Buddha Abhidhamma - Ultimate Science - BuddhaNet

143
The 19 cittas namely, 2 upekkhà-santiraõa cittas, 8 mahà-vipàka
cittas and 9 mahaggata-vipàka cittas, are not involved in the
cognitive series while they are performing rebirth-function, lifecontinuum
function or death-function. So they are known as
vãthi-vimutti cittas, i.e., the number of vãthi-freed consciousness
is 19 (that these 19 cittas are dvàra-vimutti, i.e., door-freed, has
been mentioned in Chapter III.).
Of the above 19 cittas, the 2 upekkhà-santiraõa cittas are
involved in the cognitive series when they perform the
investigating function or the registering function, and 8 mahàvipàka
cittas take part in the cognitive series when they perform
the registering function. So these 10 cittas must be included in
counting vãthi-cittas. Since only the 9 mahaggata-vipàka cittas are
totally free from the cognitive series, the total number of vãthicittas
is 89–9 = 80.
Three Types of Identical Cittas
The life of a living being begins with a rebirth consciousness
(pañisandhi-citta). After the dissolution of this consciousness,
bhavaïga cittas (life-continuum) arise and dissolve continuously
till death performing the function of life-continuum.
The last bhavaïga-citta is known as death consciousness (cuticitta),
because it performs death-function.
For a living being, these three cittas, namely, the pañisandhicitta,
the bhavaïga-citta and the cuti-citta are the same in jàti (birth),
in concomitants and in the sense-object they take. For normal
human beings, one of the 8 mahà-vipàka cittas functions as
pañisandhi-citta, bhavaïga-citta and cuti-citta. These three cittas
are identical in a person, because they are the resultants of the
same ‘kamma’ associated with a kusala citta. If the kusala cittas is