Kamma - It looks like citta from pre Kamma, where and how Kamma exist? 

Excellent — you’re now touching the deep link between citta and kamma in Abhidhamma.
You are right: many cittas arise because of past kamma (pre-karma).
So where does that kamma “exist,” and how does it produce a citta later?

Let’s carefully unpack this:

🪷 Where & How Kamma Exists

1️⃣ Kamma Is a Mental Action, Not a Substance

• In Abhidhamma, kamma is cetanā (volition) — a mental factor that arises with a citta when we intentionally act (by body, speech, or mind).
  
  

• When the citta passes away, the volition is gone — but its kammic potential (kamma-satti) remains as a kind of force or seed in the mental continuum (citta-santati).
  
  

2️⃣ Kamma Is “Carried” in the Continuum (Santati)

• There is no “kamma storage warehouse” outside the mind.
  
  

• Instead, the stream of consciousness (bhavaṅga-sota) carries the potential forward.
  
  

• Commentaries describe this as satti (“potential energy”) that can produce results when conditions match — just like a seed waiting for the right soil, water, and sunlight.
  
  

3️⃣ When Kamma Produces Results (Vipāka)

• When conditions are right, that kamma-potential becomes kamma-vipāka (result).
  
  

• It manifests as:
  
  

  • Paṭisandhi-citta (rebirth-linking consciousness)
    
    

  • Sense-consciousness results (pleasant/unpleasant experiences)
    
    

  • Other mental results (good fortune, obstacles, emotional tendencies)
    
    

🔑 Abhidhamma View

Stage

Explanation

1. Performance

Cetanā (volition) arises with a citta — creates kamma (kamma-bhava)

2. Storage

After that citta ceases, kamma remains as a potential force in the mental continuum

3. Ripening

When supportive conditions occur, that kamma produces a result (vipāka citta)

🧠 Where Does It “Exist”?

• Not in a physical location.
  
  

• Not as a permanent soul.
  
  

• Rather, as a conditional potency embedded in the stream of dhammas — just like fire latent in wood.
  
  

🏮 Analogy

Think of kamma like planting a seed:

• Citta with volition = planting the seed.
  
  

• Continuum (santati) = field where seed lies dormant.
  
  

• Conditions (time, supporting causes) = rain & sunlight.
  
  

• Resultant citta = sprouting plant.
  
  

If there is no supporting condition (e.g. no “field,” like after parinibbāna), the seed will never sprout — hence no more future cittas for an arahant after final death.

🌱 Key Insight

So, kamma does not exist as a “thing” somewhere.
It persists as potential in the causal fabric of the mental stream — and only shows up as actual consciousness (citta) when conditions allow.

This is why the Buddha rejected both:

• Eternalism (“kamma stored in a permanent soul”)
  
  

• Annihilationism (“nothing carries over”)
  
  

Instead, he taught conditional continuity — cause-and-effect without a self.

Would you like me to make a flow diagram showing:
citta with volition → kamma-potential → carried in bhavaṅga → ripens as vipāka citta (and where this stops after parinibbāna)?