abhidhamma studies: buddhist explorations of consciousness & time

WISDOM

AbhidhammaStudiesbuddhist explorations

of consciousness & time

Venerable Nyanaponika TheraEdited and Introduced by Bhikkhu Bodhi

Buddhism / Philosophy / Psychology “…one of the most profound and lucid interpreters of Buddhist psychology in our time.”

—Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence

Abhidham

ma Studies

Nyanaponika T

hera

Wisdom Publications • Bostonwww.wisdompubs.org

“Delightful and thought-provoking…. Essential reading for any serious student ofBuddhism. Additionally, it will appeal to those interested in a wide variety of phenom-enological and ontological issues…. I heartily recommend reading it from cover tocover.”—Douglas W. Shrader, SUNY Oneonta, in Philosophy East and West

“I am greatly honored to welcome this new English edition of Nyanaponika Thera’s bril-liant work, rendered even more valuable by the addition of an instructive and lucidintroduction by Bhikkhu Bodhi.”—Professor P.S. Jaini, UC Berkeley, Buddhist studies

“A learned and carefully reasoned inquiry into the workings of the mind from aBuddhist perspective.... A challenging yet important work.”—Religious Studies Review

“Groundbreaking…innovative and rich in insights…valued and informative contribu-tion to Buddhist studies.”—Wisconsin Bookwatch

Produced with Environmental Mindfulness

The Abhidhamma expounds a revolutionary system of philosophical psychol-ogy rooted in the twin Buddhist insights of selflessness and dependent origi-nation. This system organizes the entire spectrum of human consciousness,

mapping with remarkable rigor and precision the inner landscape of the mind to becrossed through the practical work of Buddhist meditation. In this groundbreakingbook, Venerable Nyanaponika Thera penetrates the formidable face of theAbhidhamma and makes its principles thoroughly intelligible. Basing his approachon the detailed list of mental factors that the Abhidhamma uses as a guide topsychological analysis, he explores conditionality, the nature of consciousness, thetemporality of experience, and the psycho logical underpinnings of spiritual trans-formation. Innovative and rich in insights, this book demonstrates the continuingrelevance of Buddhist thought to our most astute contemporary efforts to under-stand the elusive yet intimate nature of the mind.

NYANAPONIKA THERA, a German-born Buddhist monk, was a scholar, translator, andfounder of the Buddhist Publication Society in Sri Lanka. He passed away in 1994 at theage of 93.

BHIKKHU BODHI is currently the president and editor of the Buddhist PublicationSociety. His other published works include The Middle-Length Discourses of the Buddha,The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, and In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology ofDiscourses from the P›li Canon.

Abhidhamma cover 2010_Abhidhamma cover 2002 9/28/12 4:03 PM

A Note from the Publisher

We hope you will enjoy this Wisdom book. For your conven-ience, this digital edition is delivered to you without “digitalrights management” (DRM). This makes it easier for you touse across a variety of digital platforms, as well as preserve inyour personal library for future device migration.

Our nonprofit mission is to develop and deliver to you the veryhighest quality books on Buddhism and mindful living. Wehope this book will be of benefit to you, and we sincerely appre-ciate your support of the author and Wisdom with your pur-chase. If you’d like to consider additional support of ourmission, please visit our website at wisdompubs.org.

Acquired at wisdompubs.org

http://www.wisdompubs.org



Abhidhamma Studies



This page intentionally left blank



AbhidhammaStudiesbuddhist explorations

of consciousness & time

Venerable Nyanaponika Thera

Edited and introduced by Bhikkhu Bodhi

Wisdom Publications • Bostonin collaboration with the

Buddhist Publication SocietyKandy • Sri Lanka



Wisdom Publications199 Elm StreetSomerville, Massachusetts 02144 USAwww.wisdompubs.org

© Buddhist Publication Society 1965, 1998 First edition 1949 (Frewin & Co. Ltd., Colombo)Second edition, revised and enlarged 1965 (BPS)Third edition 1976, 1985 (BPS)Fourth revised and enlarged 1998 (Wisdom)Fifth edition 2010All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,including photography, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system or technologiesnow known or later developed, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataNyanaponika, Thera, 1901–1994

Abhidhamma studies : Buddhist explorations of consciousness and time / Nyanaponika Thera ; edited with an introduction by Bhikkhu Bodhi.

p. cm.Originally published: Colombo : Frewin, 1949.Includes bibliographical references.ISBN 0-86171-135-1 (alk. paper)1. Abhidharma. 2. Tipi˛aka. Abhidhammapi˛aka. Dhammasaºga˚i—

Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title.BQ4195.N92 1998294.3’824—dc21 97-38780

ISBN 978-0-86171-135-2

5 14 13 12 118 7 6 5 4

Cover design by TL. Interior design by Adie Russell. Set in Diacritical Garamond 12/14.75.

Wisdom Publications’ books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for the perma-nence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Councilon Library Resources.

Printed in the United States of America.

This book was produced with environmental mindfulness. We have elected to print this titleon 30% PCW recycled paper. As a result, we have saved the following resources: 4 trees, 1 mil-

lion BTUs of energy, 412 lbs. of greenhouse gases, 1,983 gallons of water, and 120 lbs. of solidwaste. For more information, please visit our website, www.wisdompubs.org. This paper is also FSCcertified. For more information, please visit www.fscus.org.



Contents

Editor’s Introduction viiPreface xxvii

I The Abhidhamma Philosophy: Its Estimation in the Past, Its Value for the Present 1

II The Twofold Method of Abhidhamma Philosophy 19III The Schema of Classification in the Dhammasaºga˚ı 31IV The List of Mental Constituents in the Dhammasaºga˚ı 37

1. General Remarks 372. The Pentad of Sense-Contact 483. The Factors of Absorption 534. The Faculties 585. The Powers 636. The Path Factors 667. The Wholesome Roots 698. The Ways of Action 709. The Guardians of the World 7010. The Six Pairs of Qualitative Factors 7111. The Helpers 8112. The Paired Combination 8113. The Last Dyad 8214. The Supplementary Factors 8315. Gradations of Intensity among Parallel Factors 8416. Concluding Remarks 88

V The Problem of Time 931. Time and Consciousness 932. Planes of Time 993. The Concept of the Present in the Abhidhamma 1044. Concluding Remarks 112

Appendixes 115Notes 125Bibliography 131Index 133About the Author 145



Editor’s Introduction

In his preface to this book Nyanaponika Thera explains that thesestudies originated while he was engaged in translating into Germanthe Dhamma saºga˚ı and the Atthas›linı, respectively the first bookof the P›li Abhidhamma Pi˛aka and its authorized commentary. Hetranslated these works during the trying years of World War II, whileresiding in the British civilian internment camp at Dehra Dun, innorth India (1941–46). Unfortunately, these two translations, madewith such keen understanding and appreciation of their subject,remain unpublished. The Dhamma saºga˚ı appeared only in a verylimited cyclostyle edition (Hamburg, 1950), long unavailable. TheAtthas›linı has been in preparation for the press since the mid-1980s, but it is still uncertain whether it will ever see the light of day.

The investigations stimulated by this translation work, however,have enjoyed a happier fate. Soon after returning to Sri Lanka fol-lowing the war, Ven. Nyanaponika recorded his reflections on theAbhidhamma in a set of four essays, which became the first versionof this book, entitled Abhidhamma Studies: Researches in BuddhistPsychology. The manuscript must have been completed by 15 March1947, the date of the preface, and was published in a series calledIsland Hermitage Publications (Frewin & Co. Ltd., Colombo,1949). This imprint emanated from the Island Hermitage atDodanduwa, a monastic settlement chiefly for Western Buddhistmonks founded in 1911 by Ven. Nyanaponika’s teacher, Ven.Nyanatiloka Mah›thera (1878–1957). Ven. Nyanatiloka, also fromGermany, was the first Therav›da bhikkhu from continental Europein modern times. Ordained in Burma in 1903, he soon establishedhimself as an authority on the Abhidhamma, and it was from himthat Ven. Nyanaponika acquired his deep respect for this abstrusebranch of Buddhist learning.

While Island Hermitage Publications came to an early end, itsanimating spirit was reincarnated in the Buddhist Publication

VII



Society (BPS), which Ven. Nyanaponika established in Kandy in1958 together with two lay friends. Accordingly, in 1965 a secondedition of Abhidhamma Studies appeared, published by the BPS. Thisedition had been stylistically polished (incorporating suggestionswritten into a copy of the first edition by Bhikkhu Ñ›˚amoli) andincluded a new first chapter that served to explain the high esteem inwhich the Therav›da tradition holds the Abhidhamma. A third edi-tion, issued in 1976, contained only minor corrections. For the pre-sent edition I have merely reformulated a few awkward sentences inthe third edition, reorganized the notes, provided additional refer-ences, and supplied a bibliography. The subtitle has also beenchanged to convey a clearer idea of the book’s contents.

Although these essays are largely intelligible on their own andcan be read with profit even by those unacquainted with theAbhidhamma texts themselves, they will naturally be most rewardingif they are read with some awareness of the doctrinal and scripturalmatrix from which they have emerged. While an introduction likethis is certainly not the place for a thorough historical and doctrinalsurvey of the Abhidhamma, in what follows I will attempt to providethe reader with the information needed to place Ven. Nyanaponika’sstudies in their wider context. First I will briefly present an overviewof the Abhidhamma literature on which he draws; then I will discussthe principal strains of Abhidhamma thought that underlie theessays; and finally, in the light of this background, I will highlightsome of the ideas that Ven. Nyanaponika is attempting to convey inthis book.

Before proceeding further I must emphasize at the outset thatVen. Nyanaponika’s essays are not historical in orientation, and arethus very different in character from the well-known Abhidhammastudies of Erich Frauwallner, which attempt to trace the historicalevolution of the Abhidhamma.1 While he does make a few remarkson the historical authenticity of the Abhidhamma, for the mostpart he simply accepts the canonical Abhidhamma as a given pointof departure and adopts toward this material an approach that isthoroughly philosophical and psychological. Though his focus isvery narrow, namely, the first wholesome state of consciousness in

VIII

Abhidhamma Studies



the Consciousness chapter of the Dhammasaºga˚ı, his treatment ofthis subject branches out into broader issues concerning theAbhidhamma analysis of mind and the bearings this has on theBuddhist spiritual life. The essays do not merely repeat the time-honored fundamentals of the Abhidhamma philosophy, but strikeout in a direction that is innovative and boldly exploratory. Despitetheir strong rootedness in an ancient, minutely analytical corpus ofknowledge, they venture into territory virtually untouched by thegreat Abhidhamma commentators of the past, raising questions andthrowing out hypotheses with a depth of insight that is often exhil-arating. It is this boldness of intuition, coupled with careful reflectionand a capacity for mature judgment, that makes this little book acontemporary gem worthy of a place among the perennial classics ofAbhidhamma literature.

THE ABHIDHAMMA LITERATURE

The Abhidhamma is a comprehensive, systematic treatment of theBuddha’s teachings that came to prominence in the Buddhist com-munity during the first three centuries after the Master’s death. Thedevelopment of Abhidhamma spanned the broad spectrum of theearly Buddhist schools, though the particular tracks that it followedin the course of its evolution differed markedly from one school toanother. As each system of Abhidhamma assumed its individual con-tours, often in opposition to its rivals, the respective school respon-sible for it added a compilation of Abhidhamma treatises to its col-lection of authorized texts. In this way the original two canonicalcollections of the Buddha’s Word—the Sutta and Vinaya Pi˛akas—came to be augmented by a third collection, the AbhidhammaPi˛aka, thus giving us the familiar Tipi˛aka or “Three Baskets of theDoctrine.”

There is some evidence, from the reports of the ChineseBuddhist pilgrims, that most of the old Indian Buddhist schools, ifnot all, had their own Abhidhamma Pi˛akas. However, with thewholesale destruction of Buddhism in India in the twelfth century,all but three canonical Abhidhammas perished with hardly a trace.

IX

Abhidhamma Studies



The three exceptions are (1) the Therav›da version, in seven books,recorded in P›li; (2) the Sarv›stiv›da version, also in seven books butcompletely different from those of the Therav›da; and (3) a workcalled the ⁄›riputra-abhidharma-Ÿ›stra, probably belonging to theDharmaguptaka school.2 The P›li Abhidhamma had survivedbecause, long before Buddhism disappeared in India, it had beensafely transplanted to Sri Lanka; the other two, because they hadbeen brought to China and translated from Sanskrit into Chinese.Though the schools that nurtured these last two Abhidhamma sys-tems vanished long ago, a late exposition of the Sarv›stiv›daAbhidhamma system, Vasubandhu’s AbhidharmakoŸa, continues tobe studied among Tibetan Buddhists and in the Far East. In theTherav›da countries such as Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand, theAbhidhamma has always been a subject of vital interest, both amongmonks and educated lay Buddhists, and forms an essential compo-nent in any program of higher Buddhist studies. This is especiallythe case in Myanmar, which since the fifteenth century has been theheartland of Abhidhamma study in the Therav›da Buddhist world.

The seven treatises of the P›li Abhidhamma Pi˛aka are theDhammasaºga˚ı, the Vibhaºga, the Dh›tukath›, the Puggala paññatti,the Kath›vatthu, the Yamaka, and the Pa˛˛h›na. The distinctive fea-tures of the Abhidhamma methodology are not equally evident in allthese works. In particular, the Puggalapaññatti is a detailed typologyof persons that is heavily dependent on the Sutta Pi˛aka, especiallythe Aºguttara Nik›ya; the Kath›vatthu, a polemical work offering acritical examination of doctrinal views that the Therav›din theoristsconsidered deviations from the true version of the Dhamma. Thesetwo works do not exemplify the salient features of the Abhidhammaand may have been included in this Pi˛aka merely as a matter of con-venience. What is probably the most archaic core of Abhidhammamaterial—detailed definitions of the basic categories taken from thesuttas, such as the aggregates, sense bases, and elements—is pre-served in the Vibhaºga. But the two works that best exemplify themature version of the canonical Abhidhamma system are theDhammasaºga˚ı and the Pa˛˛h›na. As Ven. Nyanaponika repeatedlypoints out, these two books are complementary and must be viewed

X

Abhidhamma Studies



together to obtain an adequate picture of the Abhidhamma method-ology as a whole. The Dhamma saºga˚ı emphasizes the analyticalapproach, its most notable achievement being the reduction of thecomplex panorama of experience to distinct mental and material phe-nomena, which are minutely defined and shown in their variouscombinations and classifications. The Pa˛˛h›na advances a syntheticapproach to the factors enumerated in the first book. It delineates theconditional relations that hold between the diverse mental and mate-rial phenomena disclosed by analysis, binding them together into adynamic and tightly interwoven whole.

Each of the books of the Abhidhamma has its authorized com-mentary. Since the commentaries on the last five books are combinedinto one volume, there are three Abhidhamma commentaries: theAtthas›linı (on the Dhammasaºga˚ı); the Sammoha-vinodanı (on theVibhaºga); and the Pañcappakara˚a-a˛˛hakath› (on the other fivebooks). These commentaries are the work of ficariya Buddhaghosa,the most eminent of the P›li commentators. Buddhaghosa was anIndian Buddhist monk who came to Sri Lanka in the fifth centuryC.E. to study the old Sinhalese commentaries (no longer extant) thathad been preserved at the Mah›vih›ra, the Great Monastery, the seatof Therav›da orthodoxy in Anuradhapura. On the basis of these oldcommentaries, written in a style of Sinhala that by then may havealready been antiquated, he composed new commentaries in theinternationally recognized Therav›da language, now known as P›li.These commentaries, refined in expression and doctrinally coherent,are not original creative works expressing Buddhaghosa’s own ideas,but edited and synoptic versions of the old commentaries, which hadprobably accumulated over several centuries and recorded the diverseopinions of the early generations of doctrinal specialists up to aboutthe second century C.E. If we had direct access to these commen-taries we would no doubt be able to trace the gradual evolution ofthe system of exegesis that finally became crystallized in the works ofBuddhaghosa. Unfortunately, however, these old commentaries didnot survive the ravages of time.

The Abhidhamma commentaries of Buddhaghosa do consider-ably more than explicate the difficult terms and statements of the

XI

Abhidhamma Studies



canonical Abhidhamma texts. In the course of explication theyintroduce in full measure the reflections, discussions, judgments,and determinations of the ancient masters of the doctrine, whichBuddhaghosa must have found in the old commentaries available tohim. Thus, out of the beams and rafters of the canonicalAbhidhamma, the commentaries construct a comprehensive andphilosophically viable edifice that can be used for several purposes:the investigation of experience in the practice of insight meditation;the interpretation of the canonical Abhidhamma; and the inter-pretation of the other two Pi˛akas, the Suttanta and the Vinaya,whose exegesis, at an advanced level, is guided by the principles ofthe Abhidhamma. ficariya Buddhaghosa’s masterpiece, theVisuddhimagga, is in effect a work of “applied Abhidhamma,” andchapters 14–17 constitute a concise compendium of Abhidhammatheory as a preparation for insight meditation.

Following the age of the commentaries, P›li Abhidhamma lit-erature expanded by still another layer with the composition of the˛ık›s, the subcommentaries. Of these, the most important is thethree-part MÒla ̨ık›, “The Fundamental (or Original) Sub-commentary” to the three primary commentaries. This work isattributed to one ficariya finanda, who may have worked in southIndia in the late fifth or early sixth century. Its purpose is to clarifyobscure terms and ideas in the commentaries and also to shed addi-tional light on the canonical texts. This work in turn has an Anu˛ık›,a secondary subcommentary, ascribed to ficariya Dhammap›la,another south Indian.

Once the commentarial literature on the Abhidhamma hadgrown to gargantuan dimensions, the next stage in the developmentof Abhidhamma theory was governed by the need to reduce thismaterial to more manageable proportions for easy use by teachersand their students. Thus there arrived the age of the Abhidhammamanuals, which reached its high point with the composition of theAbhidhammattha-saºgaha sometime between the tenth and twelfthcenturies. This work, ascribed to one ficariya Anuruddha, occupiesonly fifty pages in print, yet provides a masterly overview of thewhole Abhidhamma, both canonical and commentarial, in an easily

XII

Abhidhamma Studies



memorizable form. The Saºgaha has become the standard primer forAbhidhamma studies throughout the Therav›da Buddhist world,and in the traditional system of education teachers require theirpupils to learn it by heart as the prerequisite for further lessons in theAbhidhamma. Yet, because the manual is so terse and pithy inexpression, when read on its own it borders on the cryptic, and toconvey any clear meaning it needs paraphrase and explanation. Thusthe Saºgaha in its turn has generated a massive commentarial litera-ture, written both in Sri Lanka and Myanmar, and this has openedup still new avenues for the elaboration of Abhidhamma theory. Inthis way the literary history of the Abhidhamma has advanced by arhythmic alternation of condensed and expansive modes of treat-ment, the systole and diastole phases in the evolution of Therav›daBuddhist doctrine.

From this quick and superficial overview of the Abhidhammaliterature we can see that the fountainhead of the P›li Abhidhammasystem is the Abhidhamma Pi˛aka with its seven treatises. But howdid this collection of texts come into being? To this question, theTherav›da commentarial tradition and present-day critical scholar-ship give different answers. Unlike the suttas and the accounts of themonastic rules in the Vinaya, the books of the canonicalAbhidhamma do not provide any information about their own ori-gins. The commentaries, however, ascribe these treatises to theBuddha himself. The Atthas›linı, which gives the most explicitaccount, states that the Buddha realized the Abhidhamma at the footof the Bodhi Tree on the night of his enlightenment and investigat-ed it in detail during the fourth week after the enlightenment, whilesitting in deep meditation in a house of gems (ratanaghara) to thenortheast of the Bodhi Tree. Subsequently, during his career as ateacher, he spent one rains retreat in the T›vatiªsa heaven, where hetaught the Abhidhamma to the devas or gods from ten thousandworld systems. Each morning during this period he would descendto the human realm for his one meal of the day, and then he taughtthe methods or principles (naya) of the doctrine that he had coveredto his chief disciple S›riputta, who elaborated them for the benefitof his own pupils.3

XIII

Abhidhamma Studies



Although this account still prevails in conservative monastic cir-cles in the Therav›da world, critical scholarship has been able todetermine in broad outline, by comparative study of the variousAbhidhamma texts available, the route along which the canonicalAbhidhamma evolved. These studies indicate that before it came toconstitute a clearly articulated system the Abhidhamma had gradu-ally taken shape over several centuries. The word abhidhamma itselfappears already in the suttas, but in contexts that indicate that it wasa subject discussed by the monks themselves rather than a type ofteaching given to them by the Buddha.4 Sometimes the word abhid-hamma is paired with abhivinaya, and we might suppose that the twoterms respectively refer to a specialized, analytical treatment of thedoctrine and the monastic discipline. Several suttas suggest that theseAbhidhamma discussions proceeded by posing questions and offeringreplies. If we are correct in assuming that these ancient discussionswere one of the seeds of the codified Abhidhamma, then their cate-chistic framework would explain the prominence of the “interrogationsections” (pañh›v›ra) in the canonical Abhidhamma treatises.

Another factor that contemporary scholarship regards as a seedfor the development of the Abhidhamma was the use of certainmaster lists to represent the conceptual structure of the Buddha’steachings. For the sake of easy memorization and as an aid to expo-sition, the doctrinal specialists in the early Sangha often cast theteachings into outline form. These outlines, which drew upon thenumerical sets that the Buddha himself regularly used as the scaffold-ing for his doctrine, were not mutually exclusive but overlapped andmeshed in ways that allowed them to be integrated into master liststhat resembled a tree diagram. Such master lists were called m›tik›s,“matrixes,” and skill in their use was sometimes included among thequalifications of an erudite monk.5 To be skilled in the m›tik›s it wasnecessary to know not only the terms and their definitions but alsotheir underlying structures and architectonic arrangement, whichrevealed the inner logic of the Dhamma. An early phase ofAbhidhamma activity must have consisted in the elaboration ofthese master lists, a task that would have required extensive knowl-edge of the teachings and a capacity for rigorous, technically precise

XIV

Abhidhamma Studies



thought. The existing Abhidhamma Pi˛akas include substantial sec-tions devoted to such elaborations, and beneath them we can hearthe echoes of the early discussions in the Sangha that culminated inthe first Abhidhamma texts.

While the roots from which the Abhidhamma sprang can betraced back to the early Sangha, perhaps even during the Buddha’slifetime, the different systems clearly assumed their mature expres-sion only after the Buddhist community had split up into distinctschools with their own doctrinal peculiarities. Codified and autho-rized Abhidhamma texts must have been in circulation by the thirdcentury B.C., the time of the Third (exclusively Therav›din) Council,which was held in P›˛aliputta, the capital of King AŸoka’s Mauryanempire. These texts, which would have constituted the originalnuclei of the Therav›da and Sarv›stiv›da Abhidhamma Pi˛akas,might have continued to evolve for several more centuries. In thefirst century B.C. the Therav›da Abhidhamma Pi˛aka, along with therest of the P›li Canon, was formally written down for the first time,at the filokavih›ra in Sri Lanka. This officially approved recensionof the Abhidhamma Pi˛aka must mark the terminal point of itsdevelopment in the P›li school, though it is conceivable that minoradditions were incorporated even afterward.

THE ABHIDHAMMA TEACHING

The Abhidhamma teaching in the Dhammasaºga˚ı, the focus ofVen. Nyanaponika’s essays, might be discussed in terms of threeinterwoven strands of thought: (1) an underlying ontology framedin terms of bare ontological factors called dhammas; (2) the use of an“attribute-m›tik›,” a methodical list of contrasting qualities, as a gridfor classifying the factors resulting from ontological analysis; and (3)the elaboration of a detailed typology of consciousness as a way ofmapping the dhammas in relation to the ultimate goal of theDhamma, the attainment of Nibb›na. The first two strands areshared by the Therav›da and Sarv›stiv›da systems (though with dif-ferences in the details) and might be seen as stemming from theoriginal archaic core of Abhidhamma analysis. The third strand, the

XV

Abhidhamma Studies



minute analysis of consciousness, seems to be a specific feature of theP›li Abhidhamma and thus may have evolved only after the two tra-ditions had gone their separate ways.

We will now discuss these three strands of Abhidhamma thoughtmore fully.

1. The Dhamma Theory. Although Ven. Nyanaponika distin-guishes between phenomenology and ontology and assigns theAbhidhamma to the former rather than the latter, he does so on theassumption that ontology involves the quest for “an essence, or ulti-mate principle, underlying the phenomenal world” (p. 19). If,however, we understand ontology in a wider sense as the philo-sophical discipline concerned with determining what really exists,with discriminating between the real and the apparent, then we couldjustly claim that the Abhidhamma is built upon an ontological vision.This vision has been called the dhamma theory.6 The theory as suchis not articulated in the Abhidhamma Pi˛aka, which rarely makesexplicit the premises that underlie its systematizing projects, butcomes into prominence only in the later commentarial literature,particularly in the commentaries to the Abhidhamma manuals.Succinctly stated, this theory maintains that the manifold of phe-nomenal existence is made up of a multiplicity of “thing-events”called dhammas, which are the realities that conceptual thoughtworks upon to fabricate the consensual world of everyday reality.But the dhammas, though constitutive of experience, are distinctlydifferent from the gross entities resulting from the operations ofconceptual thought. Unlike the persisting persons and objects ofeveryday reality, the dhammas are evanescent occurrences, momen-tary mental and physical happenings brought into being throughconditions—with the sole exception of the unconditioned element,Nibb›na, which is the one dhamma that is not evanescent or sub-ject to conditions.

The germ of the dhamma theory can already be found in the sut-tas, in the Buddha’s instructions aimed at the development of wisdom(paññ›). For wisdom or insight to arise, the meditator must learn tosuspend the normal constructive, synthesizing activity of the mindresponsible for weaving the reams of immediate sensory data into

XVI

Abhidhamma Studies



coherent narrative patterns revolving around persons, entities, andtheir attributes. Instead, the meditator must adopt a radically phe-nomenological stance, attending mindfully to each successive occasionof experience exactly as it presents itself in its sheer immediacy. Whenthis technique of “bare attention” is assiduously applied, the familiarworld of everyday perception dissolves into a dynamic stream ofimpersonal phenomena, flashes of actuality arising and perishingwith incredible rapidity. It is the thing-events discerned in the streamof immediate experience, the constitutive mental and physical phe-nomena, that are called dhammas, and it is with their characteristics,modes of occurrence, classifications, and relationships that theAbhidhamma is primarily concerned.

To assist the meditator in applying this phenomenologicalinvestigation of experience, the Buddha had delineated variousconceptual schemes that group these bare phenomena into orderlysets. These sets are governed by different heuristic principles, of whichwe might distinguish three: the disclosure of the phenomenal field;the causes of bondage and suffering; and the aids to enlightenment.

The disclosure of the phenomenal field aims at showing how all thefactors of existence function in unison without a substantial selfbehind them to serve as a permanent subject or directing agent. Theconceptual schemes used for this purpose include the five aggregates(pañcakkhandh›: material form, feeling, perception, mental forma-tions, and consciousness); the six internal and external sense bases(sa˘›yatana: the six sense faculties including mind and their respec-tive objects); and the eighteen elements (a˛˛h›rasa dh›tuyo: the sixsenses, their objects, and the corresponding types of consciousness).

The causes of bondage and suffering are the defilements, the mainimpediments to spiritual progress, which include such groups as thefour taints (›sava), the four kinds of clinging (up›d›na), the five hin-drances (nıvara˚a), and the ten fetters (saªyojana).

The aids to enlightenment are the various sets of training factorsthat make up the Buddhist path to liberation. These are traditionallygrouped into seven sets with a total of thirty-seven factors: the fourfoundations of mindfulness, the four right efforts, the four bases ofaccomplishment, the five spiritual faculties, the five powers, the

XVII

Abhidhamma Studies



seven factors of enlightenment, and the eight factors of the NobleEightfold Path.

One of the major projects that the Abhidhamma Pi˛aka sets foritself is to collect these various schemes into a systematic whole inwhich each item has a clearly defined position. To fulfill this aim, thearchitects of the Abhidhamma did not simply pile up lists butattempted to coordinate them, establish correspondences, and dis-play relationships. Through their research into the dhammas, theAbhidhamma masters discovered that diverse terms used by theBuddha for the pedagogical purposes of his teaching often represent,at the level of actuality, the same factor functioning in different waysor under different aspects. Thus, for example, “clinging to sensualpleasures” among the four kinds of clinging is identical with the hin-drance of sensual desire among the five hindrances; the practice ofmindfulness in the four foundations of mindfulness is identical withthe faculty of mindfulness among the five faculties and also with thepath factor of right mindfulness in the Eightfold Path; the sense baseof mind among the six senses is identical with the aggregate of con-sciousness among the five aggregates, and both comprise the sevenconsciousness elements among the eighteen elements.

By proceeding thus, the Abhidhamma draws up a fixed list ofontological actualities that it understands to be the differently col-ored threads that constitute the inconceivably diverse and complexfabric of experience. These ontological actualities are the dhammas,which the later P›li Abhidhamma neatly groups into four classes ofultimates (paramattha-dhamma) comprising eighty-two actualities:consciousness (citta), which is one reality with eighty-nine or 121types; fifty-two mental factors (cetasika); twenty-eight kinds of mate-rial phenomena (rÒpa); and one unconditioned element, Nibb›na.The various defilements and aids to enlightenment are traced toparticular mental factors (with the exception of one “base of accom-plishment,” the citta-iddhip›da, which is consciousness itself ), and adetailed scheme is drawn up to show how the mental factors combinein the acts of consciousness and how the mental side of experience iscorrelated with the material world.

2. The Attribute-m›tik›. Having reduced the entire manifold of

XVIII

Abhidhamma Studies



experience to a procession of impersonal thing-events, theAbhidhamma sets about to classify them according to a schemedetermined by the guiding ideals of the Dhamma. This scheme isembedded in a m›tik› or master list of contrasting categories. Butsince the lists of dhammas resulting from ontological analysis canalso be called m›tik›s, following Frauwallner we might refer to themaster list of qualitative categories as an attribute-m›tik›.

The attribute-m›tik› is announced at the very beginning of theDhammasaºga˚ı and serves as a preface to the entire AbhidhammaPi˛aka. It consists of 122 modes of classification proper to theAbhidhamma system, with an additional forty-two taken from the sut-tas. Of the Abhidhamma modes, twenty-two are triads (tika), sets ofthree terms used to classify the fundamental factors of existence; theother hundred are dyads (duka), binary terms used as a basis for cate-gorization. The triads include such sets as states that are wholesome,unwholesome, indeterminate; states associated with pleasant feeling,with painful feeling, with neutral feeling; states that are kamma results,states productive of kamma results, states that are neither; and so forth.The dyads include roots, not roots; having roots, not having roots;conditioned states, unconditioned states; mundane states, supramun-dane states; and so forth. Within these dyads we also find the variousdefilements: taints, fetters, knots, floods, bonds, hindrances, misappre-hensions, clingings, corruptions. The m›tik› also includes forty-twodyads taken from the suttas, but these have a different character fromthe Abhidhamma sets and do not figure elsewhere in the system.

The Dhammasaºga˚ı devotes two full chapters to the definitionof the m›tik›, which is done by specifying which dhammas areendowed with the attributes included in each triad and dyad. Inchapter 3 this is done by way of the classical scheme of categories,such as the five aggregates, and in chapter 4 again by means of asimpler, more concise method of explanation. The same m›tik› alsofigures prominently in the Vibhaºga and the Dh›tukath›, while inthe Pa˛˛h›na it is integrated with the system of conditional relationsto generate a vast work of gigantic proportions that enumerates allthe conceivable relations between all the items included under theAbhidhamma triads and dyads.

XIX

Abhidhamma Studies



3. The Typology of Consciousness. To fill out our picture of theproject undertaken in the Dhammasaºga˚ı, and more widely in theAbhidhamma as a whole, we need to bring in another element, insome respects the most important. This is the medium within whichthe Abhidhamma locates its systematic treatment of experience,namely, consciousness or mind (citta). The Abhidhamma is above allan investigation of the possibilities of the mind, and thus its mostimpressive achievement is the construction of an elaborate maprevealing the entire topography of consciousness. Like all maps, theone devised by the Abhidhamma necessarily simplifies the terrainwhich it depicts, but again like any well-planned map its simplifica-tion is intended to serve a practical purpose. In this case the map isdrawn up to guide the seeker through the tangle of mental states dis-cerned in meditative experience toward the aim of the Buddha’steaching, liberation from suffering. For this reason the map devisedby the Abhidhamma looks very different from a map of the mindthat might be drawn up by a Western psychologist as an aid tounderstanding psychological disorders. The Buddhist map makes nomention of neuroses, complexes, or fixations. Its two poles arebondage and liberation, saªs›ra and Nibb›na, and the specific fea-tures it represents are those states of mind that prolong our bondageand misery in saªs›ra, those that are capable of leading to mundanehappiness and higher rebirths, and those that lead out from thewhole cycle of rebirths to final deliverance in Nibb›na.

In delineating its typology of consciousness the Abhidhammaextends to both the microscopic and macroscopic levels the concernwith the functioning of mind already so evident in the Sutta Pi˛aka.In the suttas the Buddha declares that mind is the forerunner of allthings and the chief determinant of human destiny, and he holds upthe challenge of self-knowledge and mental self-mastery as the heartof his liberative discipline. In the suttas, however, concern with the-oretical investigation is subordinated to the pragmatic aims of thetraining, and thus the analysis and description of mental statesremains fairly simple. In the Dhammasaºga˚ı, where theoretical con-cerns are given free rein, the analysis and classification of consciousnessis pursued relentlessly in a quest for systematic completeness.

XX

Abhidhamma Studies



The schematization of consciousness is undertaken as a way offleshing out the first triad of the m›tik›, and thus the primary dis-tinctions drawn between mental states are framed in terms of ethicalquality: into the wholesome, the unwholesome, and the indeterminate.The Dhamma saºga˚ı shows that the entire domain of consciousness inall its diversity is bound into an orderly cosmos by two overarchinglaws: first, the mundane moral law of kamma and its fruit, whichlinks mundane wholesome and unwholesome states of conscious-ness to their respective results, the fruits of kamma, the latterincluded in the class of indeterminate consciousness. The second isthe liberative or transcendent law by which certain wholesomestates of consciousness—the supramundane paths—produce theirown results, the four fruits of liberation, culminating in the attain-ment of Nibb›na.

The Dhammasaºga˚ı first takes up wholesome consciousness(kusala-citta) and distinguishes it into four planes: (1) sense sphere,(2) form sphere (i.e., the consciousness of the four or five mundanejh›nas), (3) formless sphere (i.e., the consciousness of the four form-less meditations), and (4) supramundane (i.e., the consciousness ofthe four noble paths, which become twentyfold when correlatedwith the five supramundane jh›nas). Second, unwholesome con-sciousness (akusala-citta) is analyzed into twelve types, as determinedby the unwholesome roots from which they spring, that is, as root-ed in greed, or in hatred, or in bare delusion. Third, kammicallyindeterminate consciousness (aby›kata-citta) is considered, states ofmind that are neither wholesome nor unwholesome. This is firstbifurcated into resultant consciousness (vip›ka-citta) and functionalconsciousness (kiriya-citta), which in turn are each used as headingsfor classifying their subordinate types. In this way theDhammasaºga˚ı builds up a typology of 121 acts of consciousness(citt’upp›da), each of which is a complex whole made up of con-sciousness itself, citta, the bare knowing of an object, functioning incorrelation with various mental constituents, the cetasikas, whichperform more specific tasks in the act of cognition.

The analysis of each type of consciousness proceeds by asking whatstates are present on an occasion when such a state of consciousness

XXI

Abhidhamma Studies



has arisen, and this provides the opportunity for minutely dissectingthat state of consciousness into its components. The constituents ofthe conscious occasion are enumerated, not in the abstract (as isdone in the later Abhidhamma manuals) but as members of fixedsets generally selected from the suttas. The first set consists of fivebare cognitive elements present on any occasion of cognition: sense-contact, feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness. Followingthis, various other sets are introduced, and their components aredefined by fixed formulas.

The following chapter of the Dhammasaºga˚ı undertakes, in asimilar way, a detailed analysis of material phenomena, which are allcomprised under the heading of states that are kammically indeter-minate (aby›kata: neither wholesome nor unwholesome). Since Ven.Nyanaponika barely touches on the Abhidhamma treatment ofmaterial phenomena, we need not pursue this discussion further.

THE PRESENT BOOK

Chronologically and structurally, the essays that make up AbhidhammaStudies unfold from chapters 3 and 4, which deal with the first typeof wholesome consciousness analyzed in the Dhammasaºga˚ı.Although this section forms only a fraction of the treatise, it offersthe key to the entire first chapter, the Analysis of Consciousness, andthus an investigation of its terms and methodology has major sig-nificance for an understanding of the Abhidhamma system as awhole. Chapter 3 presents the P›li text and an English translation ofthe opening paragraph on the first type of wholesome consciousness;Chapter 4, a detailed investigation of its meaning and implications.Chapter 5 reverts to the opening formula for the first state ofwholesome consciousness, which establishes time as an essentialdimension of conscious experience. Taking up a verse in theAtthas›linı as his point of departure, Ven. Nyanaponika explores anumber of signposts that the Abhidhamma holds out for under-standing the relationship between time and consciousness.

Chapter 2 was added to balance the emphasis on analysis thatpredominates in the last three chapters of the book. Under the title

XXII

Abhidhamma Studies



“The Twofold Method of Abhidhamma Philosophy” Ven.Nyanaponika cautions us that a complete perspective on theAbhidhamma requires us to take account, not only of the analyticaltreatment of experience so conspicuous in the first threeAbhidhamma treatises, but also of the synthetical approach that pre-dominates in the last treatise, the Pa˛˛h›na, wherein all the termsresulting from analysis are connected to one another by a vast net-work of conditional relations. Chapter 1 was written last, and wasadded to the book only in the second edition. Its purpose is todefend the Abhidhamma against common criticisms, both ancientand modern, and to establish its legitimacy as an authentic Buddhistenterprise that can make important contributions to Buddhist theo-ry and practice.

Viewed in its wider context, Abhidhamma Studies is both anemphatic affirmation of the high value that Buddhist traditionascribes to the Abhidhamma and a trenchant attempt to breakthrough the shackles that have tended to stultify traditionalAbhidhamma study. Ven. Nyanaponika already sounds this radicalnote in his preface, when he declares that the Abhidhamma is“meant for inquiring and searching spirits who are not satisfied bymonotonously and uncritically repeating ready-made terms.”Reading behind these lines we can obtain some picture of whatAbhidhamma study has too often become in Therav›din scholasticcircles: an exercise in blindly absorbing by rote a hallowed body ofknowledge and passing it on to others with only scant concern for itsdeeper relevance to the spiritual life. For Ven. Nyanaponika, theAbhidhamma, like Buddhism as a whole, is a living dynamic organ-ism, and his underlying purpose in this book is to breathe new lifeinto this sometimes moribund creature.

Throughout his essays Ven. Nyanaponika repeatedly cautions usagainst another, closely related tendency in traditional Abhidhammastudies: that of allowing Abhidhamma learning to degenerate into adry and barren intellectual exercise. He holds that the study ofAbhidhamma and the practice of meditation must proceed hand inhand. The study of Abhidhamma, at least by way of its fundamentalprinciples, helps to correct misinterpretations of meditative experience

XXIII

Abhidhamma Studies



and also, in relation to insight meditation, lays bare the phenomenathat must be discerned and comprehended in the course of contem-plation. Meditation, in turn, brings the Abhidhamma to life andtranslates its abstract conceptual schemes into living experience. TheAbhidhamma itself, he holds, has immense significance for a correctunderstanding of the Dhamma, for it spells out, with striking thor-oughness and precision, the two mutually reinforcing intuitions thatlie at the very heart of the Buddha’s enlightenment: the principle ofanatt› or non-self, and the principle of pa˛icca-samupp›da, the depen-dent origination of all phenomena of existence.

If I had to single out one strain in Ven. Nyanaponika’s thoughtas his major contribution to our understanding of the Abhidhammaphilosophy, I would choose his emphasis on the inherent dynamismof the original Therav›da version of the Abhidhamma. It is especiallynecessary to stress this point because the treatment of theAbhidhamma that has come down to us in the medieval manuals canconvey the impression that the Abhidhamma is a rigid, static, evenmyopic system that would reduce the profound, mind-transformingDhamma of enlightenment to a portfolio of orderly charts. For Ven.Nyanaponika, the ancient canonical Abhidhamma is as vital anddynamic as the reality it is intended to depict, vibrant with intuitionsthat cannot easily be captured in numerical lists and tables. The keyhe offers us for restoring to this system its original dynamism is arecognition of the essentially temporal dimension of experience.Temporality is intrinsic to the description of conscious statesthroughout the Dhamma saºga˚ı, but it is easy to overlook its impor-tance when the subtle complexities of the system are subordinated toa concern for schematic representation, as occurs in the later litera-ture. For Ven. Nyanaponika it is only by attending to the time factorthat we can rediscover, in the Abhidhamma, the depth and breadthof primary experience and the dignity and decisive potency of thepresent moment.7To recover this element of dynamic temporality, Ven.

Nyanaponika points us away from the systematic manuals of themedieval period back toward the canonical texts themselves, theAbhidhamma Pi˛aka. This does not mean that he slights the manuals

XXIV

Abhidhamma Studies



or disparages their contribution. He recognizes that these works servea valuable purpose by compressing and organizing into a compact,digestible format a vast mass of material that might otherwise intim-idate and overwhelm a novice student of the subject. What he main-tains, however, is that familiarity with the manuals is not sufficient.Illuminating and fruitful lines of thought lie hidden in the originaltexts, and it is only by unearthing these through deep inquiry andcareful reflection that the riches of the Abhidhamma can be extractedand made available, not to Buddhist studies alone but to all contem-porary attempts to understand the nature of human experience.

It had always been one of Nyanaponika Thera’s deepest wishes toresume the methodical exploration of the Abhidhamma, which hehad broken off after completing the essays contained in the presentvolume. His life’s circumstances and own inner needs, however, didnot permit this. During the early 1950s an increased concern withhis own spiritual development led him to pursue more vigorouslythe practice of meditation, which bore fruit in his popular book TheHeart of Buddhist Meditation. In the mid-1950s he had to attend onhis ailing teacher, Ven. Nyanatiloka Mah›thera, and to meet certaincommitments regarding literary work in German, which includedthe revision and editing of his teacher’s German translation of thecomplete Aºguttara Nik›ya. Then in 1958 the Buddhist PublicationSociety was born, which he conscientiously served as president andeditor of until his retirement in the 1980s, by which time his sighthad deteriorated too far to allow any further literary work.

Nevertheless, in this small volume Ven. Nyanaponika has left usone of the most original, profound, and stimulating contributions inEnglish toward the understanding of this ancient yet so contempo-rary system of philosophical psychology. It is to be hoped that thesestudies will in some way serve to fulfill the hope the author expressedin his preface, that they will “show modern independent thinkersnew vistas and open new avenues of thought,” thereby vindicatingthe eternal and fundamental truths made known by the Buddha.

Bhikkhu Bodhi

XXV

Abhidhamma Studies



Preface

These studies originated when the author was engaged in translatinginto German the Dhammasaºga˚ı (“Compendium of Phenomena”)and its commentary, the Atthas›linı. These two books are the start-ing point and the main subject of the following pages that, in part,may serve as a kind of fragmentary subcommentary to them.

The content of these studies is rather varied: they include philo-sophical and psychological investigations, references to the practicalapplication of the teachings concerned, pointers to neglected orunnoticed aspects of the Abhidhamma, textual research, etc. Thisvariety of contents serves to show that wherever we dig deep enoughinto that inexhaustible mine, the Abhidhamma literature, we shallmeet with valuable contributions to the theoretical understandingand practical realization of Buddhist doctrine. So the main purposeof these pages is to stimulate further research in the field ofAbhidhamma to a much wider and deeper extent than was possiblein this modest attempt.

There is no reason why the Abhidhamma philosophy of theSouthern or Therav›da tradition should stagnate today or why itsfurther development should not be resumed. In fact, through manycenturies there has been a living growth of Abhidhamma thought,and even in our own days there are original contributions to it fromBurma, for example, by that remarkable monk-philosopher, theVenerable Ledi Sayadaw. There are a vast number of subjects in thecanonical and commentarial Abhidhamma literature that deserveand require closer investigation and new presentation in the lan-guage of our time. There are many lines of thought, only brieflysketched in Abhidhamma tradition, that merit detailed treatmentin connection with parallel tendencies in modern thought. Finally,in some important subjects of Abhidhamma doctrine we mustdeplore the partial loss of ancient tradition, a fact that is clearlyindicated by the appearance of technical terms nowhere explained.

XXVII



Here a careful and conscientious restoration in conformity with thespirit of the Therav›da tradition is required unless we would rele-gate those parts of the Abhidhamma to the status of venerable butfragmentary museum pieces.

Abhidhamma is meant for inquiring and searching spirits whoare not satisfied by monotonously and uncritically repeating ready-made terms, even if these are Abhidhamma terms. Abhidhamma isfor imaginative minds who are able to fill in, as it were, the columnsof the tabulations, for which the canonical Abhidhamma books havefurnished the concise headings. The Abhidhamma is not for thosetimid souls who are not content that a philosophical thought shouldnot actually contradict Buddhist tradition, but demand that it mustbe expressly, even literally, supported by canonical or commentarialauthority. Such an attitude is contrary to the letter and the spirit ofthe Buddha-Dhamma. It would mean that the Abhidhamma philos-ophy must remain within the limits of whatever has been preservedof the traditional exegetical literature and hence will cease to be a liv-ing and growing organism. This would certainly be deplorable formany reasons.

We are convinced that the Abhidhamma, if suitably presented,could also enrich modern non-Buddhist thought, in philosophy aswell as psychology. To state parallels with modern Western thoughtor the historical precedence of Buddhist versions is not so importantin itself. It is more important that the Buddhist way of presentingand solving the respective problems should show modern indepen-dent thinkers new vistas and open new avenues of thought, which inturn might revive Buddhist philosophy in the East. We are con-vinced that from such a philosophical exchange there would arise aglorious vindication of those eternal and fundamental truths, at oncesimple and profound, that the greatest genius of humankind, theBuddha, proclaimed.

Nyanaponika Thera

XXVIII

Abhidhamma Studies



I

The Abhidhamma Philosophy Its Estimation in the Past, Its Value for the Present

THE HIGH ESTEEM FOR ABHIDHAMMA IN BUDDHIST TRADITION

The Abhidhamma Pi˛aka, or the Philosophical Collection, forms thethird great section of the Buddhist P›li Canon (Tipi˛aka). In itsmost characteristic parts it is a system of classifications, analyticalenumerations, and definitions, with no discursive treatment of thesubject matter. In particular its two most important books, theDhammasaºga˚ı and the Pa˛˛h›na, have the appearance of hugecollections of systematically arranged tabulations, accompanied bydefinitions of the terms used in the tables. This, one would expect, is atype of literature scarcely likely to gain much popular appreciation. Yetthe fact remains that the Abhidhamma has always been highlyesteemed and even venerated in the countries of Therav›da Buddhism.

Two examples taken from the chronicles of Sri Lanka illustratethis high regard for the Abhidhamma. In the tenth century C.E., onthe order of King Kassapa V, the whole Abhidhamma Pi˛aka wasinscribed on gold plates, and the first of these books, theDhammasaºga˚ı, was set with jewels. When the work was completed,the precious manuscripts were taken in a huge procession to a beauti-ful monastery and deposited there. Another king of Lanka,Vijayab›hu (eleventh century), used to study the Dhammasaºga˚ı inthe early morning before he took up his royal duties, and he prepareda translation of it into Sinhala, which however has not been preserved.What were the reasons for such an extraordinary esteem for

1



material that appears at first glance to consist of no more than dryand unattractive textbooks? And what actual importance do the twobasic works of the Abhidhamma in particular, the Dhammasaºga˚ıand the Pa˛˛h›na, still have today? These are the questions that weshall attempt to answer here.

In considering the reasons for this high esteem and regard for theAbhidhamma, we may leave aside any manifestation of faith, moreor less unquestioning, that evokes in the devotee a certain awe owingto the very abstruseness and bulk of these books. That apart, we mayfind a first explanation in the immediate impression on susceptibleminds that they are faced here by a gigantic edifice of penetrativeinsight, which in its foundations and its layout cannot well beascribed to a lesser mind than that of a Buddha; and this firstimpression will find growing confirmation in the gradual process ofcomprehending these teachings.

According to the Therav›da tradition the Abhidhamma is thedomain proper of the Buddhas (buddhavisaya), and its initial con-ception in the Master’s mind (manas› desan›) is traced to the timeimmediately after the Great Enlightenment. It was in the fourth ofthe seven weeks spent by the Master in the vicinity of the Bodhi Treethat the Abhidhamma was conceived.8 These seven days were calledby the teachers of old “the Week of the House of Gems”(ratanaghara-satt›ha). “The House of Gems” is indeed a very befit-ting expression for the crystal-clear edifice of Abhidhamma thoughtin which the Buddha dwelt during that period.

THE ABHIDHAMMA AS SYSTEM AND METHOD

Those who have an eye for the ingenious and the significant in thearchitecture of great edifices of thought will probably be impressed firstby the Abhidhamma’s structural qualities, its wide compass, its innerconsistency, and its far-reaching implications. The Abhidhamma offersan impressive systematization of the whole of reality as far as it is ofconcern to the final goal of the Buddha’s teaching—liberation fromcraving and suffering; for it deals with actuality from an exclusively eth-ical and psychological viewpoint and with a definite practical purpose.

2

Abhidhamma Studies



A strikingly impressive feature of the Abhidhamma is its analysisof the entire realm of consciousness. The Abhidhamma is the firsthistorical attempt to map the possibilities of the human mind in athorough and realistic way, without admixture of metaphysics andmythology. This system provides a method by which the enormouswelter of facts included or implied in it can be subordinated to, andbe utilized by, the liberating function of knowledge, which in theBuddha’s teaching is the essential task and the greatest value of trueunderstanding. This organizing and mustering of knowledge forsuch a purpose cannot fail to appeal to the practical thinker.

The Abhidhamma may also be regarded as a systematization of thedoctrines contained, or implicit, in the Sutta Pi˛aka, the Collection ofDiscourses. It formulates these doctrines in strictly philosophical(paramattha) or truly realistic (yath›bhÒta) language that as far as pos-sible employs terms descriptive of functions and processes without anyof the conventional (voh›ra) and unrealistic concepts that assume apersonality, an agent (as different from the act), a soul, or a substance.

These remarks about the systematizing import of theAbhidhamma may perhaps create the impression in the reader that theAbhidhamma is no more than “a mere method with only a formalis-tic function.” Leaving aside the fact that this is not so, as we shall seelater, let us first quote, against this somewhat belittling attitude, aword of Friedrich Nietzsche, himself certainly no friend of rigid sys-tematization: “Scientific spirit rests upon insight into the method.”

For the preeminently practical needs of the Buddhist theAbhidhamma fulfills the requirements stated by Bertrand Russell: “Acomplete description of the existing world would require not only acatalogue of the things, but also a mention of all their qualities andrelations.”9 A systematic “catalogue of things” together with theirqualities, or better “functions,” is given in the first book of theAbhidhamma, the Dhammasaºga˚ı, a title that could well be ren-dered “A Catalogue (or Compendium) of Things”; and the relations,or the conditionality, of these things are treated in the Pa˛˛h›na.

Some who consider themselves “strong-minded” have called sys-tems “a refuge of feeble minds.” While it must be admitted that theconceptual labels supplied by systems (including the Abhidhamma)

3

The Abhidhamma Philosophy



have often been misused as a surrogate for correct comprehension ofreality, this does not mean that the fault lies in systematic thoughtitself. The fault lies, rather, in the attitude with which a system isdeveloped and the use to which it is put. If systematic thought iscautiously and critically applied, it can fulfill a valuable function,providing “weapons of defense” against the overwhelming assault ofinnumerable internal and external impressions on the human mind.This unceasing influx of impressions, by sheer weight of number anddiversity alone, can be either overpowering and fascinating or else con-fusing, intimidating, distracting, even dissolving. The only means bywhich the human mind can assimilate this vast world of plurality(papañca), at least partly, is with the aid of systematic and methodicalthought. But systems may also be “aggressive weapons” when wieldedby a mind that through its power of understanding tries to control andmaster the numerous experiences, actions, and reactions occurring inour inner and outer world, subordinating them to its own purposes.

The Abhidhamma system, however, is not concerned with anartificial, abstract world of “objects in themselves.” Insofar as itdeals with external facts at all, the respective concepts relate those“external facts” to the bondage or liberation of the human mind;or they are terms auxiliary to the tasks of the understanding andmental training connected with the work of liberation.

The basically dynamic character of the Abhidhamma system,and of the concepts it employs, goes far in preventing both rigidi-ty and any artificial simplification of a complex and ever-changingworld—the faults that those inimical to them find in all “systems.”

System and method bring order, coherence, and meaning intowhat often appears to be a world of isolated facts, which becomesamenable to our purposes only by a methodical approach. Thisholds true for the system of the Abhidhamma, too, in regard to thehighest purpose: mind’s liberation from ignorance and suffering.

CLARIFICATION OF TERMS

Many thinkers of all times and cultures have insisted that a clarifi-cation of concepts and terms is a necessary basis for realistic and

4

Abhidhamma Studies



effective thought and action; indeed, Confucius says it is even a con-dition for proper governance. But throughout history the widespreadconfusion of ideas that has steered human destiny shows that suchconceptual clarification has been neglected in nearly all branches of lifeand thought—a fact responsible for much misery and destruction.

It is another evidence of the scientific spirit of theAbhidhamma that the definition of its terms and of their range ofapplication occupies a very prominent place. In particular, theDhammasaºga˚ı is essentially a book of classifications and defini-tions, while the sixth book of the Abhidhamma, the Yamaka,develops a very elaborate and cautious delimitation of terms thatmight appear even too labored and elaborate for our sensibility.

Since the suttas principally serve as a source of guidance for theactual daily life of the disciple, they are generally expressed interms of conventional language (voh›ra-vacana), making referenceto persons and personal attributes. In the Abhidhamma, however,this sutta terminology is replaced by a more philosophically preciseterminology, which accords with the egoless or “impersonal” andever-changing nature of actuality. The Abhidhamma texts use thisterminology, true in the strict or “highest sense” (paramattha), toexplain in detail the main tenets of the Dhamma.

While vague definitions and loosely used terms are like blunttools unfit to do the work they are meant for, and while conceptsbased on wrong notions will necessarily beg the question to bescrutinized and will thus prejudice the issue, the use of appropriateand carefully tempered conceptual tools is an indispensable condi-tion for success in the quest for liberating knowledge. Hence thefact that Abhidhamma literature is a rich source of exact terminol-ogy is a feature not to be underestimated.

ANALYSIS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

One of the Abhidhamma’s chief contributions to human thought is,as we have already intimated, the analysis and classification of con-sciousness, a project undertaken in the first part of theDhammasaºga˚ı. Here, for the first time in history, the human

5




mind, so evanescent and elusive, has been subjected to a compre-hensive, thorough, and unprejudiced scrutiny. The approach takenis one of a rigorous phenomenology that disposes of the notion thatany kind of static unity or underlying substance can be traced in themind. However, the basic ethical layout and soteriological purposeof this psychology effectively prevents its realistic, unmetaphysicalanalysis of the mind from implying conclusions of ethical material-ism or theoretical and practical amoralism.

The method of investigation applied in the Abhidhamma isinductive, being based exclusively on an unprejudiced and subtleintrospective observation of mental processes. The procedure used inthe Dhammasaºga˚ı for the analysis of consciousness is precisely thatpostulated by Whitehead: “It is impossible to over-emphasize thepoint that the key to the process of induction, as used either in sci-ence or in our ordinary life, is to be found in the right understandingof the immediate occasion of knowledge in its full concreteness…. Inany occasion of cognition, that which is known is an actual occasionof experience, as diversified by reference to a realm of entities whichtranscend that immediate occasion in that they have analogous or dif-ferent connections with other occasions of experience.”10Whitehead’s term “occasion” corresponds to the Abhidhammic

concept samaya (time, occasion, conjunction of circumstances),which occurs in all principal paragraphs of the Dhammasaºga˚ı,and there denotes the starting point of the analysis. The termreceives a detailed and very instructive treatment in its commentary,the Atthas›linı.

The Buddha succeeded in reducing this “immediate occasion”of an act of cognition to a single moment of consciousness, which,however, in its subtlety and evanescence cannot be observed, direct-ly and separately, by a mind untrained in introspective meditation.Just as the minute living beings in the microcosm of a drop of waterbecome visible only through a microscope, so too the exceedinglyshort-lived processes in the world of the mind become cognizableonly with the help of a very subtle instrument of mental scrutiny—a mind sharpened by methodical meditative training. None but thekind of introspective mindfulness or attention (sati ) that has

6

Abhidhamma Studies



acquired, in meditative absorption, a high degree of innerequipoise, purity, and firmness (upekkh›-sati-p›risuddhi ), will pos-sess the keenness, subtlety, and speed of cognitive response requiredfor such delicate mental microscopy. Without such meditativepreparation the only means of research open to the investigator willbe inference from comparisons between various complete or frag-mentary series of thought-moments. But if cautious and intelligentuse is made of one’s own introspective observations and of the treat-ment of meditative experience found in the suttas andAbhidhamma, even this approach, though far from infallible, maywell lead to important and reliable conclusions.

The Anupada Sutta (MN No. 111) reports that the VenerableS›riputta, after rising from meditative absorption (jh›na), was ableto analyze each meditative attainment into its constituent mentalfactors. This may be regarded as a precursor of the more detailedanalysis given in the Dhammasaºga˚ı.

The Milindapañha (“The Questions of King Milinda”), too,with fitting similes, emphasizes the difficulty of analyzing themental process and the greatness of the Buddha’s achievement inmaking such an analysis:

“A difficult feat indeed was accomplished, great king, bythe Exalted One.”“Which is that difficult feat, Venerable N›gasena?”“The Exalted One, great king, has accomplished a difficulttask when he analyzed a mental process having a singleobject, as consisting of consciousness with its concomitants,as follows: ‘This is sense-contact, this is feeling, perception,volition, consciousness.’”“Give an illustration of it, venerable sir.”“Suppose, great king, a man has gone to the sea by boat andtakes with the hollow of his hand a little sea water andtastes it. Will this man know, ‘This is water from theGanges, this is water from such other rivers as the Yamun›,the Aciravatı, etc.’?”“He can hardly know that.”

7




“But a still more difficult task, great king, was accomplishedby the Exalted One when he analyzed a mental process hav-ing a single object, as consisting of consciousness with itsconcomitants.”11

The rather terse and abstract form in which the Dhammasaºga˚ıpresents its analysis of the mind should not mislead us into suppos-ing that it is a product of late scholastic thought. When, in the courseof closer study, we notice the admirable inner consistency of the sys-tem, and gradually become aware of many of its subtle conceptionsand far-reaching implications, we will be convinced that at least thefundamental outlines and the key notes of Abhidhamma psychologymust be the result of a profound intuition gained through direct andpenetrative introspection. It will appear increasingly unlikely that theessential framework of the Abhidhamma could be the product of acumbersome process of discursive thinking and artificial thoughtconstruction. This impression of the essentially intuitive origin of theAbhidhamma’s mind-doctrine will also strengthen our convictionthat the basic structural principles of the Dhammasaºga˚ı and thePa˛˛h›na must be ascribed to the Buddha himself and his great disci-ples. What is called “scholastic thought”—which has its merit in itsown sphere and does not deserve wholesale condemnation—mayhave had its share later in formulating, elaborating, and codifying theteachings originally sprung from intuitive insight.

If we turn from the Abhidhamma to the highest contemporaryachievements of non-Buddhist Indian thought in the field of mindand “soul,” i.e., the early Upanishads and S›ªkhya, we would findthat apart from single great intuitions, they teem with concepts derivedfrom mythology, ritual, and abstract speculation. In comparison therealistic, sober, and scientific spirit of the Abhidhamma psychology (aswell as its nucleus found in the suttas) stands out very strongly. Forthose who could appreciate the significance of this contrast, theAbhidhamma would have inspired especially high esteem and admira-tion. But even if the Abhidhamma psychology is compared with laterpsychological teachings of the East and the West, its distance fromalmost all of them remains fundamentally the same; for only the

8

Abhidhamma Studies



Buddha’s teaching on mind keeps entirely free from the notions of self,ego, soul, or any other permanent entity in or behind the mind.

THE DOCTRINE OF NON-SELF

It is on this very doctrine of non-self, or anatt›, that allAbhidhamma thought converges, and this is where it culminates.The elaborate and thorough treatment of anatt› is also the mostimportant practical contribution that the Abhidhamma makes to the progress of the Buddhist disciple toward liberation. TheAbhidhamma provides ample material for meditation in the field ofinsight (vipassan› ) concerning impermanence and selflessness, andthis material has been analyzed down to the subtlest point and iscouched in strictly philosophical language.

There will certainly be many for whom the degree of analyticaldetail found in the Sutta Pi˛aka will be enough to understand anatt›,and to serve as a guideline in meditative practice. But there are alsominds that require repeated and varied demonstration and illustra-tion of a truth before they are entirely satisfied and convinced. Thereare also others who wish to push their analysis to the greatest detailpossible and to extend it to the very smallest unit accessible, in orderto make quite sure that even the realm of the infinitesimal, of thematerial and psychical “atoms,” does not hide any self or abidingsubstance. To such minds the Abhidhamma will be of great value.But also those who are generally satisfied with the expositions in thesuttas may sometimes wish to investigate more closely a particularpoint that has roused their interest or that presents difficulties. Tothem too the Abhidhamma will prove helpful.

Besides helping such individual cases, study of the Abhidhammawill more broadly assist in the slow, difficult change of outlook fromthe viewpoint of “self ” to that of “non-self.” Once one has graspedintellectually the doctrine of non-self, one can certainly succeed inapplying it to theoretical and practical issues if only one remembersit in time and deliberately directs one’s thoughts and volitionsaccordingly. But except for such deliberate directing of thought,which in most cases will be relatively rare, the mind will continue to

9




move in the old-accustomed ruts of “I” and “mine,” “self ” and“substance,” which are deeply ingrained in our daily language andour modes of thinking; and our actions too will still continue to befrequently governed by our ancient egocentric impulses. An occa-sional intellectual assent to the true outlook of anatt› will noteffect great changes in that situation. The only remedy is for bad orwrong habits of action, speech, and thought to be gradually replacedby good and correct habits until the latter become as spontaneous asthe former are now. It is therefore necessary that right thinking, thatis, thinking in terms of anatt›, be made the subject of regular andsystematic mental training until the power of wrong habits ofthought is reduced and finally broken. The Abhidhamma in gener-al, and in particular the various triads and dyads of terms as listed inthe m›tik›, the “matrix” of the Abhidhamma Pi˛aka, provide amplematerial for such “fluency exercises” of right thinking. Familiaritywith the application of the “impersonal” viewpoint of theAbhidhamma and with the terminology by which it is expressed willexercise a considerable formative influence on the mind.

ABHIDHAMMA AND MEDITATION

A fertile soil for the origin and persistence of beliefs and ideas about aself, soul, God, or any other form of an absolute entity, is misinter-preted meditative experience occurring in devotional rapture or mysti-cal trance. Such experience is generally interpreted by the mystic ortheologian as the revelation of a God, or union with some divineprinciple, or the manifestation of our true and eternal self. Suchinterpretations are conceived and accepted all the more readily sincesuch meditative experience so greatly transcends the average level ofconsciousness that the contemplative is readily tempted to connect itwith a deity or some other eternal principle. The overwhelming impactof such meditative experience on the mind will produce a strong con-viction of its reality and superiority; and this strong feeling of assurancewill be extended to the theological or speculative interpretation too. Inthat way these interpretations will obtain a strong hold on the mind;for they are imagined to correspond with actual, irrefutable experience,

10

Abhidhamma Studies



when in fact they are only superimpositions on the latter.The analytical method of the Abhidhamma gives immunity

against such deceptive interpretations. In the Dhammasaºga˚ı theconsciousness of jh›na, meditative absorption, is subjected to thesame sober analysis as the ordinary states of mind. It is shown thatmeditative consciousness, too, is a transitory combination of imper-manent, conditioned, and impersonal mental factors, which differfrom their counterparts accompanying ordinary consciousness onlyin their greater intensity and purity. They thus do not warrant anyassumption of a divine manifestation or an eternal self. It has alreadybeen mentioned how the Venerable S›riputta undertook such ananalysis of his meditative experience.

It is characteristic of the spirit of the Buddha’s Teaching that thedisciple is always advised to follow up his or her meditative absorp-tion by an analytical retrospection (paccavekkha˚a) on the mentalstates just experienced, comprehending them by insight (vipassan›)as impersonal and evanescent, and therefore not to be adhered to.By so doing, three main mental defilements (kilesa) are effectivelywarded off, which otherwise may easily arise as a consequence of theoverwhelming impact that the meditative experience might make onthe mind: (1) craving (ta˚h› ) for these experiences, clinging tothem, and longing for them for their own sake (jh›na-nikanti,“indulgence in jh›na”); (2) the false view (di˛˛hi ) that these medita-tive experiences imply a self or a deity; and (3) the conceit (m›na)that may arise through having attained these exalted states.

These remarks refer to the division of Buddhist meditationcalled “development of tranquillity” (samatha-bh›van›), aiming at the attainment of jh›na. Turning now to the “development ofinsight” (vipassan›-bh›van›), the classificatory terms of theAbhidhamma m›tik›, as explained in the Dhammasaºga˚ı, etc.,provide numerous possibilities for including in them the variousparticular subjects of insight. By such reference to the triads ordyads of terms in the m›tik› a limited subject of insight can easilybe connected with the entire world of actuality, thereby enrichingits significance. Such a particular subject of insight may either bedeliberately chosen from the traditional subjects of meditation or

11




may consist in some incidental occurrence in life. The latter againmay be either some deeply stirring inner or outer experience or evena quite ordinary happening of everyday life taken as an object ofright mindfulness and clear comprehension (sati-sampajañña), as isoften reported of meditating monks and nuns of old. If that eventcan at once be referred to one of the triads or dyads ofAbhidhammic terms, which comprise the whole of actuality, theimpulses it sets off can be more effectively channeled toward deepreligious commotion (saªvega) and insight. Thus a single act ofpenetrative understanding starting from a limited object mayacquire such intensity, width, and depth as to either lead to, oreffectively prepare for, liberating insight. This accords with what agreat Buddhist thinker has said: “The understanding of one singlething means the understanding of all; the voidness of one single thingis the voidness of all.”12

ABHIDHAMMA AND THE DHAMMA TEACHER

We have seen how important a study of the Abhidhamma can be forclarity of thought, for correct understanding, and for personal spiri-tual development. Yet, while a detailed knowledge of Abhidhammaphilosophy might well be optional for those devoted exclusively tomeditation, it is different for those who wish to teach and explain theDhamma to others. Here the Therav›da tradition considers familiar-ity with the Abhidhamma, even in its details, an indispensable quali-fication. We read (Asl 29): “Only monks who are proficient inAbhidhamma can be regarded as ‘preachers of Dhamma’ (dham-makathika). Others, even if they actually engage in preaching, cannottruly be so called. When giving a doctrinal exposition, they may, forinstance, mix up the various kinds of kamma and kammic results orthe various factors found when analyzing body and mind. But thoseproficient in Abhidhamma do not make such mistakes.”

Features that make the Abhidhamma so important for teachers ofthe Dhamma are especially these: its systematic organization of thedoctrinal material contained in the Sutta Pi˛aka; its use of orderly andmethodical thinking; its precise definitions of technical terms and

12

Abhidhamma Studies



delimitation of their referents; its treatment of various subjects andlife situations from the viewpoint of ultimate truth (paramattha); itsmastery of doctrinal detail.

THE EVALUATION AND AUTHENTICITY OF ABHIDHAMMA

Even in the ancient past opinions about the Abhidhamma Pi˛akaranged between the extremes of unquestioning veneration and whole-sale rejection. Very soon after the Abhidhamma became ascendant,there were teachers who questioned the claim that the AbhidhammaPi˛aka could be regarded as the genuine word of the Buddha. Theearly sect of the Sautr›ntikas, as their name indicates, regarded onlythe Sutta and Vinaya Pi˛akas as canonical but not the Abhidhamma.

It may have been a follower of that sect who is depicted criticiz-ing the Abhidhamma lecture of a monk thus (Asl 28):

“You have quoted, O preacher, a long sutta that seems togirdle Mount Meru. What is the name of it?”“It is an Abhidhamma sutta.”“But why did you quote an Abhidhamma sutta? Is it notbefitting to cite a sutta that has been proclaimed by theBuddha?”“And by whom do you think the Abhidhamma was pro-claimed?”“It was not proclaimed by the Buddha.”

Thereupon that monk is severely rebuked by the preacher, andafter that the text continues (Asl 29):

One who excludes the Abhidhamma (from the Buddha-Word) damages the Conqueror’s Wheel of Dhamma(jinacakkaª pah›raª deti ). He excludes thereby the omni-science of the Tath›gata and impoverishes the grounds ofthe Master’s knowledge of self-confidence (ves›rajja-ñ›˚a,to which omniscience belongs); he deceives an audienceanxious to learn; he obstructs (progress to) the noble paths

13




of holiness; he makes all the eighteen causes of discordappear at once. By so doing he deserves the disciplinarypunishment of temporary segregation, or the reproof of theassembly of monks.

This very severe attitude seems somewhat extreme, but it may beexplained as a defensive reaction against sectarian tendencies atthat period.

The main arguments of Therav›da against those who deny theauthenticity of the Abhidhamma are stated in the Atthas›linı as follows:

1. The Buddha has to be regarded as the first fibhidhammika,because, “he had already penetrated the Abhidhamma when sittingunder the Bodhi Tree” (Asl 17).

2. “The Abhidhamma, the ultimate doctrine, is the domain ofomniscient Buddhas only, not the domain of others…. These pro-found teachings are unmistakably the property of an enlightenedbeing, a Buddha. To deny this is as senseless as stealing the horse ofa World Ruler, unique in its excellence, or any other possession ofhis, and showing oneself in public with it. And why? Because theyobviously belong to and befit a king” (Asl 29–30).

Even to non-Buddhists, who do not regard the Buddha as anomniscient one but simply as a great and profound thinker, itwould seem improbable that he would have remained unaware ofthe philosophical and psychological implications of his teachings,even if he did not speak of them at the very start and to all his followers. Considering the undeniable profundity of theAbhidhamma, the worldwide horizons of that gigantic system, andthe inexhaustible impulses to thought that it offers—in view of allthis it seems much more probable that at least the basic teachings ofthe Abhidhamma derive from that highest intuition that theBuddha calls samm› sambodhi, perfect enlightenment. It appearstherefore quite plausible when the old Therav›da tradition ascribesthe framework and fundamental intuitions of the Abhidhamma—and no more than that—to the Master himself. A quite differentquestion, of course, is the origin of the codified Abhidhamma liter-ature as we have it at present. But this problem cannot be dealt with

14

Abhidhamma Studies



here, and in any case the sources and facts at our disposal do notallow definite conclusions to be drawn.

The Therav›da tradition holds that the Buddha first preached theAbhidhamma in the T›vatiªsa heaven to the gods who had assembledfrom ten thousand world systems.13 The preaching continued for thethree-month period of the rains retreat. Each day, when he returned tothe human world for his meal, he conveyed the bare method to theelder S›riputta. Whatever one may think about this tradition—whether, like the devout Asian Buddhist, one regards it as a historicalaccount, or whether one takes it as a significant legend—one factemerges from it fairly clearly: the originators of this very early traditiondid not think the Abhidhamma texts had been literally expounded bythe Buddha to human beings in the same way that he expounded thesuttas. If one wishes to give a psychological interpretation to the tra-ditional account, one might say that the sojourn in the world of thegods refers to periods of intense contemplation transcending thereaches of an earthbound mentality; and that from the heights of suchcontemplation the Master brought the fundamental teachings back tothe world of normal human consciousness and transmitted them tophilosophically gifted disciples like S›riputta.

In a comparative evaluation of the Abhidhamma and the suttas, thefact is often overlooked—which, however, has been repeatedly stressedby the Venerable Nyanatiloka Mah›thera—that the Sutta Pi˛aka toocontains a considerable amount of pure Abhidhamma. This comprisesall those numerous texts expounded from the ultimate standpoint(paramattha), which make use of strict philosophical terminology andexplain experience in terms of selfless, conditioned processes; for exam-ple, those suttas dealing with the five aggregates, the eighteen elements,and the twelve sense bases (khandha, dh›tu, ›yatana).

One also frequently hears the question asked whether a knowl-edge of the Abhidhamma is necessary for a full understanding of theDhamma or for final liberation. In this general form, the question isnot quite adequately put. Even in the Sutta Pi˛aka many differentapproaches and methods of practice are offered as “gates” to theunderstanding of the same Four Noble Truths. Not all of them are“necessary” for reaching the final goal, Nibb›na, nor are all suitable

15




in their entirety for every individual disciple. Rather, the Buddhataught a variety of approaches and left it to the disciples to maketheir personal choices among them, according to their personal cir-cumstances, inclination, and level of maturity.

The same holds true for the Abhidhamma both as a whole andin its single aspects and teachings. Perhaps the best explanation ofthe relationship between the Abhidhamma and the suttas is a pair ofsimiles given in a conversation by the Venerable Pëlëne Vajirañ›˚aMah›thera, the founding prelate of the Vajir›r›ma Monastery inColombo: “The Abhidhamma is like a powerful magnifying glass,but the understanding gained from the suttas is the eye itself, whichperforms the act of seeing. Or the Abhidhamma is like a medicinecontainer with a label giving an exact analysis of the medicine; butthe knowledge gained from the suttas is the medicine itself, whichalone is able to cure the illness and its symptoms.”

CONCLUDING REMARKS AND A WARNING

Taking a middle path between overrating or underrating theAbhidhamma, we might say: The teachings in the Sutta Pi˛aka withan Abhidhamma flavor—that is, those given in precise philosophicalterminology—are certainly indispensable for the understanding andpractice of the Dhamma; and the elaboration of these teachings inthe Abhidhamma proper may prove very helpful, and in some caseseven necessary, for both understanding and practice. As to the codi-fied Abhidhamma Pi˛aka, familiarity with all its details is certainlynot compulsory; but if it is studied and applied in the way brieflyindicated in these pages, this will surely nurture a true understand-ing of actuality and aid the work of practice aimed at liberation.Also, if suitably presented, the Abhidhamma can provide those witha philosophical bent a stimulating approach to the Dhamma thatcould prove fruitful, provided they take care to balance intellectualunderstanding with actual practice. Such an approach to theDhamma should certainly not be blocked by the wholesale dispar-agement of Abhidhamma study sometimes found nowadays amongBuddhists in the West, and even in Asia. Dangers of one-sided

16

Abhidhamma Studies



emphasis and development lurk not only in the Abhidhamma but alsoin other approaches to the Dhamma, and they cannot be entirelyavoided until a very high level of harmonious integration of the spiri-tual faculties has been attained.

To be sure, without an earnest attempt to apply theAbhidhamma teachings in such ways as intimated above, they mayeasily become a rigid system of lifeless concepts. Like other philo-sophical systems, the Abhidhamma can lead to a dogmatic andsuperstitious belief in words, for example, to the opinion that onereally knows something about a subject if one is skilled in navigatingits conceptual system. The study of the Abhidhamma should there-fore not be allowed to degenerate into a mere collecting, counting,and arranging of such conceptual labels. This would make ofAbhidhamma study—though, of course, not of the Abhidhammaitself—just one more among the many intellectual “playthings” thatserve as an escape from facing reality, or as a “respectable excuse”with which to evade the hard inner work needed for liberation. Amerely abstract and conceptual approach to the Abhidhamma mayalso lead to that kind of intellectual pride that often goes togetherwith specialized knowledge.

If these pitfalls are avoided, there is a good chance that theAbhidhamma may again become a living force that stimulatesthought and aids the meditative endeavor for the mind’s liberation,the purpose for which the Abhidhamma is really meant. To achievethis, however, the Abhidhamma teachings must be not merelyaccepted and transmitted verbally but carefully examined and con-templated in their philosophical and practical implications. Theseteachings are often extremely condensed, and on many points ofinterest even the classical commentaries are silent. Thus to workout their implications will require the devoted effort of searchingand imaginative minds. As they will have to work on neglected anddifficult ground, they should not lack the courage to make initialmistakes, which can be rectified by discussion and constant refer-ence to the teachings of the Sutta Pi˛aka.

17




abhidhamma studies: buddhist explorations of consciousness & time

Documents