Citta: The Pali–English Dictionary translates citta as heart or heart-mind, emphasizing it as more the emotive side of mind, as opposed to manas as the intellect in the sense of what grasps mental objects.

Citta’s mental function is to store and organize all of the experiences of manas into samskaras – memories, impressions and emotional patterns. Chitta constantly accesses our samskara database to provide context, depth and understanding to our current experience of the world.

Subconscious mind is termed ‘Citta’ in Vedanta. Much of your subconsciousness consists of submerged experiences, memories thrown into the background but recoverable. The Citta is like a calm lake and thoughts are like waves upon the surface of this lake and name and form are the normal ways in which these waves rise.

Kilesa (Kleshas):These are mental states that cloud the mind and manifest in unwholesome actions. Kleshas include states of mind such as anxiety, fear, anger, jealousy, desire, depression, etc. Contemporary translators use a variety of English words to translate the term kleshas, such as: afflictions, defilements, destructive emotions, disturbing emotions, negative emotions, mind poisons, neurosis etc.

khandhas (Skandhas):This refers to the five aggregates of clinging the five material and mental factors that take part in the rise of craving and clinging. Form, Sensations/Feelings, Perceptions, Fomrations/Mental activities, Consciousness. They are also sometimes explained as the five factors that constitute and explain a sentient being’s person and personality.

Marvel of the Dharma

-Ajaan Mahã Boowa Ñãõasampanno (1913-2011)

(continued)

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This very state of citta: When at the beginning I referred to the superlative Dhamma, the marvellous Dhamma, I was referring to this very state of citta, this very Dhamma – but it’s something known exclusively within itself, and exists only within itself. It’s marvellous

-this we know within our own citta. It’s superlative – this we also know within our own citta. We can’t take it out or unfurl it like other things for other people to see.

So if you want to have any Noble Treasures to show for your- self, practice. Remove all those dirty stains from the heart, and the superlative things I have mentioned will appear by their own nature -in other words, they will appear in the citta.

This is called completing your study of the Dhamma; and your study of the world is completed right here. The “world” means the world of elements, the world of the khandhas that lie right here with each of us, which are more important than the worlds of elements and khandhas belonging to other people, because this world of elements and khandhas lies with us and has been weighing on the heart all along.

When we have studied the Dhamma to the attainment of release, that’s all there is to study. We’ve studied the world to completion and studied the Dhamma in full. Our doubts are gone, and there is nothing that will ever make us doubt again. As the Buddha exclaimed, “When dhammas become apparent to the Brahmin, earnest and absorbed, doubt comes to an end because the conditions, the factors for continued being and birth, come to an end.”

Once we have reached this level, we can live wherever we like. The war is ended – the war between the citta and kilesa, or the war between Dhamma and kilesa, is over. This is where we dismantle being and birth. This is where we dismantle the heap of suffering in the round of rebirth – right here in the heart. Since the heart is the wanderer through the cycle of rebirth, we have to dismantle things right here, to know them right here. Once we know, that’s the end of all problems right here.

In this whole wide world there are no problems. The only problem was the issue of the heart that was deluded about itself and about the things that became involved with it. Now that it has completely rectified the way it is involved with things, there is nothing left – and that’s the end of the problem.

From this point on, there are no more problems to trouble the heart until the day of its total nibbana. This is how the Dhamma is studied to completion. The world – the world of elements and khandhas – is studied to completion right here.

So keep striving in order to see the marvel described at the beginning, which was described in line with the truth with no aspect to invite any doubt.

The Buddha and the Noble Disciples have Dhamma filling their hearts to the brim. You are a disciple of the Tathagata, with a citta that can be made to show its marvellousness through the practice of making it pure, just like the Buddha and the Noble Disciples. So try to make it still and radiant, because the heart has long lain buried in the mud. As soon as you can see the harm of the mud and grow tired of it, you should urgently wake up, take notice, and exert yourself till you can manage to make your way free. Nibbana is holding its hand out, waiting for you. Aren’t you going to come out?

Rebelliousness is simply distraction. The end of rebelliousness is stillness. When the heart is still, it’s at ease. If it’s not still, it’s as hot as fire. Wherever you are, everything is hot and troubled. Once it is still, then it’s cool and peaceful wherever you are – cool right here in the heart. So make the heart cool with the practice, because the heat and trouble lie with the heart. The heat of fire is one thing, but the heat of a troubled heart is hotter than fire. Try to put out the fires of kilesa, tanha (greed), and asava (mental defilements) burning here in the heart, so that only the phenomenon of genuine Dhamma remains. Then you will be cool and at peace, everywhere and always.

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An excerpt from a letter written by Venerable Acariya Maha Boowa to Mrs. Pow Phanga Vathanakul, dated February 26, 1976.

The practice of the Dhamma in keeping with the Dhamma that he gave with utter compassion unequalled by that of anyone else in the world: This is the true homage to the Buddha. The seeing of the truth that lies within you, using pafifia step by step at all times: This is the seeing of the Buddha step by step. The seeing of the truth with the full heart using pafifia: This is the seeing of the Buddha in full. The true Buddha, the true Dhamma, lie with the heart. To attend to your own heart is to attend to the Buddha. To watch over your own heart with mindfulness and pafifia

is truly to see the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha.

The king of death warns and assaults the bodies of the world’s living beings in line with the principles of his truth. You have to greet his warnings and assaults with mindfulness, pafifia, conviction, and unflagging persistence, and take out your treasures – the paths, fruitions, and nibbana – to flaunt in his face, braving death in the course of persistent effort. You and he, who have regarded each other as enemies for such a long time, will then become true friends – neither of you to take advantage of the other ever again.

The body and the khandhas are things that the world must relinquish in spite of its regrets. You should relinquish them with mindfulness and pafifia before the time comes to relinquish them in the way of the world. This is the supreme letting-go, second to nothing.

Please take this to heart, because it is written straight from the heart.