Doors and Physical Bases of Citta - Bases and doors have different function

In the processes of citta the doorway (dvāra) is the means through which citta experiences its object. The physical base (vatthu) is another factor which conditions citta by being its place of origin. In the planes of existence where there are nāma and rūpa, cittas do not arise independently of the body; a citta which arises has a rūpa as its place of origin. When there is seeing, could seeing arise outside the body? When there is hearing or thinking, could these cittas arise without the body? This would not be possible. Where does seeing arise? It could not arise on our arm or in our ear. It needs the eye as its physical base. The cakkhuppasāda-rūpa, the rūpa in the eye which can receive visible object, is the physical base for the citta which sees. The physical base or vatthu is not the same as dvāra or doorway. Although the cakkhuppasāda-rūpa is both dvāra and vatthu for seeing- consciousness, dvāra and vatthu have different functions. The eye-door (cakkhu-dvāra) is the means through which cittas of the eye-door process experience an object. The cakkhu-vatthu (eye-base) is the physical base, the place of origin for seeing-consciousness. The cakkhu-vatthu is the base only for seeing-consciousness, not for the other cittas of that process. The other cittas of that process have another vatthu The vatthu for hearing- consciousness is the sotappasāda-rūpa for smelling-consciousness the ghānappasāda-rūpa, for tasting-consciousness the jivhāppasāda-rūpa, for body-consciousness the kāyappasāda-rūpa. 

 

There is a sixth vatthu which is not one of the pasāda-rūpas. This is the

hadaya-vatthu or heart-base. The hadaya-vatthu is a kind of rūpa which is the

place of origin for the cittas which are not among the pañca-viññānas (seeing,

hearing, etc.) since these cittas have the pasāda-rūpa as their place of origin.

The hadaya-vatthu is different from the mind-door. The mind-door is a citta,

the bhavangupaccheda-citta, which is the last bhavanga-citta arising before

the mano-dvārāvajjana-citta (mind-door-adverting-consciousness). The

hadaya-vatthu is rūpa, not nāma.

 

When sound contacts the ear-sense, the pañca-dvārā-vajjana-citta (five-sense

-door-adverting-consciousness) which arises, has as its place of origin the

hadaya-vatthu, but the hearing-consciousness has the sotappasāda-rūpa as

its vatthu. All succeeding cittas of that process, however, have the hadaya-

vatthu as their place of origin. All cittas of the mind-door process too have the

hadaya-vatthu as their place of origin.