The Vipassana Dipani

The Manual of Insight

by Mahathera Ledi Sayadaw | 1915 | 21,831 words

The Vipassana-Dipani The Manual of Insight Or The Exposition Of Insight Honor to the Buddha By Mahathera Ledi Sayadaw, Aggamahapandita, D.Litt. Translated into English by Sayadaw U Nyana, Patamagyaw of Masoeyein Monastery Mandalay. Edited by The English Editorial Board...

The Four Producers

Or Generators Of Material Phenomena

There are four kinds of producers, which produce material phenomena:

  1. Kamma
  2. citta
  3. utu
  4. ahara
  • Kamma means moral and immoral actions committed in previous existences.
  • Citta means mind and mental concomitants existing in the present life.
  • Utu means the two states of Tejo-dhatu, the fire-element, i.e., heat (unha-tejo) and cold (sita-tejo).
  • Ahara means the two kinds of nutritive essence, internal nutriment that obtains from the time of conception and external nutriment that exists in edible food.

Out of the twenty-eight species of material qualities, the nine species, i.e., the six bases, two sexes, and life, are produced only by Kamma. The two media of communications are produced only by Citta.

Sound is produced by Citta and Utu. The three plasticities are produced by Citta, Utu, and Ahara. Of the remaining thirteen, excluding Jarata (decay) and Aniccata (impermanence), the eleven--comprising the Four Great Essentials, nutriment, visible form, odor, savor, the element of space, integration, and continuance are produced by the four causes. These eleven always appertain severally to the four classes of phenomena produced by the four causes. There are no phenomena that enter into composition without these. Material phenomena enter into composition with these, forming groups of eight, nine, and so forth, and each group is called Rupa-Kalapa.

As to the two salient features, decay and impermanence, they exclude themselves from the material qualities born of the four causes as they disorganize what has been produced.

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