cuti
Death consciousness
[ CHOO-tee ]
Seeing it in life
Cuti-citta is functionally identical to bhavaṅga but marks the falling away from one existence, immediately followed by paṭisandhi in the next.
In short
The last citta of a life.
The analysis
Cuti-citta is functionally identical to bhavaṅga — same object, same quality — but marks the final falling-away from the present existence. It's immediately followed, without gap, by the paṭisandhi-citta of the next becoming, conditioned by whichever kamma is due to ripen.
Where it sits
Cuti closes the same sequence paṭisandhi opens: paṭisandhi begins a life, bhavaṅga sustains it, cuti ends it. All three are vipāka-cittas, sharing the same object across the entire lifespan they frame.
No everyday analogue offered — like paṭisandhi, this is a structural, doctrinal entry rather than one drawn from observable daily experience.
Commonly mistaken for
Extinction of a self. There is no self to extinguish; cuti is one conditioned citta giving way to another, without gap.
A different kind of citta from bhavaṅga. They are the same citta-type, distinguished only by position.
Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha V.
Related terms