2.2.3. Different Types of Consciousness

“Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought.”
— Dhammapada 1.1

To truly understand karma, we must first understand consciousness — not merely as the field in which experience arises, but as an active, intricate process: a stream of discrete moments, each shaped by intention, habit, and perception. In this chapter, we delve deeper into how consciousness functions within Buddhist psychology, drawing on both the Suttas and the Abhidhamma. If this seems dense, that is as it should be. Consciousness is more subtle and layered than it first appears, and careful study here will make the rest of Albedo unfold with much greater clarity.

Consciousness (viññāṇa) is one of the five aggregates (pañcakkhandha) that constitute conditioned experience, alongside matter, feeling, perception, and mental formations. It is also classified as one of the 72 ultimate realities (paramattha dhammas) in Abhidhamma, appearing there as citta — a discrete unit of awareness.

There are many ways to classify consciousness. The most common, rooted in early Buddhist texts, is by way of the six sense doors — eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind — each linked to a distinct type of consciousness. These sense consciousnesses rely on both a physical base and a specific object, and are conditioned by elements and attention.

These six are later expanded into eight categories with more refined distinctions found in Mahayana and Yogācāra traditions:

• Visual consciousness
• Auditory consciousness
• Olfactory consciousness
• Gustatory consciousness
• Bodily touch consciousness
• Discriminative mind (mano-viññāṇa) — which forms and interprets objects
• Subjective consciousness — the awareness of self and perception
• Ālaya consciousness (ālaya-vijñāṇa) — the foundational storehouse or latent ground of awareness

We will explore ālaya in greater depth in later chapters. For now, understand it as the subtle, enduring substratum from which all other awareness arises — the reservoir of karmic traces and latent tendencies.

In the Abhidhamma system, consciousness is analysed still more finely into 121 types of citta, organised by:

• Realm of origin: sense-desire, form, formless, or supramundane
• Moral valence: wholesome, unwholesome, functional
• Volitional force: karmically active, resultant, or neutral

This reveals the true complexity of karmic outcomes. A single experience can involve dozens of rapid-fire cittas, each arising and falling in quick succession. Each cognitive episode is composed of about 17 cittas — encompassing sensory registration, recognition, intention, reaction, and memory. Most of this occurs far below conscious awareness, with only the strongest impressions rising into memory.

Between these bursts of cognition lies the life continuum — a subtle, ongoing flow that carries the karmic imprint of previous moments and lives.

This process is astonishingly fast. What we perceive as a seamless stream of consciousness is actually a rapid sequence of arising and vanishing cittas, linked by memory and perception. When we say, “I am aware,” we are not referring to a single, continuous awareness, but to a dynamically shifting constellation of mental events.

Types of Citta: A Closer Look

Cittas can be grouped into three broad ethical categories:

A functional citta is ethically neutral — it carries out necessary tasks like recognition or analysis but does not produce future karmic consequences. For ordinary beings, such cittas are rare. For arahants, however, all citta becomes functional, as they no longer generate new karma.

Resultant citta is the echo of past volitional acts. These are the mental effects of choices we have made — manifesting as memories, reactions, or tendencies. For instance, if we once stole from greed, a resultant citta may later arise as guilt, restlessness, or rationalisation. Such experiences continue until they are thoroughly understood and resolved.

We often feel our awareness is singular. In truth, it is layered — current cognition, residual tendencies, underlying moods — all shifting and overlapping. Past experiences are not truly “past”; they reverberate as karmic traces within the present moment.

Karma, then, is more than simple cause and effect. It is consciousness weaving itself into patterns through decision — itself a special type of citta that dispels doubt and generates volitional energy. The ethical quality of each decision determines the flavour of resultant awareness that must eventually surface, whether in this life or another.

Some karmas are minor and may never fully ripen. Others, especially those rooted in intense mental states, must bear fruit, even if across future lives.

Consciousness is not a singular entity. It is a complex, recursive, and karmically conditioned process — flickering, reforming, and dissolving with profound intricacy. Our task is not to control it, but to see its nature clearly. For once we understand how awareness is woven — citta by citta — we gain insight into karma itself, and begin the long, delicate disentanglement of habit from truth.

This text is excerpted from the upcoming book Albedo: A Course in Modern Alchemy. The complete volume will include additional study guides, glossaries, and extended teachings. Learn more about the book here.