Chapter 1 - Nama-rupa And Salayatana

Nama rupa conditions salayatana. This is very profound and hard to understand. Here nama rupa means the three cetasika khandhas while rupa refers to the four primary elements, the six physical rupas, jivita (life), rupa and nutriment (ahara rupa).

Nama rupa leads to salayatana or five physical sense organs, viz., eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and consciousness. These ayatanas are the doors (avara) that lead to vithi process. In the immaterial world every citta unit throughout the whole life is born of associated cetasika, but for ordinary persons this will remain bookish knowledge as it is to be understood only by Ariyas in the immaterial world.

Further, in any existence like human life that has both nama and rupa, every vipaka citta that arises from the time of conception is also due to associated cetasika. Vipaka citta means the kind of citta that barely sees, barely hears, etc., the pleasant or unpleasant objects. Here, the seeing citta cannot arise by itself for it pre supposes manasikara that considers the visual object, phassa that contacts the object and cetana that strives to see it. The seeing citta can arise only when these concomitant cetasikas arise, collectively at the same time. This is conascence condition called sahajata accaya in Pali. Thus, a load that can be raised only by four men working together will not move up if the team leader tries to move it alone. Likewise, although vinnana is the mainspring of mental life it counts for little by itself. It can function only together with other mental factors.

Moreover, these associate cetasikas contribute to the five physical ayatanas, viz., eye, ear, etc., by conascence at the moment of rebirth. Of course at the time of conception there is only kaya or rupa. But in other kinds of rebirth that do not involve the mothers womb, there may be all the five ayatanas at the beginning. The conditioning of the ayatanas by vinnana and cetasikas at the moment of conception is hard to understand but we have to accept on the authority of the Buddha. At other times, vipaka as well as the non vipaka cittas help to maintain the ayatanas. This is understandable since it is impossible for matter to exist without mind.