Dear Brett,
your questions are appreciated.
Op 11-okt-2010, om 17:12 heeft Brett Morris het volgende geschreven:

>
> >B: According to the Abhidhamma can there be a latent tendency
> lying dormant? In
> >a wholesome mind how can there be a latent tendency to hate
> according to the
> >Abhidhamma?

--------
N:Yes, all seven latent tendencies are lying dormant in each citta so
long as they have not been eradicated by the lokuttara magga-citta.
I quote from my recent Abhidhamma Series (no 23):

<Since each citta that arises and falls away is immediately succeeded
by the next citta, unwholesome and wholesome behaviour and
inclinations are accumulated from moment to moment and from life to
life.
The latent tendencies which are unwholesome inclinations that are
accumulated are the following: sense-desire (kaama-raaga), aversion
(pa.tigha), conceit (maana), wrong view (di.t.thi), doubt
(vicikicchaa), desire for becoming (continued existence, bhavaraaga),
and ignorance (avijjaa).
It is essential to have more understanding of the latent tendencies
and their power. They are called subtle defilements because they do
not arise with the akusala citta, but they are powerful. Since they
have not been eradicated they can strongly condition and influence
our behaviour. They lie dormant in the citta like microbes infesting
the body. So long as they have not been eradicated we are like sick
people, because they can condition the arising of akusala citta when
there are the appropriate conditions..>
Thus, it is explained in the Yamaka commentary (anusaya Yamaka) that
the anusayas, the latent tendencies, do not arise but that they can
condition the arising of akusala citta when there is an opportunity.
Thus even when the citta is kusala, there are the latent tendencies
lying dormant in that citta like microbes.
--------

> B:Also along the same lines is the bhava'nga citta of a hell being
> pure and luminous? It seems that the mind that took this being to
> hell, i.e. the last active mind of the previous life would be
> filled with torment? This is getting at one of my questions, in the
> Suttas (and our experience) it seems that there certainly are
> latent defilements, but I am not clear how the Abhidhamma accounts
> for these.

------
N: This citta is akusala vipaakacitta, citta which is result. It is
of the same type as the rebirth-consciousness. The anusayas lie
dormant in each citta, also in the bhavangacitta of that being. That
citta is not akusala, it is vipaakacitta, it does not motivate any
akusala. It has no aversion. So long as we are in samsara, there are
the latent tendencies carried on from one moment to the next moment,
until arahatship has been reached.
--------
B:>But bhavanga seems to be used more to explain how the mind
continues from moment>to moment with some continuity and in states
like deep dreamless sleep. In

> >addition the Abhidhamma (I think) says that only one mind can
> arise at any given
> >moment and so (as my questions above) how do the latent defilement
> continue in a
> >wholesome bhavanga.

--------
N: It is right that only one citta can arise at a time. There cannot
be kusala citta at the same time as akusala citta. But the anusayas
are lying dormant in each citta, they themselves do not arise.
Bhavanga-citta is neither kusala citta nor akusala citta. It is
merely result, it can be the result of kusala kamma, thus, kusala
vipaaka, or of akusala kamma, thus, akusala vipaaka.
We are born in the human plane, thus, the rebirth-consciousness was
kusala vipaaka and all bhavangacittas (even arising now, in between
the different processes of cittas that experience colour, sound,
etc.) are kusala vipaakacittas. Still, so long as we are not ariyans,
all seven anusayas are lying dormant in each and every citta. When in
deep sleep there are no lobha, dosa and moha arising. When we wake up
we cling at once to all objects. Where does this clinging come from?
Not without there being conditions for it. It is conditioned by the
latent tendency of sensuous clinging.
-------

> B:For me this notion of a latent defilement is very much a reality
> of dailylife, as it is clear that until that potential is
> eradicated I am in somebondage yet I would like to know how these
> ancients dealt with it.

----------
N: Yes, they are dangerous, it is so unpredictable what kind of
akusala will arise at which moment. They are tenacious, powerful. How
to deal with them: develop the eightfold Path leading to their
eradication stage by stage. The latent tendencies of wrong view and
doubt are eradicated first, at the first stage of enlightenment. Only
the arahat has eradicated all latent tendencies.
-------
Nina.



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