Learn to understand the truth and then understand the conditions
(Excerpt from the Dhamma discussion with Ajahn Sujin in Thailand, Cha-Am - June 2022
transcribed by Huong edited by Alberto)
Mai: why Ajahn doesn't teach often about conditions?
Ajhan Sujin: because they don't know what is there now yet! So how can they understand the conditions? They don't know what seeing is, the reality which is the chief of experiencing that which impinges the eye base. Just this word, how long does it take to understand that it's not any cetasika, so we don't talk about cetasika, or in a day people do not mind about citta at all, just minding about that which is experienced, no thinking about citta which experiences each moment, the chief of experiencing; so the object appears to the citta, clearer than [to] the other realities which arise with citta, as cetasikas. It's not the chief of experiencing, but it is that which is attached immediately to that which is the object, no matter it is visible object or sound or anything. That’s why we learn to understand this and then understand the conditions like: citta cannot arise alone. There must be cetasikas arising, how can anyone change the way it is? They have to arise together and by name it is sahajata paccaya. We talk about the truth and later we talk about how they are different paccayas because the moment when they arise together is sampayutta paccaya, but when the rupas arise together it is sahajata paccaya, because the four primary rupas and the derived rupas arise together, it is sahajata paccaya instantly at moment of their arising. But they cannot experience the object, that's why there are two different kinds of a condition; one is sahajata paccaya, just talking about the moment of arising and the other sampayutta paccaya, they arise together to experience, no one can separate those which have no shape and form, but even at that very moment there isn't only citta, there must be the mental factors too. So they are sampayutta: arising together, experiencing the same object, fall away together and arise at the same base. So many conditions for now to arise and gone.