterminate," being neither wholesome nor unwholesome themselves.
plane — the second verse's axis, the very same fourfold division (sense, fine-material, immaterial, supramundane) the chapter opened with.
Check the arithmetic and a small asymmetry appears: 21 wholesome cittas (8 unwholesome-adjacent sense-sphere + 5 fine-material + 4 immaterial + 4 supramundane), but only 20 functional cittas — the supramundane column has no functional entry at all, exactly as the previous section's reading note observed. The two verses are simply two independent cross-sections of the same 89-citta set the chapter has now finished building; cross-checking one against the other is the traditional way a student confirms the count was memorized correctly.
The One Hundred and Twenty-One
The chapter's final movement returns to the eight supramundane cittas and re-divides each one fivefold — by which level of jhāna its wisdom is paired with — expanding 8 into 40, and the whole count of 89 into 121. The text gives the method once, for the first-jhāna path of stream-entry, then states that the same pattern simply repeats.
Ittham ekūnanavutippabhedaṃ pana mānasaṃ
Ekavīsasataṃ v'ātha vibhajanti vicakkhaṇā.
Kathaṃ ekūnanavutividhaṃ cittaṃ ekavīsasataṃ hoti?
- Vitakka-vicāra-pīti-sukh'-ekaggatā-sahitaṃ paṭhamajjhāna-sotāpatti-maggacittaṃ.
- Vicāra-pīti-sukh'-ekaggatā-sahitaṃ dutiyajjhāna-sotāpatti-maggacittaṃ.
- Pīti-sukh'-ekaggatā-sahitaṃ tatiyajjhāna-sotāpatti-maggacittaṃ.
- Sukh'-ekaggatā-sahitaṃ catutthajjhāna-sotāpatti-maggacittaṃ.
- Upekkh'-ekaggatā-sahitaṃ pañcamajjhāna-sotāpatti-maggacittañ cā ti.
Imāni pañca pi sotāpatti-maggacittāni nāma. Tathā sakadāgāmi-magga, anāgāmi-magga, arahatta-maggacittañ cā ti samavīsati maggacittāni. Tathā phalacittāni cā ti samacattārīsa lokuttaracittāni bhavantī ti.
Thus consciousness, divided into eighty-nine kinds, the wise divide again into one hundred and twenty-one.
How does the eighty-nine-fold consciousness become one hundred and twenty-one-fold?
- First-jhāna path consciousness of stream-entry, together with initial application, sustained application, zest, happiness, and one-pointedness.
- Second-jhāna path consciousness of stream-entry, together with sustained application, zest, happiness, and one-pointedness.
- Third-jhāna path consciousness of stream-entry, together with zest, happiness, and one-pointedness.
- Fourth-jhāna path consciousness of stream-entry, together with happiness and one-pointedness.
- Fifth-jhāna path consciousness of stream-entry, together with equanimity and one-pointedness.
These five, together, are called the path cittas of stream-entry. Likewise for the paths of once-returning, non-returning, and Arahantship — making twenty path cittas in equal measure. Likewise for the fruition cittas: thus there come to be forty supramundane cittas in all.
Jhānaṅgayogabhedena katv'ekekan tu pañcadhā
Vuccat'ānuttaraṃ cittaṃ cattārīsavidhan ti ca.
Yathā ca rūpāvacaraṃ gayhat'ānuttaraṃ tathā
Paṭhamādijhānabhede āruppañ cā pi pañcame.
Ekādasavidhaṃ tasmā paṭhamādikam īritaṃ
Jhānam ekekam ante tu tevīsatividhaṃ bhave.
Sattatiṃsavidhaṃ puññaṃ dvipaññāsavidhaṃ tathā
Pākam icc'āhu cittāni ekavīsasataṃ budhā ti.
Iti Abhidhammatthasaṅgahe Cittasaṅgahavibhāgo nāma paṭhamo paricchedo.
Thus, dividing each one fivefold by the pairing of jhāna factors, the supreme consciousness is said to become forty-fold. And just as the fine-material sphere is taken [fivefold, first jhāna and on], so is the supramundane — and the immaterial sphere as well, [counted] at the fifth [jhāna level]. Hence the first [four levels are] said to be elevenfold each, while the last jhāna, at the end, comes to twenty-three.
Thirty-seven, they say, are wholesome; fifty-two, likewise, are resultant: thus the wise declare consciousness to be one hundred and twenty-one-fold.
Thus ends, in the Compendium of the Things Contained in the Abhidhamma, the first chapter, called the Compendium of Consciousness.
jhāna factor — the same five (vitakka, vicāra, pīti, sukha, ekaggatā) whose presence or absence defined the fine-material cittas; here used to grade the supramundane cittas the same way.
chapter, division — pari ("around") + cheda ("a cutting"). The word the colophon uses to mark Cittasaṅgaha as "the first paricchedo" of the whole work.
the wise — the closing verse's own word for whoever can hold both the 89-fold and 121-fold counts in mind as two views of one and the same set of cittas.
The final arithmetic is worth doing once by hand, because the chapter states its conclusion without re-deriving it. Only the eight supramundane cittas grow — each of the four paths and four fruits divides into five, turning 8 into 40, a net gain of 32 cittas untouched anywhere else in the count. That alone turns 89 into 121. Applied to the two earlier tallies: the 89-count's 21 wholesome cittas already included the 4 supramundane paths; remove those 4 and add back the new 20, and 21 becomes 37 — exactly the figure this verse gives. The same move on the resultant side — the 89-count's 36 resultants, less the 4 supramundane fruits, plus the new 20 — gives 52, again matching the verse exactly. The twelve unwholesome and twenty functional cittas are untouched by any of this, since no unwholesome or functional citta is supramundane.
Cittasaṅgaha Complete
This closes the translation of the Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha's first chapter, Cittasaṅgaha ("The Compendium of Consciousness") — the homage verse, the fourfold ultimate realities, and the full analysis of consciousness into 89 (or 121) types: twelve unwholesome, eighteen rootless, twenty-four sense-sphere beautiful, fifteen fine-material, twelve immaterial, and eight (or forty) supramundane, closing with the chapter's own colophon. The second chapter, Cetasikasaṅgaha — the compendium of the fifty-two mental factors that arise together with these cittas — continues from here, the next undertaking for this translation.