Buddha Abhidhamma - Ultimate Science - BuddhaNet

Chapter 2
CETASIKAS
Mental Factors
Characteristics of Cetasikas
Cetasikas are mental factors or mental concomitants that arise
and perish together with citta, depend on citta for their arising
and influence the mind to be bad, good or neutral as they arise.
A cetasika has the following four characteristic properties:
i It arises together with citta (consciousness).
ii It perishes together with citta.
iii It takes the same object (arammana) which citta takes.
iv It shares a common physical base (vatthu) with citta.
Which is more powerful?
When we say that the mind is the most powerful agent in the
world and it leads the world, it is not the performance of citta
alone, but the performance of citta and cetasikas together that
makes the mind most powerful.
Now which is more powerful—citta or cetasikas? Citta is no
doubt the leader of the group, but cetasikas influence the citta
and direct the citta to perform actions, speeches and thoughts
either morally or immorally. These actions, speeches and
thoughts change the world every day and their kammic forces
will create new worlds in the future.
To decide which of the two—citta or cetasikas—is more
powerful, let us consider two similes.