41 (1)
“Bhikkhus, suppose a misdirected spike of hill rice or barley were pressed by the hand or foot. It is impossible that it would pierce the hand or the foot and draw blood. For what reason? Because the spike is misdirected. So too, it is impossible that a bhikkhu with a misdirected mind would pierce ignorance, arouse true knowledge, and realize nibbāna. For what reason? Because the mind is misdirected.”
42 (2)
“Bhikkhus, suppose a well-directed spike of hill rice or barley were pressed by the hand or foot. It is possible that it would pierce the hand or the foot and draw blood. For what reason? Because the spike is well directed. So too, it is possible that a bhikkhu with a well-directed mind would pierce ignorance, arouse true knowledge, and realize nibbāna. For what reason? Because the mind is well directed.”
43 (3)
“Here, bhikkhus, having encompassed a mentally corrupted person’s mind with my own mind, I understand that if this person were to die at this time, he would be deposited in hell as if brought there.40 For what reason? Because his mind is corrupted.41 It is because of mental corruption that with the breakup of the body, after death, some beings here are reborn in the plane of misery, in a bad destination, in the lower world, in hell.”
44 (4)
“Here, bhikkhus, having encompassed a mentally placid person’s mind with my own mind, I understand that if [9] this person were to die at this time, he would be deposited in heaven as if brought there. For what reason? Because his mind is placid.42 It is because of mental placidity that with the breakup of the body, after death, some beings here are reborn in a good destination, in a heavenly world.”
45 (5)
“Bhikkhus, suppose there were a pool of water that was cloudy, turbid, and muddy. Then a man with good sight standing on the bank could not see shells, gravel and pebbles, and shoals of fish swimming about and resting. For what reason? Because the water is cloudy. So too, it is impossible for a bhikkhu with a cloudy mind to know his own good, the good of others, or the good of both, or to realize a superhuman distinction in knowledge and vision worthy of the noble ones. For what reason? Because his mind is cloudy.”43
46 (6)
“Bhikkhus, suppose there were a pool of water that was clear, serene, and limpid. Then a man with good sight standing on the bank could see shells, gravel and pebbles, and shoals of fish swimming about and resting. For what reason? Because the water is limpid. So too, it is possible for a bhikkhu with a limpid mind to know his own good, the good of others, and the good of both, and to realize a superhuman distinction in knowledge and vision worthy of the noble ones.44 For what reason? Because his mind is limpid.”
47 (7)
“Bhikkhus, just as sandalwood is declared to be the best of trees with respect to malleability and wieldiness, so too I do not see even one other thing that, when developed and cultivated, is so malleable and wieldy as the mind. A developed and cultivated mind is malleable and wieldy.” [10]
48 (8)
“Bhikkhus, I do not see even one other thing that changes so quickly as the mind.45 It is not easy to give a simile for how quickly the mind changes.”
49 (9)
“Luminous, bhikkhus, is this mind, but it is defiled by adventitious defilements.”46
50 (10)
“Luminous, bhikkhus, is this mind, and it is freed from adventitious defilements.”
40 Yathābhataṃ nikkhitto. I translate this idiom on the basis of Mp’s gloss: yathā āharitvā ṭhapito.
41 Mp: “A mind corrupted by hate” (dosena paduṭṭhacittaṃ). This sutta and the following might be seen as prose elaborations of Dhp 1 and 2. Though Dhp 1 and 2 use mano rather than citta, the adjectives are the same: paduṭṭha and pasanna.
42 Mp: “[A mind] placid with faith and confidence” (saddhāpasādena pasannaṃ).
43 Mp: “Cloudy (āvilena): enveloped by the five hindrances.” At 5:193 §5 cloudy water is specifically identified with doubt and limpid water with freedom from doubt.
44 Uttariṃ manussadhammā alamariyañāṇadassanavisesaṃ. I follow Mp, which treats uttariṃ manussadhammā as a complex ablative phrase relative to alamariyañāṇadassanavisesaṃ. Mp says: “Superhuman: superior to the human virtue consisting in the ten courses of wholesome kamma. For this tenfold virtue is called ‘human virtue’ because it is undertaken by people on their own—even without anyone to encourage them—after they have been stirred at the end of ‘the period of swords’ (satthantarakappa; see DN III 73,4). The things superior to this are the jhānas, insight, the path, and the fruit. Distinction in knowledge and vision worthy of the noble ones: the distinction [excellence] consisting in knowledge and vision that is fitting for the noble ones or able to produce the noble state. Knowledge itself is called ‘knowledge’ in that it knows, and it is called ‘vision’ in that it sees. This is a designation for the knowledge of the divine eye, insight knowledge, path knowledge, fruition knowledge, and reviewing knowledge.”
45 Mp, using the Abhidhamma model of the mind, takes this to refer to the extreme speed with which the mind arises and vanishes. But at Vin I 150,7–14, in a passage on the conditions that entitle a bhikkhu to cut short his rains observance, it is said that if a woman is trying to seduce a bhikkhu at his rains residence, he is entitled to depart after reflecting: “The Blessed One said that the mind is quick to change, and here there is an obstacle to my living the celibate life.” In this context, the obvious sense is not that the mind arises and ceases quickly but that one might suddenly change one’s mind, giving up the celibate life to submit to the charms of the woman.
46 Pabhassaram idaṃ bhikkhave cittaṃ. The exact meaning of this statement has been a matter of contention that has spawned conflicting interpretations. Mp identifies the “luminous mind” with the bhavaṅgacitta, an Abhidhamma concept denoting the type of mental event that occurs in the absence of active cognition. It corresponds, very roughly, to the subconscious or unconscious of modern psychology. The word bhavaṅga means “factor of existence,” that is, the factor responsible for maintaining continuous personal identity throughout a given life and from one life to the next. However, the bhavaṅga is not a persistent state of consciousness, a permanent self. It is a series of momentary acts of mind that alternate with active cognitive processes (cittavīthi), sequences of cognition when the mind consciously apprehends an object. Hence the texts sometimes use the expression bhavaṅgasota, “stream of bhavaṅga,” to highlight the fluid nature of this type of mental process. The occurrence of the bhavaṅga is most evident in deep, dreamless sleep, but it also occurs countless times in waking life between cognitive processes.
The most important events in the cognitive process are the javanacittas, ethically determinate occasions of consciousness that create kamma. The javanas may be either wholesome or unwholesome. It is in the javana phase that the defilements, dormant in the subconscious bhavaṅga, infiltrate mental activity and defile the mind. For a fuller discussion of the bhavaṅga, see CMA 122–29, where it is rendered “life-continuum.” Harvey (1995: 166–79) has an interesting exploration of the relationship between the bhavaṅga and what he calls “the brightly shining mind.”
Mp explains: “The bhavaṅgacitta is called luminous, that is, pure (parisuddha), because it is without defilements (nirupakkilesatāya). It is defiled by adventitious defilements—by lust, etc.—which arise later [after the bhavaṅga] at the moment of javana. How? In the way that virtuous, well-behaved parents—or preceptor and teacher—get to be criticized and blamed on account of their undisciplined, badly behaved children or pupils, [as when people say]: ‘They don’t punish, train, exhort, or instruct their own children or pupils.’ Well-behaved parents, or preceptor and teacher, are like the bhavaṅgacitta, while the blame falling on the parents because of their children [or on the preceptor and teacher on account of their pupils] is like the naturally pure bhavaṅgacitta being defiled at the javana moment by the adventitious defilements that arise in states of mind associated with greed, etc., which cause lust, hatred, and delusion to infect it.”
Though I quote Mp in full here, I find this explanation problematic on at least two grounds. The first is that the very concept of the bhavaṅgacitta, and the corresponding notion of the cognitive process, are not found in the Nikāyas but first emerge in a later period when the Abhidhamma was taking shape. Even the term bhavaṅga, though crucial to the Theravāda Abhidhamma system, occurs only in the last book of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka, the Paṭṭhāna. It is found much more often in the Abhidhamma commentaries.
The second reason I find Mp’s explanation problematic is that the text flatly states “this mind is luminous,” without qualification. This suggests that luminosity is intrinsic to the mind itself, and not to a particular type of mental event. Moreover, if the bhavaṅga is luminous, it should always remain so; it becomes incoherent to speak of it being defiled by the javanas. The simplest interpretation of this statement, so far as I can see, is that luminosity is an innate characteristic of mind, seen in its capacity to illuminate its objective field. This luminosity, though inherent, is functionally blocked because the mind is “defiled by adventitious defilements” (āgantukehi upakkilesehi upakkiliṭṭhaṃ). The defilements are called “adventitious” because, unlike the luminosity, they are not intrinsic to the mind itself. Of course, as 10:61 and 10:62 assert, there is no “first point” to ignorance and craving (and other defilements). But these defilements can be removed by mental training. With their removal, the mind’s intrinsic luminosity emerges—or, more precisely, becomes manifest. The statement just below that the noble disciple understands the mind to be luminous implies that this insight into the intrinsic luminosity of the mind serves as the basis for further mental development, which liberates the mind from the defilements. With the complete removal of defilements, the mind’s intrinsic luminosity shines forth unobstructed.
At 3:102, I 257,7 the word pabhassara is used to describe the mind (citta) that has attained concentration (samādhi). It thus seems that it is in deep samādhi that the intrinsic luminosity of the mind emerges, at least temporarily. 5:23, III 16,29–17,2 says explicitly that the mind freed from the five hindrances is luminous (pabhassara) and properly concentrated for the destruction of the taints. See too MN III 243,11–12, where it is equanimity (upekkhā), presumably of the fourth jhāna, that is described as luminous.