[Buddha-l] Do you mind?

[Jayarava]

I was reading something by Kalupahana today and he was making definite distinctions between the terms citta, mano, viññāṇa. I'm aware that Pāli texts often don't distinguish sharply between the terms, but there do seem to be useful distinctions. 

If I read him right he is saying that:

Citta is what arises on contact with an object - mental or physical. Mano is what processes arisen cittas in order to interpret the content of them and relates them to previous experiences, it is the cognitive function. It deals both with mental objects, but also with the secondary information arising from the senses - the mental component of sensing. Finally viññāṇa is the knowing that mechanism of mano churns out - especially in the sense of the overall consciousness, the sense of being aware, of reflexive awareness.

Kalupahana suggests that the verbal forms of the words (cinteti, maññati, and vijānāti) make the sense of them more clear. His view seem to tie in nicely with Sue Hamilton's account of the khandhas as the apparatus of experience, rather than the totality of the universe.

Does this make sense? Does it over simplify the tradition or the existential situation? There are a number of other traditional terms for the mind or its activities (e.e cetanā, manasikāra, paññā) would they fit into this model? If there was a distinction at some point, what does the subsequent loss of distinction signify? (confusion?)

Any thoughts?
Jayarava