Comm. NT: 26.
Rūpakkhandhakathāvaṇṇanā
“‘The heart-basis … the support for the mind-element and for the mind- consciousness-element’: how is that to be known?
(i) From scriptures and (ii) from logical reasoning.
“The scripture is this: ‘The materiality dependent on which the mind-element and mind-consciousness-element occur is a condition, as a support condition, for the mind-element and the mind-consciousness-element and what is associated therewith’ (Paṭṭh I.4).
If that is so, why is it not mentioned in the Rūpakaṇḍa of the Dhammasaṅgaṇi? (Dhs §583ff.).
Its not being mentioned there is for another reason.
What is that?
Non-inconsistency of the teaching.
For while eye consciousness, etc., have the eye, etc., as their respective supports absolutely, mind-consciousness does not in the same way have the heart-basis as its support absolutely.
And the teaching in the physical-basis dyad (vatthu-duka) is given by way of the material support thus, ‘There is matter that is the physical basis of eye-consciousness, there is matter that is not the physical basis of eye-consciousness’ (Dhs §585) and so on;
and if the dyads were stated by way of what had the heart-basis absolutely as its support thus, ‘There is matter that is the physical basis of mind-consciousness’ and so on, then the object dyads (ārammaṇa-duka) do not fall into line:
for one cannot say: ‘There is matter that is the object of mind-consciousness, there is matter that is not the object of mind- consciousness.’ So the physical-basis dyads and object dyads being thus made inconsistent, the teaching would lack unity,
and the Master’s wish was to give the teaching here in a form that has unity.
That is why the heart-basis is not mentioned, not because it is unapprehendable.
“(ii) But the logical reasoning should be understood in this way. In the five constituent becoming, [that is, in the sense sphere and fine-material sphere,] these two elements have as their support produced (nipphanna) derived matter.
Herein, since the visible- data base, etc., and nutritive essence, are found to occur apart from what is bound up with faculties, to make them the support would be illogical. And since these two elements are found in a continuity that is devoid of the femininity and masculinity faculties [i.e. in the Brahmā-world], to make them the support would be illogical too. And in the case of the life faculty that would have to have another function, so to make it the support would be illogical too. So it is the heart-basis that remains to be recognized as their support.
For it is possible to say that these two elements have as their support produced derived matter, since existence is bound up with matter in the five-constituent becoming.
Whatever has its existence bound up with matter is found to have as its support produced derived matter, as the eye-consciousness-element does.
And the distinction ‘in the five-constituent becoming’ is made on account of the mind- consciousness-element;
in the four-constituent becoming, [that is, the immaterial sphere,] there is no mind-element.
Does there not follow contradiction of the middle term (hetu) because of establishing faculties as their support?
No; because that is disproved by what is seen.
For these two elements are not, as in the case of eye- consciousness, controlled by the slackness and keenness, etc., of their physical basis; and accordingly it is not said in the texts that they have the faculties as their condition.
Hence their having faculties as their support,
in other words, their being controlled by them, is disproved.
“Granted that these two elements have as their support the derived matter consisting of the heart-basis, how is it to be known that it is kamma-originated, has an invariable function, and is to be found located in the heart?
It may be said to be kamma-originated because, like the eye, it is the materiality of a physical basis; and because of that it has an invariable function; because it is the materiality of a physical basis and because it is a support for consciousness, is the meaning.
It is known that its location is there because of the heart’s exhaustion (khijjana) in one who thinks of anything, bringing it to mind intently and directing his whole mind to it” (Vism-mhṭ 449–50).
The word hadaya (heart), used in a purely mental and not physical sense, occurs in the definitions of the mind-element and mind-consciousness-element in the Vibhaṅga (Vibh 88–89). The brain (matthaluṅga), which seems to have been first added as the 32nd part of the body in the Paṭisambhidā (Paṭis I 7), was ignored, and the Visuddhimagga is hard put to it to find a use for it. The Piṭakas (e.g. Paṭṭh 1,4 quoted above) connect the mind with the matter of the body without specifying.