Universal beautiful mental factors

Discussion of Abhidhamma and related Commentaries
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SteRo
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Universal beautiful mental factors

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A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma wrote:The Universal Beautiful Factors (sobhanasādhāraṇa)
(1) Faith, (2) mindfulness, (3) shame, (4) fear of wrongdoing, (5) non-greed,
(6) non-hatred, (7) neutrality of mind, (8) tranquility of the (mental) body, (9) tranquility
of consciousness, (10) lightness of the (mental) body, (11) lightness of consciousness,
(12) malleability of the (mental) body, (13) malleability of consciousness, (14) wieldiness
of the (mental) body, (15) wieldiness of consciousness, (16) proficiency of the (mental)
body, (17) proficiency of consciousness, (18) rectitude of the (mental) body, and (19)
rectitude of consciousness — these nineteen mental factors are termed “the universal
beautiful factors.”
A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma wrote:1. Of the beautiful, firstly, the nineteen beautiful factors are found in all fifty-nine types
of beautiful consciousness.
B. Bodhi wrote:The fifty-nine beautiful cittas are obtained thus:
twenty-four sense-sphere cittas plus fifteen fine-material-sphere cittas plus twelve
immaterial-sphere cittas plus eight supramundane cittas.
Considering that even the four fruition supramundane cittas are said to have the factors 1-4, too, there might arise the question "how so?" (Faith, remembering, shame and fear seem to be perfectly compatible with the wholesome cittas of a worldling but how so with the fruition supramundane cittas?)

B. Bodhi's comments on these factors may shed light on the different connotations of these concepts in the context of ariya minds that might go unnoticed when merely looking at the English words:
(1) Faith (saddhā): ... It is manifested as nonfogginess,
that is, the removal of the mind’s impurities, or as resolution. ...

(2) Mindfulness (sati): ... as a mental factor, it signifies presence of mind, attentiveness to the
present, rather than the faculty of memory ... It has the characteristic of
not wobbling, that is, not floating away from the object. ... It is manifested as guardianship, or as the state of
confronting an object field. ...

(3) Shame (hiri) and (4) fear of wrongdoing (ottappa): ... They both ... are manifested as the shrinking away from evil.
Cleared. αδόξαστος.
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