Doors and Physical Bases of Citta - Experience an object through one of the six doors

Nāma and rūpa which arise and fall away are conditioned realities, they arise

because of different conditions. Through the study of the Abhidhamma we

learn about different conditions for nāma and rūpa. Each reality which arises

is dependent on several conditions. For instance, seeing is vipāka, produced

by kamma. Visible object conditions seeing by being its object

(ārammana). lf there is no visible object there cannot be seeing. Eye-sense,

the kind of rūpa in the eye (pasāda-rūpa) which is able to receive visible

object, is another condition for seeing.

The rūpa which is eye-sense can be the door (in Pāli : dvāra) for seeing. A

door or 'dvāra' is the means through which citta experiences an

object. There is eye-sense arising and falling away all the time; throughout

our life it is produced by kamma. However, eye-sense is not a door all the

time, because there is not all the time the experience of visible object. Eye-

sense is a door only when citta experiences visible object. It is the same with

the pasāda-rūpas which are the other sense-organs. They are doors only

when they are the means through which citta experiences an object.

The eye-door is the means through which citta experiences visible object. Not

only the cittas which are cakkhu-dvārāvajjana-citta (eye-door-adverting-

consciousness) and cakkhu-viññāna (seeing-consciousness) experience the

object through the eye-door, the other, cittas of that process, which are

sampaticchana-citta (receiving-consciousness), santīrana-citta

(investigating-consciousness), votthapana-citta (determining-

consciousness), the javana-cittas and the tadārammana-cittas are also

dependent on the same door, in order to experience the object. After the

rupa which is experienced by these cittas has fallen away, the object can be

experienced through the mind-door (mano-dvara).

  Cittas arising in a process which experience an object through one of the six doors are vithi-cittas (vithi means: way, course, process). Vithi-cittas are named after the door through which they experience an object. For example, the cittas which experience an object through the eye-door are called cakkhu-dvāra-vithi-cittas (cakkhu-dvāra means eye-door) ; the cittas which experience an object through the ear-door ; (sota-dvāra) are called sota-dvāra-vithi-cittas; the cittas which experience an object through the mind-door (mano-dvāra) are called mano-dvāra-vithi-cittas.