Appendix II
Citta – The Mind’s Essential Knowing Nature
The following comments about the nature of the citta have been
excerpted from several discourses given by Ãcariya Mahã Boowa.
Of foremost importance is the citta, the mind’s essential knowing
nature. It consists of pure and simple awareness: the citta simply
knows. Awareness of good and evil, and the critical judgements that
result, are merely activities of the citta. At times, these activities may
manifest as mindfulness; at other times, wisdom. But the true citta
does not exhibit any activities or manifest any conditions at all. It only
knows. Those activities that arise in the citta, such as awareness of
good and evil, or happiness and suffering, or praise and blame, are all
conditions of the consciousness that flows out from the citta. Since it
represents activities and conditions of the citta that are, by their very
nature, constantly arising and ceasing, this sort of consciousness is
always unstable and unreliable.
The conscious acknowledgement of phenomena as they arise
and cease is called viññãõa. For instance, viññãõa acknowledges and
registers the sense impressions that are produced when sights, sounds,
smells, tastes, and tactile sensations contact the eyes, ears, nose,
tongue, and body respectively. Each such contact between an exter-
nal sense sphere and its corresponding internal base gives rise to a
specific consciousness that registers the moment at which each inter-
action takes place, and then promptly ceases at the same moment
that the contact passes. Viññãõa, therefore, is consciousness as a con-
dition of the citta. Sankhãra, or thoughts and imagination, is also a
condition of the citta. Once the citta has given expression to these