Attentional Capture and Ethical Responsibility in Theravāda Abhidhamma: A Formal Reconstruction of the Cognitive Sequence
Journal of International Buddhist Studies June 15, 2026 Indrajith P. Karunanayaka
Understanding how intention and karmic accumulation occur within Buddhist ethics benefits from examining the cognitive sequence (citta-vīthi) described in Theravāda Abhidhamma. Standard manuals describe this process for isolated stimuli, but leave open how competing or overlapping objects are resolved under the system’s timing constraints. This paper introduces a typology of attentional capture...