<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  Tables and Summaries > Rūpa – Generation Mechanisms

1. Rūpa (or matter) can be generated by four causes: kamma, citta, utu, and Āhāra (food). I will discuss these in detail later.

▪Kamma here refers to volition (cetanā). The 25 kinds of kamma that produce rūpā are the volitions of the 12 akusala cittā, 8 great kusala cittā, and the five rūpa loka kusala cittā. These rūpa are created with a time lag, when kamma vipāka bear fruits, like at the paṭisandhi to a new life. The three rūpa dasaka of vatthu, kāya, and bhava are created at paṭisandhi by kamma vipāka.

▪The rūpa produced by the cittā arise at the same time as the citta themselves, and only at the rising part of the cittā. Out of the 89 possible cittā, 75 cittā can produce rūpa (4 arūpa loka vipāka cittā and the two sets of fivefold sense consciousness cannot produce rūpa).

▪Thus both kammaja and cittaja rūpa have mind as the direct cause. Both of these decay rapidly and are converted to utuja rūpa. What we normally see are the utuja rūpa and āhārajā rūpa, which have their origins also in the great elements of tejo and oja.

▪The great element tejo is responsible for producing utu samutthana rūpa: Beginning from the moment of rebirth-linking, the internal tejo element found in the rūpa kalāpas born of kamma combines with the external tejo and starts producing organic material phenomena originating from tejo. Thereafter the tejo element in the rūpa kalāpas born of all four causes produces organic material phenomena born of tejo element throughout the life. Externally, tejo element also produces inorganic material phenomena, such as climatic and geological transformations.

▪The nutritive essence, oja, is present in all rūpa-kalāpas both inside the body (internal) and outside the body (external). The external food, which is eaten, is digested in the stomach and dispersed through blood to all parts of the body. So the internal oja and the external oja meet in every part of the body. The combination of internal and external oja produce āhārajā rūpas.

2. The 8 avinibbhoga rūpā of pathavi, āpo, tejo, vāyo, vaṇṇa, gandha, rasa, and oja are ALWAYS found together. That unit or kalāpa is the smallest rūpa unit and is called the pure octad (suddhaṭṭhaka). Those 8 avinibbhoga rūpā and the ākāsa dhātu are produced by all four causes.

3. The four lakkhaṇa rūpā of upacaya, santati, jaratā, and aniccatā are not produced by any cause. They represent the nature of rūpā.

4. The remaining 15 rūpa are produced by different combination of the four possible causes as shown in the table below: