2007 Abhidhamma Course

Abhidhamma
Course
By: Mr. Dion Oliver Peoples, M.A.

Ph.D. Candidate – Buddhist Studies
Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University
ABHIDHAMMA
-PITAKA:
Wednesdays, Rm. 309:
15 November-25 March
4:45pm – 6:25pm
16 Weeks
Perhaps: I might be teaching
this class to people who know
the Abhidhamma better than
me!
If this is the case:
please be co-operative!
Abhidhamma Course Outline
 Scientific Introduction
 Lecture Nine
 Buddhism and Time  Lecture Ten
 Hermeneutics?  Lecture Eleven
 Abhidhamma History  Lecture Twelve
 Texts in the Abhidhamma  Lecture Thirteen
 Mind Development  Lecture Fourteen
 Patisambhidamagga  Lecture Fifteen
 Abhidhammattha-sangaha  Lecture Sixteen
 The Dhamma Theory
 Section to be fully-known
Abhi [Higher] -Dhammas:
 Aggregates [5]
 Bases [12]
 Elements [18]
 Truths [4]
 Controlling faculties [22]
 Roots [9]
 Nutrients [4]
 Contact [7]
 Feeling [7]
 Perception [7]
 Volition [7]
 Consciousness [7]
Course Readings:
 I have several chapters of texts I suggest you read:
 Bhikkhu Bodhi’s Introduction to the Abhidhamma-
sangaha – and some charts
 K.N. Jayatilleke’s 6th Chapter to “Early Buddhist
Theory of Knowledge” – about Analysis and Meaning
 Excerpts from the Visuddhimagga on human
characteristics
 Vibhanga’s: Analysis of the Heart of the Teaching
 And the Lecture-slides: available from the office!
A Scientific Introduction…
Ref: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Scientists understand:
The smallest cells weigh about 10-12 grams – each one is like a
miniature factory containing thousands of intricately designed
machinery – consisting of billions of atoms, far more complicated
than any machinery built by man and without any parallel in the non-
living world.
Subatomic particle - From Wikipedia
 A subatomic particles are elementary or composite particles smaller
than atoms. Particle physics and nuclear physics are concerned with
the study of these particles, their interactions, and non-atomic matter
composed from them.
 Subatomic particles include the atomic constituents electrons, protons,
and neutrons. Protons and neutrons are composite particles, consisting
of quarks. A proton contains two up quarks and one down quark,
while a neutron consists of one up quark and two down quarks; the
quarks are held together in the nucleus by gluons. There are six
different types of quark in all ('up', 'down', 'bottom', 'top', 'strange', and
'charm'), as well as other particles including photons and neutrinos
which are produced copiously in the sun. Most of the particles that
have been discovered are not encountered under normal earth
conditions but are found in cosmic rays and are produced by scattering
processes in particle accelerators. There are dozens of subatomic
particles.
Introduction to particles
 In particle physics, the conceptual idea of a particle is one of several concepts
inherited from classical physics, the world we experience, that are used to
describe how matter and energy behave at the very molecular scales of quantum
mechanics. As physicists use the term, the meaning of the word "particle" is one
which understands how particles are radically different at the quantum-level,
and rather different from the common understanding of the term.
 The idea of a particle is one which had to undergo serious rethinking in light of
experiments which showed that that the smallest particles (of light) could behave
just like waves. The difference is indeed vast, and required the new concept of
wave-particle duality to state that quantum-scale "particles" are understood to
behave in a way which resembles both particles and waves. Another new
concept, the uncertainty principle, meant that analyzing particles at these scales
required a statistical approach. All of these factors combined such that the very
notion of a discrete "particle" has been ultimately replaced by the concept of
something like wave-packet of an uncertain boundary, whose properties are only
known as probabilities, and whose interactions with other "particles" remain
largely a mystery, even 80 years after quantum mechanics was established.
Dividing an atom
 Electrons, which are negatively charged, have a mass of 1/1836 of a
hydrogen atom, the remainder of the atom's mass coming from the
positively charged proton. The atomic number of an element counts the
number of protons. Neutrons are neutral particles with a mass almost
equal to that of the proton. Different isotopes of the same nucleus
contain the same number of protons but differing numbers of neutrons.
The mass number of a nucleus counts the total number of nucleons.
 Chemistry concerns itself with the arrangement of electrons in atoms
and molecules, and nuclear physics with the arrangement of protons and
neutrons in a nucleus. The study of subatomic particles, atoms and
molecules, their structure and interactions, involves quantum mechanics
and quantum field theory (when dealing with processes that change the
number of particles). The study of subatomic particles per se is called
particle physics. Since many particles need to be created in high energy
particle accelerators or cosmic rays, sometimes particle physics is also
called high energy physics.
Atom smasher makes weird matter
[http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2005/1348510.htm]
 Scientists using a giant atom-smasher say they have created a new state of matter that shows what the early universe
once looked like. The scientist said that for a tiny fraction of a second after the “Big Bang” all was in the form of this
hot, dense liquid made out of basic atomic particles and called a quark-gluon plasma. “We think we are looking at a
phenomenon ... in the universe 13 billion years ago when free quarks and gluons ... cooled down to the particles that we
know today.”
 The quark-gluon plasma was made in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, a powerful atom smasher. Unexpectedly, the
quark gluon plasma behaved like a perfect liquid of quarks, instead of a gas, the physicists said. For their experiment,
the researchers smashed two gold ions together at extremely high speeds, very close to the speed of light. The collision
was so intense that the strong force that usually binds quarks into protons and neutrons weakened, allowing the quarks
to roam freely. Normally quarks, the most basic particles that make up matter, are bound together and cannot be
measured directly. At temperatures 10,000 times hotter than those found inside the Sun and with just a few thousand
particles, the nuclear physicists expected the quarks to fly around freely like a gas. Instead, the quarks behaved like a
perfect liquid, flowing together like a school of fish, without turbulence or random motion. In contrast, a drop of water
containing the same number of particles would not behave like a liquid at all, but just fly apart. "This is fluid motion
that is nearly perfect," says Aronson.
 "That the new state of matter created in the collisions of gold ions is more like a liquid than a gas gives us a profound
insight into the earliest moments of the universe," he says. The unexpected results have a link to another field of
physics, called string theory. String theory attempts to explain properties of the universe using 10 dimensions, instead of
the three space and one time dimension that humans commonly perceive. The string theory calculation describing how
gravity behaves near a black hole can also explain how quarks move in a quark gluon plasma, experts say.
Energy
 Matter can be austerely denoted in terms of energy – only two mechanisms
in which energy can be transferred have been discovered: particles and
waves. Light can be expressed as both particles and waves. This paradox is
known as the Duality Paradox.
 Particles are discrete - their energy is centralized into what appears to be a
finite space, which possesses absolute boundaries and its contents are
considered to be homogenous - the same at any point within the particle.
Particles subsist at a particular location. If demonstrated on a 3D graph,
they have x, y, and z coordinates. They can never exist in more than one
location at once, and to travel to a different place in space, a particle must
move to it under the laws of kinematics, acceleration, velocity and so forth.
 Interactions between particles have been scrutinized for many centuries, and
a few simple laws dictate how particles proceed in collisions and
interactions. The most angelic of these are the conservation of energy and
momentum which help to explain calculations between particle interactions
on scales of magnitude which diverge between planets and quarks.
Molecules of Positronium Observed in the Laboratory for the First
Time:
- (http://www.newsroom.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=1662 - September 12, 2007):
 Physicists at UC Riverside have created molecular positronium, an entirely

new object in the laboratory. Briefly stable, each molecule is made up of a
pair of electrons and a pair of their antiparticles, called positrons.
Positronium atoms, by nature, are extremely short-lived.
When an electron meets a positron, their mutual annihilation may ensue
or positronium, a briefly stable, hydrogen-like atom, may be formed. The
stability of a positronium atom is threatened again when the atom collides
with another positronium atom. Such a collision of two positronium atoms
can result in their annihilation, accompanied by the production of a
powerful and energetic type of electromagnetic radiation called gamma
radiation, or the creation of a molecule of positronium.
Matter, the “stuff” that every known object is made of, and antimatter
cannot co-exist close to each other for more than a very small measure of
time because they annihilate each other to release enormous amounts of
energy in the form of gamma radiation. The apparent asymmetry of matter
and antimatter in the visible universe is an unsolved problem in physics.
More about the Positron:
 For every type of ordinary-matter particle, a
corresponding ‘anti-particle exists’
 A positively-charged proton has a negatively charged
counterpart, the antiproton. The electron that is negatively
charged, is offset by the positively-charged positron.
 In free space, two atoms of positronium cannot combine
together, because they have such excess energy that they
simply fly apart again.
Neutrinos [http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/2031875.htm]:
 Neutrinos are elementary particles of low-energy matter that have no electric charge and very little
mass. They are created and emitted in vast numbers by the thermonuclear reactions that fuel our
Sun, and are known to exist in three types, related to three different charged particles — the electron,
and its lesser known relatives, the muon and the tau. The Sun should only emit electron neutrinos.
But previous experiments have found fewer electron neutrinos than scientists expected, based on
calculations of how the Sun burns.
These neutrinos are uncharged elementary particles that are blasted out in vast amounts from the
sun as a result of thermonuclear fusion, and come in a wide range of energies. Until now, detector
technologies were able to spot high-energy neutrinos, particles with a kinetic energy of more than 5
million electron-volts. But detectors were, until now, not sensitive enough for low-energy neutrinos,
which have less than a million electron-volts.
 The total number of all three types of neutrinos agreed with theoretical calculations, showing that
electron neutrinos emitted by the Sun have changed to muon or tau neutrinos before they reach
Earth. The experiment was based on the difference between neutrino rates during the day compared
to the night. "The oscillation of the neutrinos can be enhanced by passage through matter,"
explained Dr Thornton — in this case, the amount of the Earth between the detector, which lies
underground, and the Sun. During the day, with the Sun on the same side of the Earth as the
detector, the neutrinos must pass through two kilometers of dirt. At night, the rays must come all the
way through the Earth. The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory detects neutrinos at a rate of about one
per hour.
The Quark
 In particle physics, the quark is one of the two basic constituents of matter
(the other is the lepton). It is quarks that make up protons and neutrons,
with there being exactly three quarks within each kind of particle.
 There are six different types of quark, usually known as flavors: up, down,
charm, strange, top, and bottom. (Their names were chosen arbitrarily
based on the need to name them something that could be easily
remembered and used.) The strange, charm, bottom and top varieties are
highly unstable and died out within a fraction of a second after the Big
Bang; they can be recreated and studied by particle physicists. The up and
down varieties survive in profusion, and are distinguished by (among other
things) their electric charge. It is this which makes the difference when
quarks clump together to form protons or neutrons: a proton is made up
of two up quarks and one down quark, yielding a net charge of +1; while a
neutron contains one up quark and two down quarks, yielding a net charge
of 0.
 Quarks are the only fundamental particles that interact through all four of
the fundamental forces.
The six flavors of quarks and their most likely decay modes. Mass
decreases moving from right to left.
Fundamental interaction/force
 A fundamental interaction or fundamental force is a
mechanism by which particles interact with each other,
and which cannot be explained in terms of another
interaction. Every observed physical phenomenon can
be explained by these interactions. The apparent
irreducible nature of these interactions leads physicists
to study the properties of these forces in great detail. In
modern physics, there are four fundamental
interactions (forces): gravitation, electromagnetism, the
weak interaction, and the strong interaction. Their
magnitude and behavior vary greatly.
What does this have to do with Buddhism?
 There are four primary elements in Buddhism: Earth,
Fire, Water, Air…
 …and secondary elements like: color, sound, smell,
taste, gender, nutriment…
 Even further, there are minute, elementary particles:
kalapas – forming all animate and inanimate material
composed phenomena
 A life-span of a kalapa can last about 17 mind-moments
 Kalapas originate from: kamma, citta, temperature
[fire], and nutriment
Elements as University Subjects:
 Earth: geology, geography…

 Fire: fire-fighters, volcanologist…
 Water: hydro-electrical, irrigation, oceanography…
 Air: meteorologists…
 They examine the fundamental elements

If:
 …the kalapa is the smallest unit of material size
 …and the khana is the smallest group of time
 …then recall: moments are the smallest unit of time
occurring in a state of consciousness – or the temporary
simultaneous mental factors. While the measure of moments
are defined as time that takes place for the occurrence of a
state of consciousness - the time that takes place for the
occurrence of a state of consciousness is defined as the time
during which the simultaneous occurrence of the mental
factors occurs. Who uses smaller units of matter/time?
Buddhism and Time
By: Mr. Dion Peoples, M.A.

Ph.D. Candidate – Buddhist Studies
Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University
30 August 2550/2007
Introduction:
 Knowing a little bit about conceptual time
in physics can assist in comprehending

profound things in Buddhism or other
conventional expressions – particularly
those dhammas comprising Abhidhamma.
Additions from Abhidhamma
 The Theravada Elders were not encased
into a dogmatic ideological system – but
were motivated towards discovering the
real nature of things. Extending and
improving their knowledge and wisdom is
part of the Buddhist tradition – even of
some of the concepts ‘discovered might
have been controversial…
…Abhidhamma
 …the ancient Theras even inquired into
natural physical phenomena – some of
which is found in commentary texts: sound
travels more slowly than light, which is
observed when one watches a man cut
down a tree from a distance, seeing his
body move before the sound arrives.
…an Abhidhamma series of time:
 Suppose someone is sleeping…
 …then a series of mental events occur…
 …from being disturbed by some outside element…
 …resulting in the identification of the disturbing
object…
 …if the object is of no interest, the person may revert
to the neutral, sleeping state…
 …otherwise further mental results occur, some of
which may be unwholesome…
…more Abhidhamma moments:
 All of the preceding events are known as
moments…
 …thus demonstrating moments as being
irreducible atoms in the series of time…
 …an atomic process of time with reference
to thought-series [no being, only the
thought-series]
The CITTAVĪTHI [cognitive process]:
 According to the Abhidhamma there are 89 types of limited
by time or descriptions of consciousness – classified by their
function…
 Largely, our functioning mind operates accordingly:
•Rebirth-linking •Investigating
•Life-Continuum •Determining
•Adverting •Javana [the 7 mind-moment processes to
•Senses actively-comprehend phenomena]
•Receiving •Registration
•Death
Abhidhammic Time:
 Samaya: time, occasion or a conjunction of
circumstance; duration…
 Samayo [in the Chattha Sangayana CD-Rom]:
Agreement, combination; multitude; season, time;
custom, rule, religious obligation; order, precept;
religious belief, doctrine
 The word samaye is used 2297 times in fourteen
Abhidhamma texts – 1612 times inside the
Dhammasangani
SAMAYA
 Atthasalini - Samaya as:
 Occasion
 Harmony in antecedents
 ‘there is but one moment, one samaya for the practice of the
holy life’
 A ‘season’ [fever-season]
 “a large samaya in the great forest” – assembly
 Also can mean: opinions, acquisition
 Time, Conditions, Occurrences – causal relations…

Patthana issues 24 causal-relations
Nine forms of SAMAYA:
 Time is only a concept derived from this or that phenomena:
1. States expressed in such phrases as temporal [aspect of] of mind/matter
2. The phenomena of occurrence – past/future
3. Succession in organisms [germination/conception]
4. Time of genesis/decay
5. Time of feeling/cognizing
6. Functions – as the time of bathing, drinking
7. Modes of posture: time of going/stopping
8. Revolutions: sun, moon; day, night…
9. Groupings of day and night into months, minutes
 All of these are concepts/abstractions – not existing by its own nature. [a
meadow is only a battlefield during war!]
Majjhima-nikaya: Anupada Sutta [#111]
 After the two weeks it took the secluded Sariputta to
become an Arahant, the Buddha proclaimed Sariputta has:
great, wide, joyous, quick, keen, penetrative wisdom – with
insights into states one-by-one as the occurred.
 In the First Jhana, Sariputta determined: applied and
sustained thought, rapture, pleasure, unification of mind,
contact, feeling, perception, volition, mind, zeal, decisions,
energy, mindfulness, equanimity, attention – all of these
arising, present, and disappearance – and being
unattracted, unrepelled, independent, detached, freed,
dissociated, with a mind freed from barriers – he realized
an escape beyond and cultivated that attainment to confirm
that there is such [a ‘second’ jhana level]…
The Perspective of Time:
 Time is important to understand from the
perspective: not only must immediate
attention be applied to mind/consciousness –
but one must understand that there is also a
sequence of mental-occasions or events.
 There may be evolutions of thoughts or
evolution of Dhamma, which certainly can
be observed from astronomical pictures.
Maybe the Satipatthana Sutta is wrong:
 First the Satipatthana Sutta asks us to:
 Phase One:
 Ajjattha: Contemplate Phenomena as appearing in
oneself
 Bahiddha: Contemplate Phenomena as appearing in
others
 Ajjattha-bahiddha: Contemplate Phenomena as a
combination of both
 Phase Two:
 Samudaya-dhamma: Phenomena viewed as arising
 Vaya-dhamma: Phenomena viewed as passing away
 Samudaya-vaya-dhamma: Phenomena viewed as both
Is the Satipatthana Sutta wrong?
 The active phenomena occurs micro-moments before
identification or registration of the event occurs
 The light we currently observe originating from stars
is billions of years old
 Without any conditioning, would anything arise?
 We need to have ‘knowledge and vision as things
really are’ – and therefore, Buddhists need to seek
scientific explanations outside Buddhism because
Buddhists seek truth
Attention:
The following presentation contains
some material…
“cut and pasted”
from Wikipedia –
re-utilized for this lecture.
Albert Einstein:
 “a person who is religiously enlightened appears to me to be
one who has, to the best of his ability, liberated himself from
the fetters of his selfish desires and is preoccupied with
thoughts, feelings and aspirations to which he clings because
of their super-personal value ... regardless of whether any
attempt is made to unite this content with a Divine Being, for
otherwise it would not be possible to count Buddha and
Spinoza as religious people.”
 “science without religion is lame, religion without
science is blind ... a legitimate conflict between
science and religion cannot exist.”
Historical Origins:
 Edgar Allan Poe stated in his essay on cosmology
titled Eureka (1848) that "space and duration are
one." This is the first known instance of suggesting
space and time to be different perceptions of one
thing. Poe arrived at this conclusion after
approximately 90 pages of reasoning but employed
no mathematics.
 The Greeks were wrong, many of our modern
perceptions are still based on their errors

Poe also said:
Discarding now the two equivocal terms, "gravitation" and
"electricity," let us adopt the more definite expressions,
"attraction" and "repulsion." The former is the body; the latter
the soul: the one is the material; the other the spiritual, principle of
the Universe. No other principles exist. All phenomena are
referable to one, or to the other, or to both combined. So rigorously
is this the case -- so thoroughly demonstrable is it that attraction
and repulsion are the sole properties through which we perceive the
Universe -- in other words, by which Matter is manifested to Mind
-- that, for all merely argumentative purposes, we are fully justified
in assuming that matter exists only as attraction and repulsion --
that attraction and repulsion are matter: -- there being no
conceivable case in which we may not employ the term "matter"
and the terms "attraction" and "repulsion," taken together, as
equivalent, and therefore convertible, expressions in Logic.
Time in Physics:
 In physics, the treatment of time is a central issue.
 One can measure time and treat it as a geometrical
dimension, such as length, and perform mathematical
operations on it.
 It is a scalar quantity and, like length, mass, and charge, is
usually listed in most physics books as a fundamental
quantity.
 Time can be combined mathematically with other
fundamental quantities to derive other concepts such as
motion, energy and fields.
 Time is largely defined by its measurement in physics.
Spacetime:
 In physics, spacetime is any mathematical model that combines space
and time into a single construct called the space-time continuum.
Spacetime is usually interpreted with space being three-dimensional and
time playing the role of the fourth dimension.
 By combining space and time into a single manifold, physicists have
significantly simplified a large amount of physical theory, as well as
described in a more uniform way the workings of the universe at both
the super-galactic and sub-atomic levels. In relativistic contexts,
however, time cannot be separated from the three dimensions of space
as it depends on an object's velocity relative to the speed of light.
 The term spacetime has taken on a generalized meaning with the advent
of higher-dimensional theories. Speculative theories predict 10 or 26
dimensions, but the existence of more than four dimensions would only
appear to make a difference at the sub-atomic level.
BASIC CONCEPTS:
 The basic elements of spacetime are events. In any given
spacetime, an event is a unique position at a unique time.
 A space-time is independent of any observer. However, in
describing physical phenomena (which occur at certain
moments of time in a given region of space), each observer
chooses a convenient system of interpretation or
measurement system.
 The unification of space and time is exemplified by the
common practice of expressing distance in units of time,
by dividing the distance measurement by the speed of
light.
An inertial frame of reference:
 The inertial reference frame is one in which
Newton's first and second laws of motion are valid.
 Hence, within the inertial frame, an object or body
accelerates only when a physical force is applied,
and (following Newton's first law of motion), in the
absence of a net force, a body at rest will remain at
rest and a body in motion will continue to move
uniformly—i.e. in a straight line and at constant
speed.
Inertial reference frame equivalents:
 In practical terms, this equivalence means that scientists
living inside an enclosed box moving uniformly cannot
detect their motion by any experiment done exclusively
inside the box.
 By contrast, bodies are subject to so-called fictitious forces
in non-inertial reference frames; that is, forces that result
from the acceleration of the reference frame itself and not
from any physical force acting on the body.
 Therefore, scientists living inside a box that is being rotated
or otherwise accelerated can measure their acceleration by
observing the fictitious forces on bodies inside the box.
Arrow of Time
 The term originated from the 1928 text-book The Nature of the Physical World, which
helped to popularize the term, the author stated:
 “ Let us draw an arrow arbitrarily. If as we follow the arrow we find more and more of the
random element in the state of the world, then the arrow is pointing towards the future; if
the random element decreases the arrow points towards the past. That is the only distinction
known to physics. This follows at once if our fundamental contention is admitted that the
introduction of randomness is the only thing which cannot be undone. I shall use the phrase
‘time’s arrow’ to express this one-way property of time which has no analogue in space. ”
The author suggests three main points:
 It is vividly recognized by consciousness.
 It is equally insisted on by our reasoning faculty, which tells us that a reversal of the
arrow would render the external world nonsensical.
 It makes no appearance in physical science except in the study of organization of a
number of individuals.
 Here, according to the concept, the arrow indicates the direction of progressive increase of
the random element. Following a lengthy argument into the nature of thermodynamics, the
conclusion Is that in so far as physics is concerned time's arrow is a property of entropy
alone.
Stephen Hawking’s
Three Arrows of Time:
 Psychological arrow of time - our perception
of an inexorable flow.
 Thermodynamic arrow of time - distinguished
by the growth of entropy.
 Cosmological arrow of time - distinguished by
the expansion of the universe.
Time in Cosmology:
 The equations of general relativity predict a non-static
universe. However, Einstein accepted only a static universe,
and modified equations to reflect this by adding the
cosmological constant, which he later described as the biggest
mistake of his life.
 In 1929, Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) announced his discovery
of the expanding universe. The current generally accepted
cosmological model, the Lambda-CDM model, has a positive
cosmological constant and thus not only an expanding
universe but an accelerating expanding universe.
 If the universe were expanding, then it must have been much
smaller and therefore hotter and denser in the past.
Lambda-CDM model:
 Lambda-Cold Dark Matter - is frequently referred
to as the concordance model of big bang
cosmology, since it attempts to explain cosmic
microwave background observations, as well as
large scale structure observations and supernovae
observations of the accelerating expansion of the
universe. It is the simplest known model that is in
general agreement with observed phenomena.
More about the
Lambda-CDM model:
 The model assumes a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of
primordial perturbations and a universe without spatial
curvature. It also assumes that it has no observable topology, so
that the universe is much larger than the observable particle
horizon. These are predictions of cosmic inflation.
 These are the simplest assumptions for a consistent, physical
model of cosmology. However, LCDM is a model, and says
nothing about the fundamental physical origin of dark matter,
dark energy and the nearly scale-invariant spectrum of
primordial curvature perturbations: in that sense, it is merely a
useful parameterization of ignorance.
Irreversibility:
 In thermodynamics, processes that are not reversible are termed
irreversible. From this thermodynamics perspective, all natural
processes are irreversible. The phenomenon of irreversibility results
from the fact that if a thermodynamic system of interacting
molecules is brought from one thermodynamic state to another, the
configuration or arrangement of the atoms and molecules in the
system will change as a result. A certain amount of "transformation
energy" will be used as the molecules of the "working body" do
work on each other when they change from one state to another.
During this transformation, there will be a certain amount of heat
energy loss or dissipation due to intermolecular friction and
collisions; energy that will not be recoverable if the process is
reversed.
Scientific Conclusion:
 Scientists investigate phenomena and name
observations – to ultimately explain the previously
unknown or to correct wrong interpretations of
previous analysis.
 The mind operates similarly to scientific findings –
or perhaps this is due to the limitations of the human
mind.
 The universe is limited to material possibilities while
the mind performs creative ‘physically’ impossible
deeds.
Buddhist Conclusion
 Buddhists are definitely concerned with time – as one can
ascertain that when analyzing our chanting ceremony:
 Yo so svakkhato bhagavata dhammo - The Dhamma
well-proclaimed by the Blessed One,
 Sanditthiko akaliko ehipassiko - to be seen here & now
for one’s self, timeless, inviting all to come & see
 Opanayiko paccattam veditabbo viññuhi - Worthy of
realizing, directly experienceable by the wise for
themselves
Process
es
BREAK FOR
CHAPTER ONE
Summary of Week One:
• I should summarize the lesson from Week One.
– There are many processes that occur in the world, and as we have seen
these processes follow a distinct pattern or order. There is a logic behind
order and processes. I wanted to demonstrate this to you all.
– Additionally, if one considers the illustration of the cosmos, humanity
comprehends about 5% of what might be known – if what can be known
remains static.
– Aggregates [5]; Bases [12]; Elements [18]; Truths [4]; Controlling
faculties [22]; Roots [9]; Nutrients [4]; Contact [7]; Feeling [7];
Perception [7]; Volition [7]; Consciousness [7] – should be fully
known!
– Time demonstrates processes, and the law of impermanence relates
to the theory of time. Every process is subjected to decay – what is
born ultimately dies. Something must be learned first…. For this:
Abhidhamma Hermeneutics
• Hermeneutics may be described as the development and study of theories
of the interpretation and understanding of texts. In contemporary usage in
religious studies, hermeneutics refers to the study of the interpretation of
religious texts. It is more broadly used in contemporary philosophy to
denote the study of theories and methods of the interpretation of all texts
and systems of meaning. The concept of "text" is here extended beyond
written documents to any number of objects subject to interpretation, such
as experiences. A hermeneutic is defined as a specific system or method for
interpretation, or a specific theory of interpretation.
• Practical hermeneutics could happen only when someone , having a
thoroughly functional knowledge of the theory and methodology of
hermeneutics, applies one’s knowledge towards the actual interpretation of
specific texts….
Abhidhamma Hermeneutics
• Essentially, hermeneutics involves cultivating the ability to understand
things from somebody else's point of view, and to appreciate the cultural and
social forces that may have influenced their outlook. Hermeneutics is the
process of applying this understanding to interpreting the meaning of
written texts and symbolic artifacts (such as art or sculpture or architecture),
which may be either historic or contemporary.
• In the last two centuries, the scope of hermeneutics has expanded to include
the investigation and interpretation of textual and artistic works, and a
variety of human behavior, including : language/patterns of speech,
social institutions, and ritual behaviors (such as religious ceremonies,
political rallies, football matches, rock concerts, etc.). Hermeneutics
interprets or inquires into the meaning and import of these phenomena,
through understanding the point of view and 'inner life‘ of an insider, or the
first-person perspective of an engaged participant in these phenomena.
Buddhist Hermeneutics – setting a
method for composing commentaries:
• Petakopadesa – Pitaka Disclosure • Nettippakaranam – The Guide
– Attributed to Mahakaccana
– Attributed to Mahakaccana
– Derived from oral tradition
– States the sotapanna does not need to enter into – Edited/corrected by Acariya
jhanas for path/fruit; anagami and arahant must Dhammapala in 6th CE.
have at least 1st Jhana – as the meaning for – For those who already intellectually
vítarábhúmi
– Full of errors – PTS has restored the version
know the Buddha’s teachings and
– Ch1: The Display of the Noble Truths
want to explain them – how
– Ch2: The Pattern of the Dispensation*
teachings are connected to each
– Ch3: Terms of Expression in the Thread
other as ‘threads’
– Ch4: Investigation of Threads – Ch1: Modes of Conveying in
– Ch5: The 16 Modes of Conveying in Separate Separate Treatment
Treatment* – Ch2: Modes of Conveying in
– Ch6: Compendium of the Thread’s Meaning Combined Treatment
– Ch7: The 16 Modes of Conveying in Combined
– Ch3: Molding of the Guidelines
Treatment*
– Ch8: the Molding of the Guidelines* – Ch4: Pattern of the Dispensation
Nettippakaranam – The Guide
• Dhamma is threaded together through phrasing and meaning
– Phrasing Terms:
• Letter, term, phrase, linguistic, demonstration, mood
– Meaning Terms:
• Explaining, displaying, divulging, analyzing, exhibiting, describing
• The Guide functions as a commentary:
– Explains, coordinates, develops, adapts, and brings up to date the
ideas presented in the texts…
– Justifies and defends against criticism and attacks
– Makes material more readily available
Nettippakaranam – The Guide’s Terminology
• Sutta: thread
• Attha: aim
• Bya–jana:
jana phrase
• Pada: term
• Netti: guide
• HŒra: [16] modes of conveying: teaching, investigation, construing, a
footing, characteristic, fourfold array, conversion, analysis, reversal,
description, ways of entry, clearing up, terms of expression, requisites,
coordination
• Naya: guideline
HŒra: [16] Modes of Conveying:
• Teaching: a doctrinal teaching from the Pitakas
• Investigation: how the text was chosen to be inquired into
• Construing: as interpreted in other texts
• Footing: is the concept definable from specifics in the text
• Characteristic: a class or class-member according to the texts [concentration]
• Fourfold array: grammaticalness, purport, circumstance, coherence
• Conversion: demonstration, paired with opposites
• Analysis: demonstrate expectations to its general validity
• Reversal: demonstration with opposites states in the text
• Description: the appropriate synonym
• Ways of entry: what/how many ideas in words and phrases used to describe
• Clearing up: the questions must be answered satisfactory
• Terms of expression: as birth, aging, sickness, death describes ‘suffering’
• Requisites: specifying cause and condition
• Coordination: implied by keeping-in-being or abandoned
Commentaries….
• The commentaries seem to borrow material from various
sources [an accepted concept] – and often the great
commentators have taken the task of defining specific
dhammas through the fourfold device of characteristic,
function, manifestation and proximate cause – a device derived
from the Petakopadesa and the Nettipakarana.
• There are the fourfold hermeneutical categories of:
– Characteristic
– Function
– Manifestation
– Footing [proximate cause?]
• Pertaining to the HŒra - the meaning of a Dhamma-concept is one –
only the phrasing is different, basically.
Pertaining to the Omniscience of Buddha
• Buddhists, during the life of the Buddha, and after his passing have continued to seek the truths propagated by the
Buddha. Many disciples have emulated the doctrinal attainments. After the Buddha died, his many disciples
continued to strive for the supramundane or ultimate truths of conventional existence – in other words: of whatever
can be perceived from this-world existence. The Buddha cannot even perceive certain outer-worldly or smaller than
atomic-details. The Buddha is not omniscient – and to say such a statement misrepresents what the Buddha’s actually
attainment of the three-fold knowledges, namely: the recollection of his past lives; how beings pass into other worlds
based on their actions; and his own personal knowledge of the destructions of the defilements that taint the mind.
• This knowledge of the Buddha’s non-omniscience is not widely known, because Bhikkhu Bodhi has written: “the
Theravada tradition regards the Abhidhamma as the most perfect expression possible of the Buddha’s unimpeded
omniscient knowledge (sabbannuta-nana).” This directly opposes what was mentioned above from the Majjhima-
nikaya’s Tevijjavacchagotta Sutta [#71]. The Buddha does not know everything, but can determine the “post-‘life’-
state” of beings – as far back as he wishes. All of these determinations are mentally experiencable.
• To further illuminate this controversial perspective, The Path of Discrimination [III. 177] states: “Buddha
(Enlightened One): he who is the Blessed One, who is what he is of himself, without teacher in ideas not heard before,
who discovered the actualities by himself, reached omniscient knowledge therein and the powers and mastery. …
Buddha: in what sense Buddha? He is the discoverer of the actualities, thus he is enlightened (Buddha). He is the
awakener of the generation, thus he is enlightened. He is enlightened by omniscience, enlightened by seeing all…”
This appears, additionally, to contradict the Tevijjavacchagotta Sutta. The Buddha can only be perceived to be
‘omniscient’ merely because the people of the time, more than 2600 years ago, were never established in this knowledge
– and higher knowledge was attributed to the Buddha, vis-à-vis the uneducated/ignorant ancient
agricultural/urbanizing society.
Response from Bhikkhu Bodhi:
• Bhikkhu Bodhi presents the Theravada Tradition’s standpoint – not his personal views
• MN71, MN73, and MN90 should be taken in consideration – MN90, the Buddha does
not completely reject the possibility of omniscience – but only rejects it when it is
understood in the sense of knowing everything simultaneously.
• The tradition has the other opinion.
• There are other places in the Tipitaka where the Buddha claims to have knowledge
beyond the Tevijja: the ten powers of a Tathagata – the last three being the three
knowledges of the Tevijja; the AN 4:24 says that he knows whatever can be seen, heard,
sensed, or cognized – which amounts to a claim of omniscience – because the Buddha
has never claimed that something is beyond his range of knowledge.
• What he did know, was: everything relevant towards the quest of enlightenment and
liberation – in relation to his own system. Buddhist texts portray liberation is not
available outside of the Buddha’s teachings – making Buddhism the exclusive system of
deliverance.
• Other religious teachers are always depicted as self-deluded fools….
Buddhist Hermeneutics: Introduction -
by Donald Lopez
• Lopez seems to be operating under the Mahayana umbrella – and therefore,
many of his citations are unavailable to the strict student of the Theravada
tradition. He is right to state that the teaching is to be the teacher – and asks
just ‘how’ should the teachings be the teacher.
• I would argue against a dearth of Theravada Hermeneutics – the methods
might not yet be drawn out currently.
• The Buddha did teach different things to different people based on their
interests, dispositions, capacities and level of intelligence – and at times
would commentate on his own discourses – but this does not necessarily
mean there are errors and contradictions. Lopez seems to be falling into the
trap of determining which teachings are those of a Buddha, rather than
seeking the method for students to acquire wisdom from the teacher’s
teaching. The Netti [The Guide] is the teacher’s starting point.
Assessment of Textual Interpretation…
by Lamotte
• Reading this text inspires me to go back and look into how Sariputta
was really given his first Dhamma-lesson.
• As I read further - these different textual interpretations stimulated the
creation of different schools of Buddhist thought.
• Sarvastivadins preferred to accept that some suttas should be taken
literally, while others might be left for interpretation – schools
interpreted texts, rather than the individual student, following the
Dhamma-advice from his qualified teacher.
• …if he does not grasp the rule – he will fall into many contradictions
through interpretation; if he takes up Abhidhamma – he will fall into
nihilism; if he takes up the Suttas – he will sometimes fall into realism
or nihilism.
• Just how should one interpret [hermeneutically] Theravada texts – as
the writers of hermeneutic articles operate Mahayanically?
Gradual Path… to the Dhamma –
by George Bond
• Bond states that the commentaries are the second and final solution to the
problem of textual interpretation – and the first interpretation can be found in
the Petakopadesa and the Nettipakarana.
• Bonds says ‘contexts generate texts’ – and if the Theravada tradition, as he
states: ‘Theravada thinking has arisen from the historical and cultural
context…’ – then the context for generating the texts should be the concern for
preserving the Dhamma. He doesn’t say this, but mentioned ‘frozen
cosmologies’.
• If Buddhism is a religion of/for renouncers – hermeneutics should be
reinterpreted to understand textual-analysis to underscore the intention –
interpret with intention.
• The distinctions of lokuttara/lokiya should be emphasized in textual analysis
or interpretation – as well as different types/categories of suttas might provide
a certain perspective…
Future Endeavor:
• Many instructions in discourse suggest that a person of ‘whatever’
characteristics, through Jhana-meditation, strive to eliminate
their defilements, but often retain their character-personality
temperaments, becoming certain types of noble-disciples –
illustrating the further need to investigate the Puggalapaññatti
• The scholar should investigate whether the Tipitaka provides the

material presented in the Disclosure/Guide – or offers a different
set of guidelines – implying that perhaps the Peta/Netti offer only
an interpretation [due to their ‘non-inclusion’ into the Tipitaka, in
some nations].
Demeterio’s Intro to Hermeneutics:
• Texts from a different time and a different culture – that might be ‘blanketed’ in ideology and
false-consciousness: might appear chaotic, incomplete, contradictory and distorted – so
interpretation is perceived to be needed to seek the coherence of the examined system.
• Modern scholars seek a methodology of interpretation.
interpretation Modern scholars have determined to
transform a once practical operation [comprehending a teaching given by a teacher], into a
self-conscious procedure.
• The foundations of hermeneutics was built chaotically – forcing a more critical and
foundational evaluation of interpretation
• I ask these ‘former scholars’ whether they fully comprehend the practical applications of the
Buddhist teachings to begin with – because there might not be the need to construct such an
imposed mental theories – which might bring more suffering to the practitioner. Demeterio
writes of validity and possibility – and such would signify the truths of the Dhamma – as
Sariputta experienced through his own attainment of Arahantship.
Demeterio’s Hermeneutics:
• “The fact that hermeneutics evolved from praxis into praxis demonstrates that it is its praxis component which is its
important layer of meaning, its ultimate aim and its reason for existence. Take away praxis from the picture, then
theory and methodology theory would not make any sense at all.”
• Pure practice moved into the need for methodology
• The need for methodology moved into the need for a theoretical evaluation
• The need for a theoretical evaluation moved into scientific praxis
• Scientific praxis may not equate to pure practice!
• Illustrated are several categorized examples of hermeneutics [because of human cognitive weaknesses]:
– Romanticist hermeneutics: subjectivity, textuality and truth – through original historical/cultural contexts
– Phenomenological hermeneutics: the interpreter shapes the truth based from the text itself
– Dialectical hermeneutics: stresses a textual conversation between the subject and object towards ‘consensus’
– Critical hermeneutics: unveils hidden textual pathology to become freed from ideological distortions
– Post-structural hermeneutics: explores relationships between textuality, institutional, social, political structure ‘theories’
Determining Buddhist Authority
*
Authority Resolve for gain: Judging: Answering questions
#
One thing to be Should be answered
1 Buddha Wisdom
pursued directly
2 Sangha Truth One thing endured Requires an explanation

Requires a counter-
3 Elders Relinquishment One thing avoided
question
One thing
4 An Elder Tranquility Put aside
suppressed
Explanation: The authorities have resolved to gain certain characteristics from
judging what should be made known.
BREAK FOR
CHAPTER TWO
History:
According to tradition, the essence of the Abhidhamma was
formulated by the Buddha during the __________ week after
his Enlightenment. __________ years later he is said to have
spent __________ consecutive months preaching it in its
entirety in one of the heavenly-deva realms to an audience of
_______________ of devas (including his late mother, the
former Queen Maya), each day briefly commuting back to the
human realm to convey to the Venerable Sariputta the essence
of what he had just taught. The Venerable Sariputta mastered
the Abhidhamma and codified it into roughly its present form –
from his ______________ disciples. It was then passed down
orally through the Sangha until the __________ Buddhist
Council (250 BCE), when it finally joined the ranks of the
Vinaya and Sutta, becoming the ___________ and final Pitaka
of the Pali canon.
How was the Abhidhamma formed?
 Apart from the Buddha and Sariputta’s story – the
Abhidhamma was formed in three stages:
 The first stage was developed over technical discussions of
dhamma – ‘debates’ between disciples and sectarians…
 The second stage was the necessary elaboration of doctrine:
the Patisambhidamagga is a development from this second
stage…
 The third stage involves the formation of the Abhidhamma-
pitaka as is known to us today…
Inspiration from these Abhidhamma Lectures:
Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw is the founder and main teacher of the Pa Auk
Forest Monastery - Pa-Auk Tawya Meditation Center, in Mawlamyine, Mon
state, Myanmar - in southern Burma. He teaches a particularly thoroughgoing,
step-by-step tranquility & insight practice to monastics and lay people
practicing at the monastery. This includes samatha (deep access concentration
and the jhanas) as well as a variety of vipassana techniques. The purpose of
these practices is to bring the practitioner towards Liberation as quickly and
efficiently as possible.
Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi obtained his PhD in philosophy from

Claremont Graduate School in 1972. After completing his university
studies, he left America and traveled to Sri Lanka, where he received
novice ordination in 1972 and full ordination in 1973, both under the late
Ven. Ananda Maitreya, the leading Sri Lankan scholar-monk in recent
times. He was the editor of the Buddhist Publication Society (in Sri Lanka)
in 1984 and its president in 1988. Ven. Bodhi has many important
publications to his credit, either as author, translator, or editor: The Middle
Length Discourses of the Buddha -- A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya
(co-translated with Ven. Bhikkhu Nanamoli, 1995) and The Connected
Discourses of the Buddha -- a New Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya
(2000); as well as the editor for the Abhidhammattha Sangaha.
Atthasalini – The Expositor
Commentary on the Dhammasangani
 “It behoves the Abhidhamma student who cannot note
the method of procedure in the entire Abhidhamma-
pitaka, the framing of queries, and the numerical series
in the Great Book [Patthana], to compare or bring them
together from the Commentarial Chapter only.” [p. 519]
Therefore:
Atthasalini – The Expositor
Commentary on the
Dhammasangani
 What is known as Abhidhamma is not

the province or sphere of a disciple; it is
the province or sphere of the Buddhas.
Atthasalini:
 What states are moral?
 When a moral thought of the sensuous-realm arises…
moral consciousness is divided into planes [SEE:
COSMOLOGICAL CHART]…
 – and these are related from the experienceable
Jhanas – being five in number in the Abhidhamma
system – versus four from the Sutta system.
 Four Planes: Sensuous, Material, Immaterial, and
Unincluded.
Atthasalini:
 Consciousness has numerous states that are associated or
are accompanying… in the sensuous-realm:
 Cognitions relying on the five senses and sense-objects – these are further divisible
into desires and undesired.
 Two mind-elements: results of good or bad conduct, arise dependent on the
heart-basis – Question: what do you feel/think is wrong/right?
 Mind-cognition, having no root condition, resulting from either wholesome or
unwholesome, or accompanying neutral states arise from examining the five sense-
doors, and by the way of registration in the six sense-doors. Preceding by way of
rebirth, they have as mental-objects limited kamma, kamma-symbol, or tendency-
symbol – proceeding into the subconscious continuum, and decease….
 Inoperative elements of mind-cognition, accompanied by joy, without root
conditions arise in the sense doors concerning limited objects of senses as are
present, and also in the mind-door concerning past and future – making a mode of
happiness for Arahants.
Atthasalini: 
For inasmuch as Fourth Jhana is
For inasmuch as Fourth Jhana is
Rupa-consciousness:
1.Everywhere a vantage-point
the vantage point for insight,
2.Space-device super-knowledge, cessation, the
3.Light-device round of rebirth, it is called
4.Divine states
everywhere a vantage-point.
5.Respiration
6.Varieties of potency
#2, #3 are vantage-points for
7.Supernormal hearing insight, super-knowledge and
8.Thought reading round of rebirth, not for
9.Knowledge of destiny according
to kamma
cessation. #4, #5 are vantage-
10.Supernormal sight points for insight and the round
11.Reminiscence of former lives of rebirths, but not for super-
12.Knowledge of the future
knowledge or cessation.
Modes of Potency:
 When one makes the body dependent on the mind, being desirous of
going by means of an invisible body, the potency bends the body by
the power of the mind, inserts, places it in the sublime
consciousness; then there is an object of the mind obtained by
exercise – this there is a limited object, because the material body is
the object. When one makes mind dependent on the body, being
desirous of going by means of a visible body, the potency bends mind
by the power of body, inserts, places the basic jhana-consciousness
in the material body; then the object of mind is obtained by exercise
– thus from being the object of the sublime consciousness it has a
sublime object.
Knowledge of Other’s Thoughts
 …has the limited, sublime, immeasurable for object. How?
It has a limited object at the time of one’s knowing the sense-
realm thoughts of others, a sublime object at the time of
knowing thoughts of the Rupa and Arupa realms, and an
immeasurable object at the time of knowing the Path and
Fruitation.
 An average person cannot know the thoughts of a stream-
winner, a stream-winner cannot know the thoughts of a once
returner, etc… the Arahant knows the thoughts of all beings.
The distinctions should be understood.
Advice from Satipatthana
Sutta:
 Synthetical Phase One:
 Analytical Phase Two:
 Ajjhatta: the  Samudayadhamma:
contemplation of phenomena viewed as
phenomena as appearing arising
in oneself  Vayadhamma:
 Bahiddha: phenomena phenomena viewed as
appearing in others passing away
 Ajjhatta-bahiddha: the  Samudaya-
combination of both vayadhamma: the
combination of both
Advice from Satipatthana
Sutta:
 Following insight [vipassana] – one should:
 Analyze the corporeal [rupa]
 Analyze the mental [nama]
 Contemplate both [nama-rupa]
 View both as conditions [sappaccaya]
 Apply the three characteristics to mind-and-body and their
conditions.
 Only the application of both methods – the analytical
and synthetical - can produce a full and correct
understanding of anatta/sunnata of all phenomena
The Anupada Sutta:
 After the two weeks it took the secluded Sariputta to become an Arahant, the
Buddha proclaimed in the Anupada Sutta: Sariputta has great, wide, joyous,
quick, keen, penetrative wisdom – with insights into states one-by-one as the
occurred. There definitely is a systematic representation of the effort exerted
above and in the explanation of the details pertaining to Sariputta’s
accomplishments. The discourse moves immediately into a very detailed
explanation of the Four Jhāna’s – the details are perhaps better written than
many modern academic texts attempting to introduce the reader to Jhāna levels.
Nyanaponika Thera, in his Abhidhamma Studies – Researches in Buddhist
Psychology explores a controversy in this overlooked discourse, to which one
might reply: there seems to reason to question the authenticity of this discourse
as originating from the Buddha. When one reads the text, it seems like the
discourse might be an early teaching purposely legitimizing Sariputta as skillful
for the disciples of the Buddha and further details the primary mediation
technique promulgated by the Buddha. Sariputta’s confirmation of the
Buddha’s teaching not only benefits the Chief Disciple, but additionally
demonstrates the truths of the Buddha’s Enlightenment and both men’s Arahant
attainments.
 Concerning the Abhidhamma - in the First Jhāna, Sariputta determined:
applied and sustained thought, rapture, pleasure, unification of mind,
contact, feeling, perception, volition, mind, zeal, decisions, energy,
mindfulness, equanimity, attention – all of these arising, present, and
disappearance – and being unattracted, unrepelled, independent,
detached, freed, dissociated, with a mind freed from barriers – he
realized an escape beyond and cultivated that attainment to confirm that
there is such [a ‘second’ jhāna level]…Sariputta ‘in fact’ confirmed all
of the Buddha’s jhāna-attainments through his own ‘escape beyond’
experience as recollected by Ānanda. Whether or not Venerable
Buddhaghosa read this discourse or not should not warrant much ink.
The perception of the reader, as the discourse nears conclusion is:
perhaps someone in the Sangha was doubting Sariputta’s abilities or
attainments [having only been ordained for two weeks]; the Anupada
Sutta puts the question to rest.
 Although the Sangīti Sutta is not arranged as an
Abhidhamma treatise, any effort to categorize
the dhammas can lead one to justify the Sangīti
Sutta as perhaps, the most important or
significant discourse found in the Tipitaka in
terms of content alone. The effort to
comprehend the dhamma-sets solely rests with
the student – no explanations are found in the
text of the discourse. Certainly, the Sangīti
Sutta can be used as an Abhidhamma text:
The Abhidhamma of the Sangīti Sutta versus Abhidhammattha Sangaha - Chapter/Topics
Triple Gems
Conventional and ultimate realities [NOT EXPLICITLY FOUND IN SANGITI SUTTA]
Fourfold Ultimate Reality: consciousness, mental factors, matter, Nibbāna
Five Aggregates
Consciousness:
Four Classes of Consciousness [Mundane and Supramundane]
Wholesome or unwholesome
Rooted in greed, hatred or delusion; or Rootless [from senses]
Jhāna’s and Noble Attainments
Mental Factors Mental Factors
Miscellaneous Feelings, roots, functions, doors, objects, bases
Cognitive Process Six Senses; processes, presentations, modes, great/slight objects, absorption, registration, attainment processes, planes
Process-Freed Planes of existence, rebirth-linking, kamma, advent of death [mental-cosmology]
Matter Elements, Concretely produced matter [senses], Non-concrete matter [characteristics], origination of matter, smiling, occurrence of matter, Nibbāna
Unwholesome: taints, floods, bodily knots, clingings, hindrances, latent dispositions, fetters, defilements; mixed: roots, jhāna factors, path factors,
faculties, powers, predominants, nutriments; requisites of Enlightenment: four foundations of mindfulness, four supreme efforts, four means to
Categories accomplishment, five faculties, five powers, seven factors of Enlightenment, eight path factors, states and occurrences; the whole: five
aggregates, twelve sense bases, eighteen elements, four noble truths
Conditionality Method of dependent arising [12 links], method of conditional relations [24 conditions]; analysis of concepts
Calm; 40 Meditation Subjects; Analysis of Development; Analysis of Terrain; Attainment of Jhāna; Insight; Purification; Emancipation; Individuals;
Meditation Subjects Attainments
The Seven Sarvastivadin Texts:
 Sangitiparyaya ('Discourses on Gathering Together')
 Dharmaskandha ('Aggregation of Dharmas')
 Prajnaptisastra ('Treatise on Designations')
 Dhatukaya ('Body of Elements')
 Vijnanakaya ('Body of Consciousness')
 Prakaranapada ('Exposition')
 Jnanaprasthana ('Foundation of Knowledge')
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarvastivada - – accessed on 7 October 2550/2007]

Sangitiparyaya (‘Discourses on Gathering Together’)
 Sangitiparyaya ("recitation together") is one of the seven Sarvastivada Abhidharma
Buddhist scriptures. It was composed by Mahakausthila (according to the Sanskrit and
Tibetan sources) or Sariputra (according to the Chinese sources).
 Structurally, the Samgiti-paryaya is similar to the Dharma-skandha, though earlier, as
the latter is mentioned in the former. It is basically a matika on the early teachings,
arranged in groups of dhammas by number, similar to the Ekottarikagama.
 This text is basically a commentary on the Sangiti-sutta (D #33) – an assemblage of the
Buddha's Dhamma rather than an actual discourse/discussion. The background to the
first recital of the Sangiti-sutta, as the Jains fell into disarray after the death of
Mahavira, and the Buddhist Sangha gathered together to recite the core teachings of
the Dhamma to prevent such a split in their own religion, perhaps indicates the fear of
present or impending schism arising in the Sangha on the part of those who compiled
this work. The Sangiti-sutta is also the basis of a commentarial work, in the later
Yogacara-bhumi-sastra, some several hundred years later.
Dharmaskandha ('Aggregation of Dharmas‘)
 Dharmaskandha is one of the seven Sarvastivada Abhidharma Buddhist
scriptures. Dharmaskandha means "collection of dharmas". It was composed by
Sariputra (according to the Sanskrit and Tibetan sources) or Maudgalyayana
(according to Chinese sources).
 It begins with a matika as a summary of the topics, showing its antiquity, as these
were supposedly only assigned by the Buddha himself. It presents 21 subjects, the
first 15 of which concern the practice of the spiritual path, and the realization of its
fruits. The 16th deals with "various issues". Subjects 17 to 20 deal with the
enumeration of the ayatanas, dhatus and skandhas as encompassing "all dhammas".
The 21st is regards dependent origination.
 The Dhatuskandha is from a period before then split between the Sanskrit and Pāli
Abhidhamma traditions, based on its correlation with the Pāli Vibhanga – so this
must be a pre-Asoka type of Buddhism.
Prajnaptisastra (‘Treatise on Designations’)
 Prajnaptisastra is one of the seven Sarvastivada Abhidharma
Buddhist scriptures. The word Prajnaptisastra, means
"designation" (of dhammas). It was composed by
Maudgalyayana (according to the Sanskrit and Tibetan) or
Mahakatyayana .
 This text is very important based on commentary-references in
Sarvastivadin sources. The format is of matika, followed by
question and answer explanations, with references to the suttas
for orthodoxy.
 Deals with conventional designations of things, contrasted with
what they are in reality.
Dhatukaya ('Body of Elements‘)
 Dhatukaya is one of the seven Sarvastivada Abhidharma Buddhist
scriptures.
 Dhatukaya means "group of elements". It was written by Purna (according
to Sanskrit and Tibetan sources), or Vasumitra (according to Chinese
sources).
 This comparatively short text bears similarities with the Theravada text, the
Dhatu-katha, in style and format, though it uses a different matika. It also
bears a close connection with the Prakaranapada, through several items
common to both. In its sevenfold division of dhammas in particular, it does
provide, a closer look at the various divisions of dhammas, in particular citta
and cetasika, with its conjoined and non-conjoined aspects. As it is not
mentioned in the Mahavibhasa, this also suggests it is either a later text, or
originally a fragment removed from an earlier text.
Vijnanakaya ('Body of Consciousness‘)
 Vijnanakaya is one of the seven Sarvastivada Abhidhamma Buddhist scriptures.
"Vijnanakaya" means "group of consciousness". It was composed 100 years after the Buddha's
death, and was influenced by the Jnanaprasthana, and is also similar to the Prakaranapada,
which holds a different position inside the Sarvastivada doctrine.
 This text was highly esteemed because it upheld Sarvastivadin doctrine against Vibhajyavada
objections. It is here that the theory of Sarvastivada - the existence of all dhammas through
past, present and future, is first presented. Interestingly, the issue is only brought up when
Moggaliputta-tissa makes the standard claim of the Vibhajyavada, "past and future (dhammas)
do not exist, (only) present and unconditioned (dhammas) do exist". The Vijnana-kaya has four
main theses to refute this:
 The impossibility of two simultaneous cittas
 The impossibility of karma and vipaka being simultaneous
 That vijnana only arises with an object
 Attainments are not necessarily present.
 The text refutes views of several schools: the Vibhajyavada, and the Vatsiputriya
Pudgalavadas.
Prakaranapada (‘Exposition’)
 Prakaranapada is the major text of the central Abhidhamma period. It influenced other non-
Sarvastivada schools, though not in the polarizing manner that the later Jnanaprasthana and Vibhasa
texts did. Its format for dhamma-analysis is used in a few other texts.
 This seems to indicate that before the later formalization of Sarvastivada doctrines, the Vijnana-kaya
and Prakaranapada were perhaps representative of several differing lines of thought, though were
only later over-shadowed by the Vibhasa and its orthodoxy.
 Classifies all existence into five categories; describes ten mental factors present in all states of
wholesome consciousness; discusses ninety-eight evil propensities, ten kinds of knowledge, one
thousand questions concerning doctrinal categories...
 Prakaranapada contains two systems of dhamma classification, one five-fold, the other seven-fold. It
was the former fivefold system that later became the standard format, and was important for the
establishment of the respective characteristics, nature and functions of the various dhammas,
especially the cetasika and citta-viprayukta-dharmas. The sevenfold system bears some similarities to
Pāli Abhidhamma, and seems to be made of categories of dhammas that are all sutta based.
 It also expands on the traditional fourfold theory of conditionality, by introducing some 20 types of
condition, in paired dhammas. Although these are not the later six-fold classification, this may have
opened the door for later innovation.
Jnanaprasthana ('Foundation of Knowledge‘)
 Jnanaprasthana means "establishment of knowledge“. The tradition of the Mahavibhasa states that it was taught
by the Buddha himself, and that a 100 years after the Buddha's demise, there would be doctrinal disputes among
the great masters to give rise to distinctly named schools. A Chinese source states that it was written some three
centuries after the Buddha.
 The orthodox Vibhāṣa takes this as the ‘root’ Abhidhamma, though references are sometimes made to the
Prakaraṇapāda in the same terms. It became known as the ‘body’ of the Abhidhamma, with the six remaining texts
of the early period known as the ‘legs’ or ‘supports’.
 The outline of the text more closely approximates the earliest of models, the Sariputta-Abhidhamma, than those
specifically Sarvastivada treatises. Encyclopedic in content, and unsystematic in form – it has eight sections
dealing with: miscellaneous topics, the fetters, knowledge, intentional acts, the four material elements, the
controlling faculties, meditation, and views. This is evident in its use of the samyojanas, prajna, karma, indriya,
mahabhuta, dhyana and drsti as main divisions.
 Analysis of the suttas themselves – in order to find the actual underlying principle, rather than acceptance of the
content at face value - could lead to apparent contradictions. There is the analysis of the nature, or characteristics,
of individual dhammas - rather than the use of sūtta categories pertaining to spiritual praxis, the tendency here is to
group by type. Thus, dhammas are assigned as either rūpa, citta, cetasika or citta-viprayukta – the conditioned
dhammas, and also the unconditioned dhammas. Specifics as to each type are given, as well as detailed discussions
of related dhammas. These are then again categorized according to their being with or without outflows; visible or
non-visible; past, present or future; as to realm; and so forth.
The Seven Theravada Texts:
 Dhammasangani - Enumeration of Phenomena
 Vibhanga - The Book of Analysis/Treatises
 Dhatukatha - Discussion with Reference to the
Elements
 Puggalapaññatti - Description of Individuals
 Kathavatthu - Points of Controversy
 Yamaka - The Book of Pairs
 Patthana - The Book of Relations
Dhammasangani:
Enumeration of Phenomena
 This book enumerates all the paramattha dhamma (ultimate
realities – perfections of what is found in the mental/material
world/universe). Many of the concepts overlap, but according to
one such enumeration, these amount to:
 52 cetasikas (mental factors), which, arising together in
various combination, give rise to any one of...
 ...89 different possible cittas (states of consciousness)
 4 primary physical elements, and 23 physical phenomena
derived from them
 Nibbana
Rupasangahavibhanga
 Rupa comprises one of the ultimate realities: matter
 Kinds of material phenomena
 Principles by which they are classified
 Their cause or means of origination
 Their organization into groups
 Modes of occurrences
 Rupa: to be deformed; knocked about; oppressed; broken – matter is

expressed like this because it undergoes and imposes alteration owing to
cold, heat, hunger, thirst, insects, water, wind, sunburn, etc…
Rupasangahavibhanga
 Matter – originates from kamma, consciousness, temperature, and
nutriment:
 The fundamental/inseparable Four Great Essentials – existing in
various combinations, from minute to massive
 Earth
 Water
 Fire
 Air
 Material Phenomena derived from the Four Great Essentials
 Concretely produced
 Non-concretely [non-real] produced, attributes not included into
the ultimate realities
Rupasangahavibhanga
 Eighteen Types of Concretely Produced Matter
 Earth Elements
 Water Element Great Essentials
 Fire Element
 Air Element
 Eye Sensitivity
 Ear Sensitivity
Sensitive Phenomena
 Nose Sensitivity
 Tongue Sensitivity
 Body Sensitivity
 Visible Form
 Sound Objective Phenomena – tangibility: earth, fire, air
 Smell
 Taste
 Femininity Sexual Phenomena
 Masculinity
 Heart-base Heart Phenomena
 Life-faculty Life Phenomena
 Nutriment Nutritional Phenomena
Rupasangahavibhanga
 Non-Concrete Matter:
 Limited Phenomena:
 Space Element: void regions separating objects/displaying boundaries of kalapas
 Communicating Phenomena:
[proximate cause: air and earth element born of consciousness] – displays intention
 Body Intimation: body movement
 Vocal Intimation: vocal expressions
 Mutable Phenomena: [plus above two intimations]
 Lightness: non-sluggish, dispels heaviness in matter, transformability
 Malleability: non-rigidity, non-opposition to any kinds of action, malleable
 Wieldiness: favorable to body action, non-weakness
 Characteristics of Matter:
 Production: Both are terms for genesis, arising, or birth of matter: production is the first/initial arising/launching
of a material process; continuity is the repeated genesis of materiality in the same material process.
 Continuity:
Conception is production, subsequent actions are life-continuity.
 Decay: maturing or aging – loss of newness leading towards termination
 Impermanence: complete breaking up of phenomena
Rupasangahavibhanga
 Singlefold Matter is rootless [roots are associated with
mental phenomena] – not associated with
wholesome/unwholesomeness/indeterminate; subjected
to taints; conditioned; mundane; pertaining to the
sense-sphere; objectless; not to be abandoned – and is
conceivable as internal and external – or manifold.
 Manifold Matter, can be internal, external, sense-
bases, sense-doors, faculties, has three-fold [gross,
proximate, impinging] phenomena, clung-to, not
reaching [eye/ear] their object, takes on objects, and
inseparability.
Rupasangahavibhanga
 Originating from:
 Kamma: nine type – five sensitivities, two sexes, life, heart, &
space
 Consciousness: from life-continuum and as arising
 Temperature:
 Nutriment:
Dhammasangani:
 Abhidhamma:
 Section of Triplets
 Section of Moral Rot Group
 Section of Short Intermediate Sets of Pairs
 Section of the Asava Group
 Section of the Fetters
 Section of the Ties
 Section of Perversions
 Section of the Great Intermediate Sets of Pairs
 Section of the Grasping
 Section of Vices
 Section Supplementary Set of Pairs
 Suttanta: …
Dhammasangani:
 The matika of the text has two main sections:
 The tikamatika: twenty-two groups of three-fold designations
 The dukamatika: one-hundred groups of two-fold designations
 And another group known as the suttanta-dukamatika: forty-two

groups of two-fold designations – but only the above 122 groups are
considered for the dominant basis of Abhidhamma analysis!
Dhammasangani:
 Largely determines what is:
 Wholesome [virtuous, skillful, productive]
 Unwholesome
 Indeterminate
 Largely accompanied by numerous footnotes in the Pali

Text Society’s English translation
Dhammasangani:
 Rupa [matter] – physical principles:
 Earth, water, heat, air
 Sight, hearing, smelling, taste, touch
 Femininity, masculinity, life [jivita]
 Gestures, speech, space
 Visible objects, sound, scents, taste object, tangibles,
weight, suppleness, malleability, accumulation,
extension, aging, impermanence
 Material food
Dhammasangani:
 Vedana [feeling/experience]:
 Happiness
 Elation
 Unhappiness
 Depression
 Equanimity
Dhammasangani:
 Sanna [perception]:
 Only perception as the only category in this group
Dhammasangani:
Sankhara [Forces/Mental Formations]:
 Contact Concentration
Energy
 Volition
Confidence
 Reasoning
Self-possession
 Reflection
Understanding
 Joy
[above: five faculties]
Dhammasangani:
 Other Sankhara/Forces: life, right speech, right action, wrong
theory, wrong intentions, self-respect, fear of blame, lack of
self-respect, lack of fear-of-blame, desire, aversion, delusion,
non-desire, non-aversion, non-delusion, vanity, uncertainty,
assurance, lightness, suppleness, malleability, effiency,
straightness, being conscious, calming, insight, intention to
find out something, four influences [opinion reduces delusion
and ignorance; pleasure reduces desire which desires existence
to form], and other reducible factors
Dhammasangani:
 Vinnana [consciousness]:
 Thought [citta]
 Mind [base but reduced to a thought]
 Sight
 Hearing
 Smelling
 Taste
 Touch
 Mind [thought of the previous moment]
Dhammasangani:
 Unsynthesized base:
 Extinction: Nibbana – because it cannot be classified under
any groups
 The Dhammas are largely classified under the following

principles: wholesome/good; unwholesome/bad; and
neither/indeterminate
Dhammasangani:
 The outline operates first as a means of exploring fully all
those states and qualities inherent in experience, mental
and material. Secondly, it acts as a focal point at which
the ultimate values of any state may be assessed. Thirdly,
it provides the structure upon which the relationship
between states may be realized, not statically as isolated
factors, but in their normal process of coming into being
and passing away – demonstrating the paramount
importance of the material contained within.
Dhammasangani Commentary
– The Atthasalini:
 The Venerable Buddhagosa is the author of this
commentary work.

Vibhanga:
The Book of Analysis/Treatises
 This book continues the analysis of the Dhammasangani,
here in the form of a catechism – or through largely three
main sections: Analysis According to the Discourses;
Analysis according to the Abhidhamma; and
Interrogation.
Vibhanga:
 Analysis of the Aggregates: According to the teachings
from the Buddha – beings, in whatever plane of
existence that they reside in are not possessed of any
permanent identity, individuality, self, soul or spirit – but
are only temporary arrangements of aggregates
undergoing changes through a process of continuity. No
quality or feature is outside of the five-fold classification
of aggregates.
Vibhanga:
 Analysis of the Bases: - A base is that which is derived from
the four great essentials, but possesses the special attribute of
acting as a support, a foundation, a basis, a requisite
condition for the unique quality or element [dhatu]
characteristic of that particular grouping – and are of two
kinds: those that are imposed upon by a stimulus [six-
senses]; and the sense-bases [not the sense-organ] – just the
pure activity of where stimulation ends and the
consciousness of the stimulation begins.
Vibhanga:
 Analysis of the Elements: in connection to the
senses – an element is the support for something,
what arises as a result, and the essential nature…
 The six-elements are the elements of: extension, cohesion, heat,
motion, space and consciousness.
 Another set of six-elements, of: pleasure/pain of body, mental
pleasure/pain, indifference, and ignorance.
 Yet another set of six: desire, ill-will, cruelty, renunciation, absence of
ill-will, absence of cruelty.
 Note: above according to discourses – apart from senses
Vibhanga:
 Analysis of the Truths: Basically, a detailed analysis of
the Four Noble Truths – but stresses that suffering is a
major factor in conditioned states. Suffering is defined
as:
 Birth, aging, sorrow, lamentation, physical and mental pain
and despair, association with the disliked and separation from
the like, and death.
 Each is given a clear and individual explanation.
 Also, a clear analysis of the Eightfold Noble Path.
Vibhanga:
 Analysis of the Controlling Faculties: the ‘indriyas’
possess the nature of ruling or control.
 Indriyas rule because they are the direct path for the direct
arising of kamma:
 Masculinity, femininity, life-principle, confidence, mindfulness,
energy, concentration… for example, are all controlled by faculties –
and each can increase/decrease the affectivity of future states
 By body, speech and mind – kamma is created
Vibhanga:
 Analysis of Dependent Origination: the complete twelve-
fold system is given with a definition for each term as to
the way in which it manifests itself and as to how it is to
be applied to the course of existence of beings as a
whole. The twelve-fold system is divided into three
possible groups…
Vibhanga:
 Analysis of the Foundation of Mindfulness:
 Mindfulness of the body: know the parts, the relationships, separateness, lack of
permanence, and lack of entity, lack of beauty – not me, not mine, not-self,
impermanent and has the nature of suffering
 Mindfulness of feeling: to know at all times when there arises any feeling – bodily
or mental; painful/pleasant; changing, etc
 Mindfulness of consciousness: scrutinize the mind for traces of greed, hatred,
delusion – subjected to the three characteristics…
 Mindfulness of mental states: a close, constant and precise knowledge of the
arising and passing away of those states, those mental factors, those defilements,
doubts, fetters, bonds, ties, and so on with a continuously changing associated and
disassociated wholesome or unwholesome states of consciousness – etc…
Vibhanga:
 Analysis of Right Striving: the first actual practical steps
towards undertaking the path of ultimate
realization/liberation – stressing action:
 To make an intention, to make the effort, to arouse energy, and
to exert the mind – why?
 For the non-arising of bad-states not yet arisen
 For the abandoning of bad states which have arisen
 For the arising of good states not yet arisen
 For the maintaining, etc., of good states which have arisen
Vibhanga:
 Analysis of the Bases of Accomplishment: no state or
condition comes to be spontaneously – there is always
some other state or condition which must precede it –
this stage of gain eliminates bad and fosters good states
respectively… backed by the previous striving-intention.
Vibhanga:
 Analysis of the Enlightenment Factors: the student
makes a stronger and more secure bases of Wish,
Energy, Consciousness and Reason – by further and
more energetic practice.
 The condition of dominance develops [adhipatipaccaya]
 Seven factors are detailed in the Vibhanga
 With practical action as the cause, further states become
apparent towards advanced stages
Vibhanga:
 Analysis of the Path Constituents: [not called the
Eightfold Noble Path because the term implies
atthavidha – the impression leaving one that there are
eight branches or ways to follow.
Vibhanga:
 Analysis of Jhana: certain qualities prevent the attainment of
quality meditations: defilements [asava], fetters [samyojana], the
ties [gantha], floods [ogha], bonds [yoga], corruptions [kilesa],
attachments [upadana], latent tendencies [anusaya], and
hindrances [nivarana: sense-desires, ill-will, sloth and torpor,
distraction and remorse, and doubt]
 Jhana’s should be undertaken with a master – one that can
determine the student’s temperament.
 Note: seven hindrances are grouped into five to associate with the five
fetters
Vibhanga:
 Analysis of the Illimitables: the four brahma-viharas:
 Metta – loving-kindness/friendliness
 Karuna - compassion
 Mudita – sympathetic joy
 Upekkha – equanimity
 Each is considered separately and can be extended through

concentration – Infinitely…
 These four preclude more strenuous practices
 Vibhanga has all four brahma-viharas pervading in the four
levels of jhana.
Vibhanga:
 Analysis of the Precepts:
Vibhanga:
 Analysis of Analytical Insight: [patisambhida-vibhanga]
– four types of analytical insight:
 Analytical insight of consequence – knowledge of suffering
 Analytical insight of origin – knowledge of the cause of suffering
 Analytical insight of philology – studying, thinking and listening – to get
the meaning of what is said
 Analytical insight of knowledge
Vibhanga:
 Analysis of Knowledge: clearly demonstrates the wide
basis of special knowledge upon which the unique qualities
of a Buddha understands – as it really is: cause; resultant;
the outcome either for rise/fall; the elements conditioning all
things; disposition and qualities inherent in beings; the
nature of controlling faculties and latent tendencies; the
nature and practice of Jhana; knowledge of previous
existence; and the total destruction of defilements.
Vibhanga:
 Analysis of Small Things: an analysis of unwholesome
states of pride, greed, hatred and delusion, craving,
wrong views – slight faults… [follows a numerically
rising-sequential sets of dhammas, like the Sangīti
Sutta].
Vibhanga:
 Analysis of the Heart of the Teaching: concerns itself with a
statement, exposition, details of occurrence, properties and
analysis – concerning the most technical aspects of the
Buddha’s teachings: the aggregates, bases, elements, truths,
controlling faculties, roots, nutrients, contact, feeling,
perception, volition and consciousness.
 Deals with cosmological levels as well - starting from the
moment of conception
 …AND COVERS A SECTION OVER WHAT SHOULD BE FULLY KNOWN!

Vibhanga Commentary: the
Sammohavinodani
 Most material is said to be duplicated in the
Visuddhimagga
 Gives a great ‘more ancient/earlier’ account of
Dependent Origination than what can be found in the
Visuddhimagga.
Dhatukatha:
Discussion with Reference to the Elements
Very similar to the Vibhanga, but
in the form of questions and

answers.
Puggalapaññatti:
Description of Individuals
 Allegedly ‘out of place’ in the Abhidhamma Pitaka – contains
descriptions of personality-types.
 The only Abhidhamma text that is not written in terms of
ultimate realities.
 Defines ‘persons’ in states or stages in the sequence of
conditions/consciousnesses, etc…
Kathavatthu:
Points of Controversy
 Contains the questions and answers that were compiled by
Moggaliputta Tissa in the 3rd century BCE, in order to clarify
points of controversy that existed between the various
“Theravada” schools of Buddhism at the time.
 The text utilizes indirect logic during questioning:
 Is A, B?
 If A is B, then C is D
 If D is denied of C, then B should be denied of A
 If C is not D, then A is not B
 But sometimes there is ill-logic which is refuted also
Kathavatthu: - Points of Controversy
 Logical techniques found:
 Definitions
 Distribution of terms
 Classification
 Relations between propositions as bi-conditionals or
‘ponentials’, quantifications, and the use of logical words to
give a standard formal presentation of all the arguments, etc…
 [Please recall: the Buddha insists on the empirical
verification of his teachings – See the Anguttara-
nikaya’s Kesaputta Sutta]
Yamaka - The Book of Pairs
 This book is a logical analysis of many concepts
presented in the earlier books. It is also called the
‘Clarification of Expressions’. The Yamaka is for
advanced students who already comprehend the
Abhidhamma system – and endeavor to become
completely competnent in order to defeat or not
fail in debates against opponents.
Yamaka - The Book of Pairs
 Buddhagosa’s Introduction to the Atthasalini states
that this text is divided into ten parts:
 Roots, aggregates, sense-organs, elements, truths,
coefficients [body, speech and mind], latent biases,
consciousness, doctrine and controlling faculties.
Patthana: The Book of Relations
 The largest single volume in the Tipitaka – [over 6,000 pages
in the Thai version] [English Version – Pali Text Society, Two Volumes,
over 1000 Pages- not fully translated due to redundancies in analysis] –
describing the 24 paccayas or laws of conditionality -
through which dhammas interact. These laws when
applied variously, describe every possibility of the
dhammas described in the Dhammasangani –
demonstrating the complete knowable experience.
Patthana: The Book of Relations
 Cause [root]  Action [kamma]
 Support [object]  Result [resultant]
 Dominant [predominance]  Food [nutriment]
 Immediate [proximity]  Faculty
 Quite-immediate [conascence]  Meditation [Jhana]
 Simultaneous origin [mutuality]  The way [Path]
 Reciprocal [dependence]  Conjoined with [association]
 Dependence [strong-dependence]  Disjoined from [dissociation]
 Immediate dependence [prenascence]  Existing [presence]
 Produced before [postnascence]  Not existing [absence]
 Habit [repetition]  Without [disappearance]
 Not without [non-disappearance]
And analysis based from wholesome, unwholesome, neither, conditions, common,

classifications, enumerations, couplets, triplets, faultless, corrupt, combinations, etc…
Patthana: Conditional Relations
 Hetupaccayo  Kammapaccayo
 Arammanapaccayo  Vipakapaccayo
 Adhipatipaccayo  Aharapaccayo
 Anantarapaccayo  Indriyapaccayo
 Samanantarapaccayo  Jhanapaccayo
 Sahajatapaccayo  Maggapaccayo
 Annamannapaccayo  Sampayuttapaccayo
 Nissayapaccayo  Vippayuttapaccayo
 Upanissayapaccayo  Atthipaccayo
 Purejatapaccayo  Natthipaccayo
 Pacchajatapaccayo  Vigatapaccayo
 Asevanapaccayo  Avigatapaccayo
A.K. Warder: Indian Buddhism
Montilal Banardisass – 3rd Edition/Reprint 2004
 Reciting matikas seems to be the method of learning and
disseminating the Abhidhamma in early times.
 Different schools of Buddhism developed their own
unique forms of Abhidhamma-pitakas.
A.K. Warder: Indian Buddhism
Montilal Banardisass – 3rd Edition/Reprint 2004
 Warder claims that the 37 Enlightenment factors serve as the foundation for the
Abhidhamma [p. 82] – namely [See the Mahasatipatthana Sutta for below details;
and Mahanidana Sutta for dependent origination details; and the Samyutta-nikaya for
other aspects on dependent origination]:
 Four Foundations of Mindfulness [called: ‘self-possession’]
 Four Right Efforts
All of these ‘criteria’ are in the
 Four Roads to Power
Sangiti Sutta.
 Five Spiritual Faculties
 Five Mental Powers
 Seven Enlightenment Factors
 Eightfold Noble Path [to include the Four Noble Truths]
 Why: “Monks, for this reason those matters that I have discovered and proclaimed
should be thoroughly learnt by you, practiced, developed and cultivated, so that this
holy life may endure for a long time… And now, monks, I declare to you – all
conditioned things are of a nature to decay – strive on untiringly…”
 But the Buddha gives later or additional teachings [the above is not the final
sermon!] found throughout the sutta.
Eightfold Noble Path [to include the Four Noble Truths]
The Truth of Suffering (that it exists)

The Truth of the Cause of Suffering (that suffering originates from somewhere)
The Truth of the Cessation of Suffering (suffering can cease)
The Truth of the Eightfold Noble Path leading to the Cessation of Suffering (the way out):
1) Right View
2) Right Thought |Wisdom: (Study Dhamma)-Speech
-From reflection
-From study
-From mental development/practice
3) Right Speech
4) Right Action |Morality: (Practice Vinaya) – Body/Action
5) Right Livelihood -No Killing
-No Stealing
-No Sexual misconduct
-No False speech
-No Intoxicating substances
6) Right Effort
7) Right Mindfulness |Contemplation: (Doing Meditation) – Mind
8) Right Concentration -Concentration leading to happiness
[8N] Path bears fruit as: -Concentration leading to knowledge
Ariya-puggala -Concentration leading to mindfulness
-Concentration leading to purity of mind
Lesson
Break
Analysis of the Kathavatthu:
Points of Controversy:
 Shwe Zan Aung and Mrs. Rhys Davids suggest that this is the
third text in the Abhidhamma-pitaka – a conclusion they make
after checking the sources referenced inside the text, and after
looking at several words used in certain contexts.
 I decided to lecture on this book first because it sets the
Theravada doctrine down against the beliefs of the other
schools… and the Theravada tradition can continue from here to
utilize all the texts ‘we’ have in our tradition.
 It is not relevant to this ‘scholar’ which book came first or last –
but the content, alone, signifies the importance of the texts.
Points of Controversy: [time]
 For instance: last semester I read a special lecture that I prepared
concerning Time – and had I looked into this text for deeper
answers, I could have included answers to the following
questions:
 A past object is without an object [past and future mental objects
are not actually existing, therefore mind recalling a past object is
mind without object
 Is there not adverting of mind, ideation, co-ordinated application,
attention, volition, anticipation, aim, concerning the past [or
future]?
 …and after a series of admissions: but you admit that a ‘past
object’ does not exist [at the present mind moment]? Surely then,
a mind occupied with past object is occupied with a non-existent
object
Point: Duration [addhā] is predetermined...
 [Commentary answer]: The argument seeks to show that no
interval whatever is predetermined, except as mere time-notion.
But matter, etc., when meaning the five aggregates (bodily and
mental) is predetermined.
 …Because the Buddha stated in the Anguttara-nikaya: One may
talk about past time: this was in times past; Or about future
time: Thus it will be in future times; Or about the present: Thus
is it now at present… So: duration is predetermined.
 …and momentary conscious units are impermanent and do not
endure for a single mind moment
 From the special section of notes, the translators state:
 Time is a concept by which terms of life are counted or
reckoned
 Time is that ‘passing by’ reckoned as ‘so much has passed’
[impermanence]
 Time is eventuation or happening – there being no such thing
as being exempt from events [perpetual becoming]
 Time distinctions have no objective existence of their own, and
that reality is confined to the present. The past reality has already
perished; the future reality has not yet become – Buddhist
doctrine states that reality is present. When it gives up its reality,
it gives up its presence; when it gives up its presence, it ceases to
be real.
 Humans are obscured because we have a notion of continuity
 What time is to life, space is to matter; Space, like time, is a
permanent concept or mental construction, which constitutes a
sufficing condition for the movement of bodies. It is void,
unperceivable, without objective reality.
Chapter Break
Mind
Development
Original Text by Ven. Phra Tepvisuddhikavi
Lecture by Mr. Dion Oliver Peoples

Book Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Living a Noble Life
3. Themes for Mind Development
4. Preliminaries for the Practice of Meditation
5. Development of Mindfulness of Breathing
6. Recollection on Repulsiveness of the Body
7. Cultivation of Divine Abodes of Mind
8. Psychic Experience
1. Introduction
 Brain: Cannot be equated  Mind: With a workable
with each other. The brain body but a defective brain
is an organ of the body – the mind, without a
and an instrument of the proper instrument, will not
mind. become recognizable.
The body is like a car body; the brain is the engine, and the mind is the driver. We
know that if the car body is in good condition, the engine is perfect and the driver is
there and ready to drive – the car is sure to move to the destination. But if the care is
in good condition but there is engine trouble, the car cannot move, although the driver
is there and ready. In the same way, without a driver, even though the car and engine
are perfect – the car cannot move – or if there is a defect with the driver – a crash
results. Humans are like this.
Definition of Development:
 To grow
 To increase
 To make prosperous
 To expand
 To advance
 To improve
 To enlarge
 To mature
Citta-Bhāvanā
 Citta:  Bhāvanā:
 Mind  Cultivate
 Has the nature of thinking or  Prosper
responding to stimuli  Train
 Has the nature of cetasikas –
 Practice
to be aware of what comes
from the sense-doors
 Has the nature of
diversification and
refinement
Mahasaccakasutta [about citta-bhavana]:
 How is one undeveloped in body and undeveloped in

mind? Pleasant feelings arise in an untaught ordinary
person. Touched by that pleasant feeling, he lusts after
pleasure and continues to lust after pleasure. That
pleasant feeling of his ceases. With the cessation of the
pleasant feeling, painful feeling arises. Touched by that
painful feeling, he sorrows, grieves and laments… -
because body and mind are not developed.
Mahasaccakasutta [about citta-bhavana]:
 How is one developed? Here, pleasant feeling arises…
touched by that pleasant feeling, he does not lust after
pleasure or continue to lust after pleasure – the pleasant
feeling ceases – touched by this this painful feeling, he
does not sorrow or grieve… - it does not invade the
mind. [with withdrawn body and mind – withdraw from
sensual pleasures, with sensual desires, secluded from
unwholesome states – one can enter into the first jh āna –
etc…]
Advantages of Mind Development:
1. Advantage gained in the present life:

 Enables people to be free from worldly, economic
problems – conducive to social peace
2. Advantage gained in the future life:
 Implies a progressive state in the next life – and prevents a
retrogression in ‘spiritual’ evolution - the mind gains
higher qualities
3. Advantage gained towards the highest, supramundane
levels:
 Four Stages of the Path and Fruitations – and Nibbana
Cittavagga - Dhammapada
 Restless
 Always running wild in search of the anchor on which it may rest –
pleasant sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch
 Vacillating
 Unable to remain in any condition for a long time
 Difficult to Control
 Difficult for a person to make the mind obedient to the will
 Difficult to Desist
 Difficult for a person to prevent the mind from falling into a useless or
unwanted thought
Asarīraṁ
 The mind is formless, colorless, shapeless, abstract, not
material, imperceptible through the senses, no material
instrument can take hold or measure the mind [only
behavior/reactions can be measured]
 Communication can be done through mind-to-mind
communication
 The mind can record and store kamma and kilesa – and
become trained to be a great benefit of the one
undertaking training
Guhāsayam
The mind has the body as its
cave/abode – but no special
indication as to the specific
location – although there might be
outlets, known as the sense
doors…
2. Living a Noble Life
 The life of chastity
 Leads to social peace and prosperity
 The best way to testify

 Morality, Concentration and Wisdom
 Attainable goal
 Blistful achievement
 Sediment defilements - Kilesa

 Knowable existence of defilements [crude, mild and subtle]
 Simile of a country’s development

 Self-defence, police force, development plan
Kilesa:
 Crude [Vītikkama]: the most obvious kind manifested
through words and deeds

 Subtle [Pariyutthāna]: refers to the five hindrances
 Mild [Anusaya]: the tendencies for lust/greed,
aversion, delusion/ignorance – the most difficult to

root out.
3. Themes for Mind Development
 Modern Buddhist texts largely mention:
 Samatha Kammatthana/Samatha Bhavana
 [Samatha: can be used negatively: through ‘Black Magic’ – to hurt or kill people –
never recommended by the Buddha because it is conducive to disaster and
destruction.]
 [Samatha: can be used positively: through ‘White Magic’ – constructively assist
others from disaster or danger by stilling the mind and the abolition of spiritual
pollutions.]
 Vipassana Kammatthana/Vipassana Bhavana
 Ancient Buddhist scriptures additionally mention:

 Jhana meditations
Levels of Meditation:
 Upacāra: to approach the attainment level
 Appanā: Attainment meditation – beyond the distractive
power of the five hindrances
 An ‘aspirant’ is free to choose any of the 40 types of

meditation agreeable to one’s disposition – but in
Thailand, ‘mindfulness on breathing’ is the most popular
meditation theme
Inclinations or Dispositions:
1. Rāgacarita – bent on lust for sights, sounds…
2. Dosacarita – bent on anger – flying into rage at the least
provocation
3. Mohacarita – bent on delusion – being gullible
4. Saddhācarita – bent on faith – being highly receptive
5. Buddhicarita – being highly intellectual – endowed with
discretion and self-importance
6. Vitakkacarita – is discursive or worries
The Five Hindrances:
 Sensual Lust or Delight

 Hatred or Anger
 Torpor and Drowsiness
 Distraction and Irritation
 Doubt or Hesitation
4. Preliminaries for Meditation
Causes of concern that inhibit meditation attainments – these

are lesser in importance to meditation attainments:
 A dwelling place  Traveling

 Family  Relatives
 Gains  Illness
 Society  Education
 Work  Power
5. Development of Mindfulness of Breathing
 The most widely practiced theme in Thailand
 The mind must have an anchor – one of the forty-
themes for the mind to hold onto in the present moment
during actual practice
 Jhana-levels – factors of Jhana:
 Initiated Thought [counteracts drowsiness]
 Sustained Thought [counteracts doubt]
 Ecstasy [counteracts hatred]
 Bliss [counteracts distraction]
 Equanimity [counteracts sensual delight]
Jhana Fluency or Experience:
 Fluency in Thinking
 Can direct the mind at will
 Fluency in Entering
 Can withdraw the mind at will
 Fluency in Dwelling or Preserving
 Can make a decision to dwell at will for any duration
 Fluency in Emerging
 Can withdraw the mind from lofty conditions at will
 Fluency in Contemplating
 Has the ability to survey the existence of jhana-levels at any
moment
6. Recollection on Repulsiveness of the Body
 Group of breaths
 Group of postures
 Group of self-possession in four postures
 Group of repulsiveness
 Group of the four elements
 Groups of corpses
7. Cultivation of Divine Abodes of Mind
 Brahma-viharas:
 Loving-kindness – the wish to see others happy
[meditatively extend to all]
 Compassion – the wish to help others out of misery
[characteristic of great people]
 Sympathy – the capacity for understanding and
appreciating or sharing the happiness of others [ an act of
merit]
 Equanimity – the feeling of an understanding calmness of
mind – when the previous three are inappropriate [a virtue
of perfection]
8. Psychic Experience
 Nimittas – signs or visions:
 Inner Vision: created by one’s own mind
 Outer Vision: by those who have cultivated clairvoyant powers or
minds that are profoundly tranquil – bringing celestial realms into
view
 Yugaladhamma [Pairs]:
• Tranquility of the body and mind
• Lightness of the body and mind
• Suppleness of the body and mind
• Maneuverability of the body and mind
• Agility of the body and mind
• Straightness of the body and mind
Abhinna – Psychic Powers:
Direct Knowledge - after emerging from jhana and averting to
the resolution from preliminary work, thus:
 Psychic feats
 Clairaudience
 Telepathy or mind-reading
 Recollection of former lives
 Clairvoyance
 Knowledge of the destruction of the taints from insight
Chapter Break
Patisambhidamagga – The Path of
Discrimination [Comprehension]:
 …because the text was originally ‘Abhidhamma’ [p. xl] – I examine it!
 The introduction states that the term ‘patisambhida’ does not
appear in the Digha, Majjhima, Samyutta nikayas… but
appears several times in the Anguttara Nikaya – and appears in
the Abhidhamma and other later texts.
 Believed to be attributed to the Venerable Sariputta – under the
concept that if the Buddha went into a retreat somewhere, he
might have produced this sort of text.
The Path of Discrimination
 The discriminations are:
 Attha – meanings
 Vyanjana – expressions
 Dhamma – principles/ideas [hetu: causes]
 Nirutti – language
 Pubbāpara – context
 Mahāniddesa states: possessing intuition: three kinds – in
learning [simply], in inquiry [into meanings, definitions,
causes, etc], and in acquisition [the 37 Enlightenment
Factors, etc.]
 The Parivāra states that a monk should not be elected to a
committee if he is not skilled in:
 Meanings, Principles. Language, Context
 The Patisambhidāmagga: tries to show exactly how

understanding takes place in a practical sense, not simply in
theory – although the theory is importantly necessary for the
development of insight.
 Fundamentally: Theravada doctrine states that there is really
only two categorially laws: reality [dhammas and nibbana] and
concepts [words]. Dhammas are only momentarily real [p. xviii].
 Teaches: the five aggregates have the three
characteristics
 The introduction states that the Dasuttara Sutta of the

Digha-nikaya serves as the starting point for the
Patisambhidāmagga: [see my chart to discuss this point]
 Intro suggests to see the Potthapada Sutta – where a leading wander states: “…
the ascetic Gotama teaches a true and real way of practice which is consonant
with Dhamma and grounded in Dhamma. And why should not a man… express
approval of such true and real practice, so well taught by the ascetic Gotama.”
Key statements from the Potthapada Sutta:
 One’s perceptions arise and cease owing to a cause and conditions. Some
perceptions arise through training, and some pass away through [moral]
training.
 Whenever the gross acquired self is present, we do not at that time speak
of a mind-made acquired self, we do not speak of a formless acquired
self. We speak only of a gross acquired self [this very one that you can
see!].
 Citta states: “My past acquired self was at the time, my only true one, the
future and present ones were false. My future acquired self will then be
the only true one, the past and present ones were false. My present
acquired self is not the only true one, the past and future ones are false.
[other self’s: mind-made acquired self/formless acquired self]
 [p. xxiii-xxiv] - The Patisambhidāmagga as the Sastra
[textbook] of Theravāda:
 Composed during the period of the great schisms, and is a
positive counterpart to the Kathavātthu. Whereas the Points
of Controversy refute the doctrines of others, the Path of
Discrimination illustrates the accepted Theravada Doctrine.
 A student of Theravada doctrine and the Visuddhimagga may
not notice anything controversial – being practical and
straightforwardly outlining the truths of Buddhism.
 Impermanence, or the momentariness, of all dhammas
is one of the main themes of the text – again, stressing
impermanence and emptiness.
Chapter
Break
ABHIDHAMMATTHA SANGAHA:
Kammatthanasangahavibhaga
 Everyone needs a field of action or a workplace to
perform or attain
 For a Buddhist ‘yogi’ there are two recognized

systems of meditation: calm and insight
 Samatha is rendered as the single-pointedness of
the mind – through eight meditative attainments:
 The four fine-material-sphere jhanas
 The four immaterial-sphere-jhanas
 Mental instability comes to an end through these

attainments
 Vipassana assists in seeing diverse ways or different
perceptions of phenomena – THE THREE
CHARACTERISTICS:
 Anicca: the rise and fall of change
 Dukkha: continually oppressed by rise and fall
 Anatta: one cannot exercise complete control over the
phenomena of mind and matter
 It is a function of the mental-factor [cetasika] of wisdom

directed to uncover the true nature of things or
phenomena
1. Rāgacarita and Saddhācarita are paired
[lustful/faithful]
2. Dosacarita and Buddhicarita are paired
[hateful/intellectual]
3. Mohacarita and Vitakkacarita are paired
[deluded/discursive]
1. Rāgacarita: ten kinds of foulness and mindfulness of the body – the 32 parts
2. Saddhācarita – six recollections of the Buddha, etc…
3. Dosacarita – the brahma-viharas and color-kasinas
4. Buddhicarita – death, peace, loathsomeness of food, and four elements
5. Mohacarita – mindfulness of breath, large space
6. Vitakkacarita – mindfulness of breath, small space

 ALL TYPES: element-kasinas, space, light, immaterial-spheres
 Stages of mental development:
 Preliminary development – from the time the meditation is taken up
until the five hindrances are suppressed and a countersign emerges –
attainable in the 40 types of mediation
 Access Development – from the suppression of the five hindrances and
the emergence of the countersign until the change-of-lineage citta in
the cognitive process leading to jhana – for access: recollections,
perception of food, four elements
 Absorption Development – occurs at the level of the fine-material-
sphere jhanas or the immaterial-sphere jhanas
 Nimittas – Signs:
 Preliminary Sign – the original object of concentration – found in
relation to every subject
 Learning Sign – mental replica of the object perceived in the
mind as it appears to the physical eye – found in relation to every
subject
 Counterpart Sign – purified from defects and is hundreds of times
more brilliant – as the moon emerges from the nighttime clouds
[as a concept] – found only in the kasinas, foulness, parts of the
body, and mindfulness of breathing
 Attainment of Jhana:
 After access development is accomplished – from
concentration on the sense-sphere in which obstacles are
abandoned and the counterpart sign is cultivated then one can
enter into the first jhana
 One may master the first jhana through five kinds of mastery:
 Adverting, attainment, resolution, emergence and reviewing –

and then from striving to abandon the successive gross jhana
factors [initial application] then sustained application, etc – in
accordance to one’s ability and desire/wish
Plane Realm
30. Nothingness 31. Neither Perception nor Non-perception

4 Immaterial Sphere Planes
28. Infinite Space 29. Infinite Consciousness
27. Highest/Peerless Pure Abode
25. Clearly Visible/Beautiful Pure Abode 26. Clear-sighted Pure Abode

5th Jhana Plane
[23-27 are Pure
Abodes] 24. Unworried/Serene Pure Abode 23. Aviha/Durable Pure Abode
16 Fine- 21. Great Reward 22. Unconscious/Non-percipient Realm

material
Sphere Planes th 20. Steady Aura
4 Jhana Plane
18. Minor Aura 19. Infinite Aura
2nd & 3rd Jhana 17. Radiant Luster

Planes 15. Minor Luster 16. Infinite Luster
14. Maha Brahma
1 Jhana Plane
st
12. Brahma’s Retinue 13. Brahma’s Ministers
11. Paranimmitavasavatti – Controlling Creations
Sensuous-Blissful 9. Tusita – Delightful Realm of Bodhisatta 10. Nimmanarati – Gods with Creation Power
Plane
[rebirth here due to
11 Sense- generosity] 8. Yama – Realm of Great Happiness 7. Tavatimsa – Realm of 33 Gods [Indra]
 [MN24 – The Relay of the Chariots] - Seven
Stages of Purification:
 Of virtue [sila] [mundane]
 Of mind [samadhi] [mundane]
 Of view [panna] [mundane]
 By overcoming doubt [panna] [mundane]
 By knowledge and vision of path and not path [panna] [mundane]
 By knowledge and vision of the way [panna] [mundane]
---[change of lineage]---
 By knowledge and vision [panna] [supramundane]
 Virtue For Monks - Analysis of Purification:
 Restraint through the Patimokkha/precepts
 Restraint through the sense-faculties/doors
 Purity in terms of livelihood
 Purity in connection to the four requisites
 Lay people can adopt these practices as well!

 Purification of the mind – after the ten impediments -
[dwellings, family, gain, a class, building, a journey, relatives,
illness, books, supernormal powers] [and five hindrances]:
 Samathayānika: attains access concentration or higher jhanas
then develops or applies the three characteristics to mentality-
materiality – to purify the mind
 Vipassanāyānika: purifies the mind through morality and the
personal momentary mentality-materiality process in the
immediate present moment – for mental stabilization/purification
 Purification of view:
 Discerning mind and matter in respect to the three
characteristics, functions, manifestations, and proximate
causes – need to eradicate sakkāyaditthi: 20 personality
forms; and sixteen kinds of knowledge
 Purifications of doubt:
 Through applying dependent origination through the three
time periods to understand the current mind-and-matter
compound – that it has not arisen from chance, a soul, a
creator god, etc. – but has arisen from previous ignorance,
craving, clinging and kamma.
 Purifications of doubt:
 Through applying dependent origination through the three
time periods to understand the current mind-and-matter
compound – that it has not arisen from chance, a soul, a
creator god, etc. – but has arisen from previous ignorance,
craving, clinging and kamma.
 Understanding:
 Cycle of defilements: ignorance, craving, speculative views, grasping
 Cycle of action: wholesome/unwholesome mass of action
 Cycle of results: pleasant/unpleasant results of those actions
 Purification of what is Path and Not-Path:
 Collected into groups: demonstrates preparation knowledge of comprehension –
the exploration of mentality-materiality with the three characteristics/times, etc…
 Knowledge by comprehension: three characteristics/times to the five aggregates
 By way of extended durations, continuity and moments – until one recognizes the
three characteristics
 Knowledge of rise [generation, production, arising] and fall [change,
destruction, dissolution] – by ways of conditions
 Ten imperfections of insight: illumination, zest/delight, tranquility/calm,
happiness/bliss, increase in resolution/faith, exertion/energy, knowledge,
awareness/assurance, equanimity, subtle attachment
 Path and Not-Path: misconceptions can arise as to the supramundane paths and
fruits – drops insight to delight in the experience, unaware of this clinging –
rather than maturing insight with the three characteristics
 Purification of the Way [nine insight knowledges]:
1. Knowledge of rise and fall
2. Knowledge of dissolution
3. Knowledge of fearful
4. Knowledge of danger
5. Knowledge of disenchantment
6. Knowledge of desire for deliverance
7. Knowledge of reflective contemplation
8. Knowledge of equanimity towards formations
9. Knowledge of conformity
 Purification by knowledge and vision of the way:
 Knowledge of contemplation of arising and passing away
 Knowledge of contemplation of dissolution
 Knowledge of appearance of terror
 Knowledge of contemplation of danger
 Knowledge of contemplation of disenchantment
 Knowledge of desire for deliverance
 Knowledge of contemplation of reflection
 Knowledge of equanimity about formations
 * and knowledge in conformity with truth or conformity
knowledge
 Purification by knowledge and vision:
 Full understanding as the known
 Full understanding as investigating
 Full understanding as abandoning
 Mind-door adverting
 Insight leading to emergence
 Change of lineage consciousness
 The Paths/Fruits
 Reviewing knowledge
 ANALYSIS of EMANCIPATION [Vimokkhabheda]:
1. The contemplation of not-self, which discards the clinging to a self, becomes
the door to emancipation termed contemplation of the void – by one with
wisdom faculties [sees formations as void]
2. The contemplation of impermanence, which discards the sign of perversion,
becomes the door to emancipation termed contemplation of the signless - by
one with faith faculties [abandons deceptive appearances]
3. The contemplation of suffering, which discards desire through craving,
becomes the door to emancipation termed contemplation of the desireless –
by one with concentration facilities [abandons false perceptions of pleasure]
CHAPTER
BREAK
Paccayasangahavibhāga
[Compendium of Conditionality]
 Conditioned states are phenomena that arise in

dependence on conditions: cittas, cetasikas, and
material phenomena [except for kamma, consciousness,
temperature, nutriment].
 There is the method of dependent arising [paticcasamuppada]
 There is the method of conditional relations as found in the
Patthana as part of the Abhidhamma. [see Visuddhimagga
XVII]
[Visuddhimagga XVII]:
 pages 525-604: The Soil of Understanding –
PANNABHUMINIDDESA...
 Dependent Origination:
 1…
 2…
 3…
 4…
 5…
 6…
 7…
 8…
 9…
 10…
 11…
 12…
[Visuddhimagga XVII]:
…consequently, it should be understood that dependent
origination has the characteristics of being conditions for the
states beginning with aging and death. Its function is to continue
the process of suffering. It is manifested as the wrong path.
 SEE THE NEXT Presentation:

Here is a combination of all the versions I have seen:
1. Ignorance/Delusion/Kammic Forces
2. Five Aggregates/Six-Senses
3. Craving (for six-sense pleasures, existence, non-existence)
4. Clinging (to sensuality, views, rules/rituals, ego-belief)
5. Discipline/Faith/Non-Remorse
6. Happiness/Joy
7. Tranquility/Concentration
8. Dispassion/Disenchantment/Repulsion
9. Becoming/Existence/Birth
10. Aging, Decay, Destruction, Death
11. Correct Knowledge/Destruction & Vision of Deliverance through non-
clinging
 Dependent Arising/Origination:
1. Dependent on ignorance arise kammic formations
2. Dependent on kammic formations arises consciousness
3. Dependent on consciousness arises mind-and-matter
4. Dependent on mind-and-matter arise the six-senses
5. Dependent on the six-senses arise contact
6. Dependent on contact arises feeling
7. Dependent on feeling arises craving
8. Dependent on craving arises clinging
9. Dependent on clinging arises existence
10. Dependent on existence arises birth
11. Dependent on birth arise decay-and-death, sorrow, pain, etc…
 Thus arises this whole mass of suffering
Dependent on ignorance arise kammic formations
 Because of ignorance (avijja) – defined as non-knowledge of

the Four Noble Truths – a person engages in volitional actions
or kamma, which may be bodily, verbal, or mental – either
wholesome or unwholesome.
 No single cause can produce an effect, nor does only one effect
arise from a given cause
 Ignorance is the cetasika: delusion – obscuring perceptions of
the true nature of things
 Ignorance is non-knowledge of the Four Noble Truths, pre-
natal past, post-mortem future, the past and future together, and
dependent arising.
Dependent on kammic formations arises consciousness
 a person engages in volitional actions or kamma, which may be bodily,

verbal, or mental – either wholesome or unwholesome. These kammic
actions are the formations (sankara), and they ripen in states of
consciousness (vinnana) – first as the rebirth consciousness at the
moment of conception and thereafter as the passive states of
consciousness resulting from kamma that matures in the course of one’s
lifetime.
 Kammic formations are the twenty-nine volitions associated with
mundane wholesome and unwholesome cittas – and these are the
conditions for the arising of thirty-two kinds of resultant consciousness
Dependent on consciousness arises mind-and-matter
 of thirty-two kinds of resultant consciousness, which stimulate

the five aggregates of mind and matter, feeling, perception, and
mental formations and consciousness.
 Along with consciousness there arises mentality-materiality
(nama-rupa), the psycho-physical organism, which is equipped
with the six-fold base (salayatana)
 Here, often associations are made to previous lives: name
denoting cetasikas associated with resultant consciousness;
matter denoting material phenomena produced by kamma –
both are found in realms where the five aggregates collect
together
Dependent on mind-and-matter arise the six-
senses
 Mind and matter is dependent on consciousness,
which contributes to the six-sense bases: eye, ear, nose,
tongue, body, and mind…
 Along with consciousness there arises mentality-
materiality (nama-rupa), the psycho-physical
organism, which is equipped with the six-fold base
(salayatana), the five physical sense faculties and the
mind as the faculty of the higher cognitive functions.
Dependent on the six-senses arise contact
 Contact is the reception from the six-senses. Contact is

determined to the coming together of consciousness and
mental factors with an object at one or another of the
six-senses.
 Via the sense faculties, contact (phassa) takes place
between consciousness and its object, and contact
conditions feelings (vedana).
Dependent on contact arises feeling
 Feelings arise from the contact with the stimulus. These
feelings may be: pleasurable, painful, or neutral.
 The links from consciousness through feeling are the
products of past kamma, of the causal phase represented
by ignorance and formations. With the next link, the
kammically active phase of the present life begins,
productive of a new existence in the future. Conditioned
by feeling, craving (tanha) arises, this being the second
Noble Truth.
Dependent on feeling arises craving
 Cravings arise from feelings. If the feeling is
pleasurable, one wishes to hold onto that experience; but
if the feeling is painful, one wishes to be freed from the
pain. Neutral feelings can be peaceful and become an
object of craving as well.
 Conditioned by feeling, craving ( tanha) arises
Dependent on craving arises clinging
 Clinging is four-fold: clinging to sense-pleasures is an
intensive form of greed; attachment to wrong views;
clinging to rites and ceremonies; and clinging to a
doctrine of self. The arising of existence is dependent
on clinging.
 When craving intensifies, it gives rise to clinging
(upadana), through which one again engages in
volitional actions ‘pregnant’ with a renewal of existence
(bhava).
Dependent on clinging arises existence
 The arising of existence is dependent on clinging. There are two types of
existence: kammically active process of existence (kammabhava) and the
passive or resultant process of existence (upapattibhava). There are, in
an active existence, twenty-nine types of wholesome or unwholesome
types of kamma leading to a new existence. The new existence thirty-
two kinds of consciousness and mental factors as well as other material
phenomenon from kamma. Clinging is a condition for active existence,
because under the influence of clinging, one engages in action that is
accumulated as kamma. Clinging is a condition for resultant existence
because the same clinging leads one back into the round of rebirth, in a
state determined by one’s kamma.
 …through which one again engages in volitional actions ‘pregnant’ with
a renewal of existence (bhava). The new existence begins with birth
(jati), which inevitably leads to ageing and death (jaramarana).
Dependent on existence arises birth
 Birth arises from existence, from consciousness, mental
factors and kamma. Once there is birth, there is the
resultant effect of aging, decay, or death.
 The new existence begins with birth ( jati), which
inevitably leads to ageing and death (jaramarana).
Dependent on birth arise decay-and-death, sorrow,
pain, etc…
 This teaching of dependent origination also shows how the
round of existence can be broken: with the arising of true
knowledge, full penetration of the Four Noble Truths,
ignorance is eradicated. Consequently, the mind no longer
indulges in craving and clinging; action loses its potential to
generate rebirth, and deprived of its fuel, the round comes to
an end. This is the third Noble Truth – the cessation of
suffering.
 Suffering arises between birth and death. All suffering is
rooted in birth. The whole mass of suffering arises from the
interdependent conditioning and conditioned states.
More from the Visuddhimagga:
1. Greedy
Temprements
2. Faithful
3. Hating
4. Intelligent
5. Deluded
6. Speculative
 Some say others based on combinations of factors –
really just six, based on personal nature
How is the person’s temperament to be known?
Temperaments are recognized through:
 The walking, sitting and sleeping postures
 The action performed
 The consumption of food-types and eating methods
 The way of seeing/determining an object
 The kinds of states occurring, such as: deceit, fraud, pride,
evilness of wishes, greatness of wishes, discontent, vanity; anger,
enmity, disparaging, domineering, envy, avarice; stiffness, torpor,
agitation, worry, uncertainty, and holding on tenaciously with refusal
to relinquish; generosity, honesty, mindfulness, talkativeness,
boredom… etc.
 States are recognized by the penetrative mind!
Greedy – versus - Faithful
 These two are parallel, because faith is strong when
profitable kamma occurs in one of greedy
temperament, owing to its special qualities being near
to those of greed. For in an unprofitable way, greed
is affectionate and not over-austere, and so, in a
profitable way is faith. Greed seeks out sense desires
as object, while faith seeks out special qualities of
virtue… Greed does not give up what is harmful
while faith does not give up what is beneficial.
Hating – versus - Intelligent
 One of intelligent temperament is parallel to one of hating
temperament because understanding is strong when
profitable kamma occurs in one of hating temperament,
owing to its special qualities being near to those of hate.
For, in an unprofitable way, hate is disaffected and does
not hold to its object, and so, in a profitable way, is
understanding. Hate seeks out only unreal faults, while
understanding seeks out only real faults. Hate occurs in
the mode of condemning living beings, while
understanding occurs in the mode of condemning
formations.
Deluded – versus - Speculative
 One of speculative temperament is parallel to one of
deluded temperament because obstructive applied
thoughts arise often in one of deluded temperament who
is striving to arouse unarisen profitable states, owing to
their special qualities being near to those of delusion.
For just as delusion is restless owing to perplexity, so are
applied thoughts that are due to thinking over various
aspects. And just as delusion vacillates owing to
superficiality, so do applied thoughts that are due to
facile conjecturing.
Towards these inclinations:
 Non-greed: seeing fault in greed
 Non-hate: seeing fault in hate
 Non-delusion: seeing fault in delusion
 Renunciation: seeing fault in house-life
 Seclusion: seeing fault in society
 Relinquishment: seeing fault in all becomings and
destiny
Apprehend the Sign!
 You must be able to connect each aspect:
 This is the preceding cause
 This is the subsequent cause
 This is the meaning
 This is the intention
 This is the simile
 When one listens attentively, apprehending the sign in

this way, his meditation subject is well apprehended.
Then, because of that, he successfully attains
distinction…
Homework!
Analyze your methods of action
according to the text to determine your
character-type!
CHAPT
ER
Y. Karunadasa:
The Dhamma Theory
Philosophical Cornerstone of the Abhidhamma
[Lectured by Mr. Dion Oliver Peoples]

The Early Version of the Dhamma Theory
 Systemized from the death to two centuries after the Parinibbāna.

A commentarial tradition.
 Several Buddhist Schools developed their own unique
Abhidhamma-pitaka, but few survived.
 All phenomena of empirical existence are made up of a number
of elementary constituents, the ultimate realities behind the
manifest phenomena – called dhammas.
 The theory arose to make sense of meditative insights – with the
goal to see bare phenomena [suddhadhammā] – and then to relate
this experience to the common understanding.
On The Dhamma Theory:
 “…maintains that ultimate reality consists of a
multiplicity of elementary constituents called dhammas.
The dhammas are not noumena hidden behind
phenomena, not ‘things in themselves’ as opposed to
‘mere appearances’, but the fundamental components of
actuality. The dhammas fall into two broad classes: the
unconditioned dhamma, which is solely Nibbana, and the
conditioned dhammas, which are the momentary mental
and material phenomena that constitute the process of
experience….
On The Dhamma Theory, continued:
 …The familiar world of substantial objects and enduring
persons is, according to the dhamma theory, a conceptual
construct fashioned by the mind out of raw data provided
by the dhammas. The entities of our everyday frame of
reference possess merely a consensual reality derivative
upon the foundational stratum of the dhammas. It is the
dhammas alone that possess ultimate reality: determinate
existence ‘from their own side’ (sarūpato) independent
of the mind’s conceptual processing of the data.” {Bodhi,
AS, p. 3}
Bhikkhu Bodhi suggests:
 …to attain the wisdom that knows things ‘as they really
are’, a distinction must be made between those types of
entities that possess ontological [the branch of metaphysics that
studies the nature of existence] ultimacy, that is, the dhammas
and those types of entities that exist only as conceptual
constructs but are mistakenly grasped as ultimately real.
…On the basis of definitions found in the Suttas, the
dhamma-theory exhaustively classifies the dhammas into a
net of predetermined categories and modes of
relatedness… {Bodhi, AS, p. 4}
Bhikkhu Bodhi further suggests:
 Classical Western science proceeds from the standpoint of a neutral observer
looking outwards towards the external world. The primary concern of the
Abhidhamma is to: Understand the nature of experience, and thus the reality on
which it focuses is conscious reality, the world as given in experience, comprising
both knowledge and the known in the widest sense. For the above reason, the
philosophical enterprise of the Abhidhamma shades off into a phenomenological
psychology. To facilitate the understanding of experienced reality, the
Abhidhamma embarks upon an elaborate analysis of the mind as it presents itself
to introspective meditation. It classifies consciousness into a variety of types,
specifies the factors and functions of each type, correlates them with their objects
and physiological bases, and shows how the different types of consciousness link
up with each other and with material phenomena to constitute the ongoing
process of experience. -- Aimed to eliminate suffering! {Bodhi, AS, p. 4}
Ontological Survey:
 The ontological survey of dhammas stems from the Buddha’s
injunction that the noble truth of suffering, identified with the
world of conditioned phenomena as a whole, must be fully
understood. The prominence of mental defilements and
requisites of enlightenment in its schemes and categories,
indicative of its psychological and ethical concerns, connects the
Abhidhamma to the second and fourth noble truths, the origin of
suffering and the way leading to its end. The entire taxonomy of
dhammas elaborated by the system reaches it consummation in
the ‘unconditioned element’, which is Nibbana – the third noble
truth, that of the cessation of suffering. {Bodhi, AS, p. 5}
Five Versions of Analysis:
Each analysis ‘set’ is a lesser subset in the following set
[thus related]:
 Analysis into nāma and rūpa
 Analysis into the five aggregates
 Analysis into the six dhātus [elements]
 Analysis into the twelve āyatanas [avenues of sense-perception
and mental cognition
 Analysis into the eighteen dhātus
…allowing for further analysis of the experienced world

 The Abhidhamma resorts to two complementary methods of
bringing out the nature of dhammas:
 That of analysis [bheda]: this method is found in the
Dhammasangani
 That of synthesis [sangaha]: this method is found in the
Patthana
 Combining these two methods into the whole
methodological processes of the Abhidhamma demonstrate
the need to describe something and the relationship with
other things…
 …Plurality is an important factor to demonstrate
interconnectedness that no concept dwells in isolation – it is
only necessary to isolate terms for clearly defining
descriptions.
CHAPTER
BREAK
Abhi [Higher] -Dhammas:
 Aggregates
 Bases
 Elements
 Truths
 Controlling faculties
 Roots
 Nutrients
 Contact
 Feeling
 Perception
 Volition
 Consciousness
Five Aggregates
 The Aggregate of Material Quality
 The Aggregate of Feeling
 The Aggregate of Perception
 The Aggregate of Mental Concomitants
[occurring along with something else]
 The Aggregate of Consciousness

Rupa – All Form is that which is:
 Not root condition  Not applied but only sustained thinking
 Not the related to a root condition  Neither applied nor sustained thinking
 Disconnected with root-condition  Not accompanied by zest
 Causally related  Not accompanied by ease
 Conditioned  Not accompanied by indifference
 Endowed with form  Not something capable of being got rid of either by insight or by
 Mundane cultivation
 Co-intoxicant  Not that the cause of which may be got rid of either by insight or
 Of the fetters cultivation
 Of the ties
 Neither tending to, nor away from, the accumulation involving rebirth
 Of the floods
 Belonging neither to studentship nor to that which is beyond studentship
 Of the bonds
 Of small account
 Of the hindrances
 Related to the universe of sense
 Infected
 Not related to the universe of form
 Nor to that of the formless
 Of the graspings
 Belonging to the vices
 Included/not of the un-included [mental consciousness]
 Not something entailing fixed retribution
 Indeterminate
 Void of mental objects
 Unavailing for ethical guidance
 Not a mental property
 Apparent
 Disconnected with thought
 Cognizable by the six modes of cognition
 Neither moral result nor productive of it
 Impermanent
 Subject to decay
 Not vicious yet belonging to the vices
 Not applied and sustained thinking
With sense ‘contact’:
There is:
Feeling
Perception
Volition
Cognition
Twelve Bases
 Eye base  Visible base
 Ear base  Audible base
 Nose base  Odorous base
 Tongue base  Sapid base
 Body base  Tangible base
 Mind base  Ideational base
Eighteen Elements
Eye element Visible element Eye-consciousness-
element
Ear element Audible element Ear-consciousness-
element
Nose element Odorous element
Nose-consciousness-
element
Tongue element Sapid element
Tongue-consciousness-
element
Body element Tangible element
Body-consciousness-
Mind element Ideational element element
Mind-consciousness-
element
The Four Truths
The truth of suffering
The truth of the cause
The truth of cessation
The truth of the path
Twenty-two controlling faculties
 Eye  Mental pleasure
 Ear  Mental pain
 Nose  Indifference
 Tongue  Confidence
 Body  Energy
 Mind  Mindfulness
 Femininity  Concentration
 Masculinity  Wisdom
 Vital principle  Initial Enlightenment
 Physical pleasure  Intermediate Enlightenment
 Physical pain  Final Enlightenment
Nine Roots
 Three good roots, three bad roots and
three neither-good-nor-bad roots
Good: absence of greed, hatred and dullness
Bad: greed, hatred, dullness
Indeterminate: the absence of greed, hatred,
dullness in the resultants of good states and in
inoperative indeterminable states.
Four Nutrients:
Nutriment factors of:
Food
Contact
Kamma/volition
Consciousness
Seven types of
Contact/Feeling/Perception/
Volition/Consciousness:
 Eye Contact
 Ear Contact
 Nose Contact
 Tongue Contact
 Body Contact
 Mind –Element Contact
 Mind-Consciousness-Element Contact
Other interesting Dhammas from the
Vibhanga:
 Three types of Devas:
 Conventional Devas:
 Kings, queens, and their children
 Devas by Birth:
 Commencing with Catumaharajika Devas
 Devas by Purification:
 Noble Ones
 Having given offerings, practiced morality, taken upon eight-precepts ,

where are beings born? ...into the company of those with great wealth... {p.
540}
This Concludes the
Section to be Fully
Known
Thank You!

2007 Abhidhamma Course

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Abhidhamma

By: Mr. Dion Oliver Peoples, M.A.

 Physicists at UC Riverside have created molecular positronium, an entirely

 Earth: geology, geography…

 They examine the fundamental elements

By: Mr. Dion Peoples, M.A.

in physics can assist in comprehending

 Time, Conditions, Occurrences – causal relations…

• The scholar should investigate whether the Tipitaka provides the

2 Sangha Truth One thing endured Requires an explanation

Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi obtained his PhD in philosophy from

 What is known as Abhidhamma is not

Conventional and ultimate realities [NOT EXPLICITLY FOUND IN SANGITI SUTTA]

Fourfold Ultimate Reality: consciousness, mental factors, matter, Nibbāna

Rooted in greed, hatred or delusion; or Rootless [from senses]

Jhāna’s and Noble Attainments

Mental Factors Mental Factors

Miscellaneous Feelings, roots, functions, doors, objects, bases

Process-Freed Planes of existence, rebirth-linking, kamma, advent of death [mental-cosmology]

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarvastivada - – accessed on 7 October 2550/2007]

 Rupa: to be deformed; knocked about; oppressed; broken – matter is

 And another group known as the suttanta-dukamatika: forty-two

 Largely accompanied by numerous footnotes in the Pali

 The Dhammas are largely classified under the following

 Each is considered separately and can be extended through

 …AND COVERS A SECTION OVER WHAT SHOULD BE FULLY KNOWN!

Very similar to the Vibhanga, but

in the form of questions and

 The only Abhidhamma text that is not written in terms of

 Defines ‘persons’ in states or stages in the sequence of

And analysis based from wholesome, unwholesome, neither, conditions, common,

The Truth of Suffering (that it exists)

Lecture by Mr. Dion Oliver Peoples

 How is one undeveloped in body and undeveloped in

1. Advantage gained in the present life:

 The best way to testify

 Sediment defilements - Kilesa

 Simile of a country’s development

through words and deeds

 Mild [Anusaya]: the tendencies for lust/greed,

aversion, delusion/ignorance – the most difficult to

 Ancient Buddhist scriptures additionally mention:

 An ‘aspirant’ is free to choose any of the 40 types of

 Sensual Lust or Delight

Causes of concern that inhibit meditation attainments – these

 A dwelling place  Traveling

 Group of self-possession in four postures

 Group of the four elements

 The Patisambhidāmagga: tries to show exactly how

 The introduction states that the Dasuttara Sutta of the

 For a Buddhist ‘yogi’ there are two recognized

 Mental instability comes to an end through these

 It is a function of the mental-factor [cetasika] of wisdom

2. Saddhācarita – six recollections of the Buddha, etc…

3. Dosacarita – the brahma-viharas and color-kasinas

4. Buddhicarita – death, peace, loathsomeness of food, and four elements

5. Mohacarita – mindfulness of breath, large space

6. Vitakkacarita – mindfulness of breath, small space

 Adverting, attainment, resolution, emergence and reviewing –

30. Nothingness 31. Neither Perception nor Non-perception

27. Highest/Peerless Pure Abode

25. Clearly Visible/Beautiful Pure Abode 26. Clear-sighted Pure Abode