Buddha Abhidhamma - Ultimate Science - BuddhaNet

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ultimate realities known as paramatthas. They are so subtle that
they have no form and shape and thus they cannot be seen even
under the most powerful electronic microscope.
We now know that citta is an ultimate entity with the
characteristic of awareness of an object. The 52 cetasikas are also
different ultimate entities with different characteristics. By the
various but systematic combinations of cetasikas with citta, 89
types of consciousness in brief or 121 types of consciousness in
broad total come into existence.
The original citta is like a glass of pure water. When a drop
of red ink is added to the water, the whole glass of water becomes
red. When a drop of black ink is added, the whole mass of water
becomes black. In the same way when the citta is associated
with immoral cetasikas, the whole mass – i.e. the mind-becomes
immoral and ugly. When the citta is associated with beautiful
cetasikas, the mind becomes beautiful and wholesome.
Now the combination of cittas and cetasikas arise and dissolve
at a tremendous speed—more than one thousand billion times
per eye-wink as stated in the Abhidhamma commentary. How
can one know the components of these rapidly changing
combinations?
For illustration, let us take a cup of water from a river. Would
it be possible to differentiate the water drops from different
rivulets and streams that have flown into the river? This job
would be much easier compared to the analysis of the invisible
and rapidly changing combinations of cittas and cetasikas.
So the Buddha has done the impossible in the ultimate
analysis of the mind. Now, it may be asked: “What is the purpose
of this analysis?”
It is done for the sake of seeing things as they truly are in