Pali Vocabulary

意

Mind / Thought-organ / Mind-base

neuter noun (as-stem, indeclinable as mano): from manyati (to think)

The sixth sense-base — the mind-organ or faculty that cognises mental objects (dhammā). In the cognitive process, mano is the 'door' (dvāra) through which the mind-door process (mano-dvāra-vīthicitta) operates — processing thoughts, concepts, memories, and all non-sensory experience. In the Dhammapada's opening verse: 'Mano pubbaṅgamā dhammā' — mind is the forerunner of all mental phenomena. The distinction between mano (faculty) and citta (actual consciousness event) and viññāṇa (consciousness as aggregate) is subtle: mano is the base/organ, citta is the experiencing, viññāṇa is the knowing.

心所

Mental factor / Mental concomitant

adjective-noun (a-stem): from cetas (mind/consciousness) + ika (pertaining to) — 'of the mind'

A mental factor — one of 52 mental phenomena that arise with and depend on consciousness (citta). The Abhidhamma catalogues: 13 ethically neutral (aññasamāna) including the 7 universals (sabbacittasādhāraṇa — contact, feeling, perception, volition, one-pointedness, life-faculty, attention); 25 beautiful (sobhana) cetasikas including faith, mindfulness, energy, wisdom; 14 unwholesome (akusala) including lobha, dosa, moha, conceit, views. Cetanā (volition) is the most kammically significant cetasika. They are the 'ingredients' of every moment of experience.

速行

Impulse / Impulsion moments / Determining moments

neuter noun (a-stem): from javati (to run, to speed) — 'running [through the object]'

The most kammically significant phase in the Abhidhamma cognitive process (vīthicitta). After a sense impression is registered and determined, the mind runs through the object 7 times in javana phase — these are the moments where kusala (wholesome) or akusala (unwholesome) intentions arise and generate kamma. The quality of the javana moments — their wholesomeness, strength, and number — determines the weight of kamma generated. In meditation, the skilled practitioner learns to intervene at the point of manasikāra (attention) before javana arises, inserting wise attention (yoniso manasikāra) to redirect the process.

路心

Cognitive process / Mind-door process

compound: vīthi (path/road — feminine noun) + citta (mind) — 'mind on the path [of cognition]'

The cognitive process — the sequence of consciousness moments that arise when a sense object is cognised. The Abhidhamma describes this as a series of distinct cittas: (1) bhavaṅga (life-continuum resting state), (2) bhavaṅga-calana (vibration), (3) bhavaṅga-upaccheda (arrest of bhavaṅga), (4) pañcadvārāvajjana (five-door adverting — for sense doors) or manodvārāvajjana (mind-door adverting), (5) pañca-viññāṇa (sense consciousness — for sense doors), (6) sampaṭicchana (receiving), (7) santīraṇa (investigating), (8) voṭṭhapana (determining), (9–15) javana × 7, (16–17) tadārammaṇa (registration). Understanding vīthicitta reveals why the mind seems continuous but is actually a rapid succession of discrete moments.

作意

Attention / Mental noting / Directing the mind

masculine noun (a-stem): manas (mind) + ikāra (doing) — 'doing with the mind'

Attention — one of the seven universal mental factors (sabbacittasādhāraṇa cetasika) present in every moment of consciousness. Manasikāra directs the mind toward its object. Its quality — yoniso manasikāra (wise/systematic attention) or ayoniso manasikāra (unwise/unsystematic attention) — determines whether wholesome or unwholesome mental states will arise in the javana phase. The Buddha identified ayoniso manasikāra as the root cause of unwholesome states arising: 'One attends unwisely to what should not be attended to, and does not attend to what should.' Yoniso manasikāra attends to things in terms of anicca, dukkha, anattā, and the arising and passing of phenomena.

戲論

Conceptual proliferation / Mental elaboration

masculine noun (a-stem): from pa + pañcati (to spread out/expand)

Conceptual proliferation — the mind's tendency to take a bare sense impression and spin it into narratives, comparisons, identities, hopes, and fears. The Madhupiṇḍika Sutta (MN 18) gives the famous formula: 'Dependent on the eye and forms, eye-consciousness arises; the meeting of the three is contact; with contact as condition, feeling; what one feels, one perceives; what one perceives, one thinks about; what one thinks about, one proliferates (papañceti). With what one has proliferated as the source, papañca-saññā-saṅkhā (proliferation-driven perceptions-and-thoughts) beset a person.' Papañca includes the three roots of proliferation: craving (taṇhā), conceit (māna), and views (diṭṭhi).