Comments

Comm. NT: 35. Profitable in the sense of health, blamelessness, and pleasant result (see Vism- mhṭ 463). Unprofitable in the opposite sense. Indeterminate because not describable as either profitable or unprofitable (see Vism-mhṭ 464). This is the first of the twenty- two triads in the Abhidhamma Mātikā (Dhs 1).
Pali has five principal words, nāma, viññāṇa, mano, citta, and ceto, against the normal English consciousness and mind. While their etymology can be looked up in the dictionary, one or two points need noting here. Nāma (rendered by “mentality” when not used to refer to a name) is almost confined in the sense considered to the expression nāma-rūpa (“mentality-materiality”) as the fourth member of the dependent origination, where it comprises the three mental aggregates of feeling, perception and formations, but not that of consciousness (viññāṇa). Viññāṇa (rendered by “consciousness”) is, loosely, more or less a synonym for mano and citta; technically, it is bare cognition considered apart from feeling, perception or formations. Mano (rendered by “mind”), when used technically, is confined to the sixth internal base for contact (Ch. XV). Citta (rendered by “mind” and “consciousness” or “[manner of] consciousness”), when used technically, refers to a momentary type-situation considered as viññāṇa in relation to the tone of its concomitant feeling, perception and formations. Possibly, a better rendering would have been “cognizance” throughout. It carries a flavour of its etymological relative, cetanā (“volition”). Ceto (another etymological relative, rendered by “heart”—i.e. “seat of the emotions,”—“will” or “mind”), when used loosely is very near to citta; but technically it is restricted to one or two such expressions as ceto- vimutti (“mind-deliverance” or “heart-deliverance”).

пали	Tadetaṃ vijānanalakkhaṇena sabhāvato ekavidhampi jātivasena tividhaṃ kusalaṃ, akusalaṃ, abyākatañca.
Nyanamoli thera	[THE 89 KINDS OF CONSCIOUSNESS—SEE TABLE III] That same [consciousness], though one in its individual essence with the characteristic of cognizing, is threefold according to kind, namely, (I) profitable, (II) unprofitable, and (III) indeterminate. 35