Ahetuka Cittas - Eighteen types of ahetuka cittas

There are six cetasikas which are hetu or root. Three of these hetus are akusala; they are : lobha (attachment), dosa (aversion) and moha (ignorance). Three hetus are sobhana (beautiful); they are: alobha (greedlessness or generosity), adosa (non-hate or lovingkindness) and amoha (paññā or wisdom). The citta or cetasika which is accompanied by a hetu is sahetuka(''sa'' means ''with''). For example, dosa-mūla-citta is sahetuka; moha and dosa are the hetus which arise with dosa-mūla-citta. 

 

Cittas without hetu are ahetuka cittas. There are many ahetuka cittas

arising in a day. Whenever we see, hear, smell, taste or receive impressions

through the bodysense, there are ahetuka cittas before cittas with akusala

hetus or with sobhana hetus arise. We are inclined to pay attention only to

the moments of like and dislike, but we should know other moments as well;

we should know ahetuka cittas.

 

There are altogether eighteen types of ahetuka citta. As I will explain, fifteen

types of ahetuka cittas are vipākacittas and three types are kiriyācittas (cittas

which are ''inoperative'', neither cause nor result). Seven of the fifteen

ahetuka vipākacittas are akusala vipākacittas (results of unwholesome deeds)

and eight of them are kusala vipākacittas (results of wholesome deeds).

When a pleasant or an unpleasant object impinges on the eyesense, seeing-

consciousness only experiences what appears through the eyes, there is no

like or dislike yet of the object. Seeing-consciousness is an ahetuka

vipākacitta. Cittas which like or dislike the object arise later on; these are

sahetuka cittas (arising with hetus). Seeing is not the same as thinking of

what is seen. The citta which pays attention to the shape and form of

something and knows what it is, does not experience an object through the

eye-door but through the mind-door; it has a different characteristic. When

one uses the word ''seeing'' one usually means: paying attention to the shape

and form of something and knowing what it is. However, there must also be a

kind of citta which merely sees visible object, and this citta does not know

anything else. What we see we can call ''visible object'' or ''colour''; what is

meant is: what appears through the eyes. When there is hearing, we can

experience that hearing has a characteristic which is different from seeing;

the citta which hears experiences sound through the ears. Only in being

aware of the different characteristics of realities and investigating them over

and over again, will we come to know them as they are. People may think

that there is a self who can see and hear at the same time, but through which

door can the self be experienced? The belief in a self is wrong view.