Sources: “ Citta, Mano, Viññāṇa - a Psychosemantic Investigation by E.A.

Johansson

Citta refers to the Mental State. Citta, Mano, Viññāṇa are 3 Pāli terms used to refer to the Mind, Intellect,
mind-organ and consciousness respectively. The mind for Buddhism is clearly the potential that gives us the
power to discriminate-identity-conceptualize but based on the ability to observe-experiment-speculate. Citta or
mana is the conceptualizing level of the mind. Cetasikas are the various mental states that both emerge and
support any exploration of the world. BUT the mind seen as the conceptualizing power has to be understood as
a self-constructing ability that can only emerge from the fully samsaric and developing ste of Cetasikas via the
conststant confrontation of each individual with the fully samsaric reality of the world.
Process of Experience

I am an organism in an environment . 2
things happen (1. Metabolism: life sustaining process; 2. Consciousness: Experience the Environment through
5 phisiological senses). The Brain evolved over millions of years into 3 main layers: 1. Brain stem (lizard)
(physiological functions – heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, digestion…to keep people alive 2. Limbic
system (Leopard) ( Memory, emotional arousal, unconsciousness emotional reactions 3. Cerebral cortex
(Learning) ( newest part processing, perceptual awareness, attention system, language,logic, reasoning…).
http://bhantepunnaji.com/pdf/111003_CONSCIOUSNESS-Part1.pdf