Preface

The Buddha’s te ac hings, con tained in the “Tipi t . ak a” (Three Bask ets) are: the Vina y a (Bo ok of Discipline for the monks), the Sut tan ta (Discourses) and the Abhidhamma. Al l three parts of the Tipi t . ak a can b e an inexhaustible source of inspiration and encouragemen t to the practice, the dev elopmen t of righ t understanding of realities. The dev elopmen t of righ t understanding will ev en tually lead to th e eradication of wrong vi e w and the other defile- men ts. In all three parts of the Tipi t . ak a w e are tau gh t ab out dhamma , ab out ev erything whic h is real. Seeing is a dhamma, it is real. Colour is a dhamma, it is real. F eeling is a dhamma, it is real. Our defilemen ts are dh am mas, they are realiti e s.

When the Buddha attained enligh tenmen t he clearly knew all dhammas as they really are. He tau gh t the “Dhamma”, the teac hing on realiti e s, to us in order that w e also m a y kno w dhammas as they are. Without the Buddha’s teac h ing w e w ould b e ignoran t of realit y . W e are inclined to tak e for p ermanen t what is imp ermanen t, for pleasan t what is sorro wful and unsatisfactory (dukkha), an d for “se l f ” what is non-self. The aim of all three parts of the T i pi t . ak a is to teac h p eople the dev elopmen t of the w a y leading to the end of d e fi lem en ts. The Vin a y a con tains the rules for the monks and these rules help them to liv e to p er- fection the “brah m an life” and to reac h “ . . . that unsurpassed goal of the brahman life, realizing it b y p ersonal kn o wledge ev en in this life; for the sak e of whic h clansmen righ tly go for th from the home in to the homeless lif e . . . ” (Gradual Sa yings, Bo ok of the Fiv es, c hapter VI, paragraph 6, The Preceptor). The goal of the “brahman life” is the eradication

of defilemen ts.

Not only monks, but also la yme n s h ould study the Vina y a. W e read ab out the instances that monks deviated from their purit y of life; when there w as suc h a case, a rule w as laid do wn in order to help them to b e w atc hful. When w e read the Vina y a w e are reminded of our o wn attac hmen t (lobha), a v ersion (dosa) and ignor ance (moha); they are realities. So long as they ha v e not b ee n eradicated they can arise at an y time. W e are reminded ho w deeply ro oted defilemen ts are and what they can lead to. When w e consider this, w e are motiv ated to dev elop the e igh tfold P ath whic h leads to the eradication of wrong view, jealousy , stinginess, conceit and all other d e fi lem en ts.

In the Suttan ta, the “Discourses ”, the Dhamma is explained t o differen t p eople at differ- en t places on v arious o ccasions. The Buddha taugh t ab out all realities app earing through the “six do or s ” of ey es, ears, nose, tongue, b o dy-sense and m i nd. He taugh t ab out cause and effect and ab out the practice leading to the end of all sorro w.

As regards the Abhidhamma , this is an exp osition of all realities in detail. The prefix “abhi” is used in the sense of “prep on derance” or “distinction”. “Abhidhamma” means “higher dhamma” or “dhamma in detail”. The form of this part of the Tipi t . ak a is differen t, but the aim is the same: the eradication of wrong view and ev en tually of all defil e men ts. Th us, w h e n w e study the man y en umerations of realities, w e should not for ge t the real purp ose of our study . The theory (pariy atti) should encourage us to the practice (pa t . ipatti) whic h is necessary for the realization of the t ruth (pa t . iv edha). While w e are studying the differen t men tal phenomena (n ¯ amas) and ph ysic al phenomena (r u ¯ pas) and while w e are p ondering o v er them, w e can b e reminded to b e a w are of the n ¯ ama and r u ¯ pa whic h app ear at that momen t. In this w a y w e will disco v er more and more that the Abhidhamma explains ev erything whic h is real, that is, the “w orl ds” app earing throu gh the six do ors of the senses and the mind .

This b o ok is mean t as an in tro duction to the stud y of the Abhidhamma. In order to und e rstan d this b o ok, some basic kno wledge of Buddhism is necessary . My b o ok The Buddha’s P ath could b e helpful to mak e the reader acquain ted with the basic principles and tenets of Buddhism b efore he starts to read this b o ok on the Abhidhamma.

I am using terms i n P ¯ ali whic h is the original language of the scriptures of the old Thera v ¯ ada tradition. The English equiv alen ts of the P ¯ ali terms are often unsatisfactory since they stem from W estern philosoph y and psyc hology and therefore giv e an as so ciation of meaning whic h is differen t from the meaning in tended b y the Buddhist teac hings. I hop e that the reader, instead of b eing discouraged b y the P ¯ ali terms and b y the man y en umerations whic h are use d in this b o ok, will dev elop a gro wing in terest in the realities to b e exp erienced in an d around himself.

Ms. Sujin Boriharn w anak et h as b e en of immense assistance and inspiration to me in m y study of the Abhidhamma. She encouraged me to disco v e r for m yself that the Abhidhamma deals with realities to b e exp erienced through the senses and the mind. Th us I learn t that the study of th e Abhidhamma is a pro cess whic h con tin ues throughout life. I hop e that the reader will ha v e a similar exp erience and that he will b e full of en th usiasm and gladness ev ery time he studies realities whic h can b e exp erienced!

I ha v e quoted man y times from the suttas in order to sho w that the teac hing con tained in the Abhidhamma is not differen t from the teac hing in the other parts of the Tipi t . ak a. I ha v e mostly used the English tr anslation of the “P ¯ ali T ext So ciet y” (T ranslation Series). F or the quotations from the Visuddhimagga (P ath of P urification) I ha v e used the translation b y Bhikkh u N ~ ¯ a n . amoli (Colom b o, Sri Lank a, 1964). The Visuddhimagga is an Encyclop edia on Buddhism written b y the commen tator Buddhaghosa in the fifth cen tury A.D. He also

edited the commen taries to most parts of the T i pi t . ak a, thereb y basing h is w orks on old e r commen tarial trad itions.

The Abhidhamma consists of the follo wing sev en b o oks 1 :

• Dhammasanga n . i (Buddhist P s y c hological Ethics)

• Vibha n ˙ ga (Bo ok of Analysis)

• Dh ¯ atuk ath ¯ a (Discussion on the Elemen ts)

• Puggalapa n ~ n ~ atti (A Designation of Human T yp es)

• Kath ¯ av atth u (P oin ts of Con tro v ersy)

• Y amak a (the Bo ok of P airs)

• P a t . t . h ¯ ana (Conditional Relations)

When I first started to write this b o ok m y sources w ere the Vi s ud dhimagga and the A tthas ¯ ali n ¯ ı (Exp ositor), the commen tary to the Dhammasanga n . i, written b y Buddhaghosa. I also used the Abhidhammattha S angaha, an Encyclop edia of the Abhidhamma, written b y An uruddha 2 . These w orks help ed me greatly with the study of the Abhidhamma itself, of

1 F or a synopsi s of their con ten ts see: Guide through the Abhidhamma Pitak a b y V en. Ny anatilok a.

2 This w ork w as comp osed some time b et w een the 8th and the 12th cen tury A.D. It has b een translated in to English and published b y the P .T.S. under the title of “Comp endium of Philosoph y”, and b y V en. N ¯ arada, Colom b o, under the title of “A Man ual of Abhidhamma”. It has also b een translated b y the V enerable Bikkh u Bo dhi as “A Comprehensiv e Man ual of Abhidhamma”. Moreo v er, it has b een translated together with its commen tary as “Summary of the T opics of A bhidhamma” and “Exp osition of the T opics of Abhidham ma”, b y R.P . Wijeratne and Rup ert Gethin.

the Dhammasanga n . i and some of the other b o oks of the abhid hamm a I gradually acquired later on.

The commen taries giv e a detailed explanation and nomenclature of the differen t cittas, momen ts of consciousness, whic h eac h p erform their o wn function, and they deal with the differen t pr o cesses of cittas exp eriencing an ob ject through a sense-do or or through the mind-do or. Although not all the details concerning the pro cesses of cittas can b e fou nd in the scriptures themselv es, the commen taries are firmly based on the scriptures. The essence of the sub jects explain e d b y the commen taries can b e f ound in the scriptures. The Dhammasanga n . i, whic h is an analytical exp osition of realities, en umerates differen t c i ttas arising in pro cess es. The Vib ha n ˙ ga, under “Analysis of the Elemen ts”, refers to c i ttas p erforming their functions in pro cesses and also the P a t . t . h ¯ ana refers to pro cesses of cittas under the heading of s ome of the conditions it deals with. Moreo v er, the P a t . isam bhid ¯ amagga (Kh uddak a Nik ¯ ay a) men tions (I, T reatise on Kno wle d ge , in c hapter XVI I, under “b e ha viour of citta”, vi n ~ n ~ ¯ a n . a cariy a) differen t functions of citta i n a pro cess. I hop e that these few references sho w th at the commen tator did not giv e his o wn p ersonal view s, but w as faithf ul to the tradition of the original scriptures.

In the last fou r c hapters of this b o ok I explain ab out the cittas whic h attain jh ¯ ana, absorption, and the cittas whic h attain enligh tenmen t. Some readers ma y w onder wh y they should kno w details ab out these sub jects. It is useful to study details ab out jh ¯ ana and enligh tenmen t b ecause p eople ma y ha v e wrong notions ab out them. The study of the Abhidhamma will help one not to b e delud e d ab out realities. Moreo v e r , it will help on e to understand the suttas where there is often reference to jh ¯ an a and to the attainmen t of enligh tenmen t.

I ha v e added some questions after the c hapters whic h ma y help the reader to p onder o v er what he has read.

The late Bhikkh u Dhammadharo (Alan Driv er) and also Mr. Jonothan Abb ott ga v e me most helpful corrections and suggestions for the text of the first edition of this b o ok. I also w an t to ac kno wledge m y gratitude to the “Dhamma Stud y and Propagation F oundation” and to the publisher Alan W eller who ha v e made p ossible the third edition of this b o ok.

Nina van Gorkom