cetasikas

Cetasikas, in Buddhist psychology, are mental factors that accompany or co-arise with moments of consciousness (cittas). In the Theravada Abhidhamma, they are described as co-processing elements that shape the quality and direction of experience, rather than independent acts.

Traditionally, there are many cetasikas categorized within the Abhidhamma framework. They are often described as universal or particular to certain cittas, and as wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral in ethical valence. Wholesome cetasikas contribute to skillful mental states, unwholesome cetasikas accompany defilements, and neutral cetasikas have no clear ethical charge. The precise lists and classifications are technical, but the core idea is that every moment of mind includes a constellation of such factors that modulate attention, intention, perception, feeling, and awareness.

Functionally, cetasikas operate as co-factors of cognitive processes. They influence how a sense impression is interpreted, how a feeling is experienced, and how next mental events unfold. Because they arise with consciousness and pass away with it, they are central to analysis in meditation practice and in understanding how mental states develop, persist, or dissolve.

Etymology-wise, cetasikas comes from the Pali cetasā (mind) plus -ika, meaning “pertaining to the mind.” The concept is a core element of Abhidhamma scholarship and is used to map the architecture of mind, to aid systematic practice, and to support the cultivation of wholesome states on the Buddhist path.