The Tree of Enlightenment

e resultant class cannot bring about results because it is itself
the result, while the functional class cannot do so because its
potentiality is exhausted in the action itself.
We can thus place the wholesome and unwholesome categories
in the more general category of karmically active consciousnesses,
and the resultant and functional types into the category
of passive consciousnesses that do not have karmic potential.
It might be useful to look for a moment at the meaning of
the terms ‘wholesome’ (kusala) and ‘unwholesome’ (akusala), and
then at the definition of the wholesome and unwholesome categories
of subjective consciousness. Wholesome means ‘what
tends toward cure’ or ‘what tends toward desirable results.’ Here
we are again reminded of the therapeutic concern of Buddhist
philosophy. Unwholesome means ‘what tends toward undesirable
results’ or ‘what tends toward perpetuation of suffering.’ e
terms ‘wholesome’ and ‘unwholesome’ are also related to skillful
and unskillful, or intelligent and unintelligent, moments of
consciousness. However, for convenience, people still sometimes
refer to wholesome and unwholesome consciousness as
good and bad, moral and immoral. ‘Wholesome’ and ‘unwholesome’
can also be defined with reference to the three wholesome
and unwholesome root causes (non-greed, non ill-will, and nondelusion,
and greed, ill-will, and delusion, respectively). Greed,
ill-will, and delusion are the derivative forms of fundamental
ignorance, which is the mistaken notion of a self as opposed
to what is other-than-self. Ignorance in its fundamental sense
might be likened to the root of a tree, and greed, ill-will, and
delusion to its branches.
e karmic potential of a moment of consciousness con-
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