3.10.12

Lesson 3.10.12 Tikapaṭṭhāna – Paccayaniddeso: Exposition of the Conditions

A meditator who listens to the early morning Day 5 chanting of a 10-day Vipassana course by S.N. Goenka will encounter a difference of tone and meter compared to the usual Paritta chantings on the other days. The recitation of this day has its source in the seventh book of the Abhidhamma collection, the initial Tikapaṭṭhāna of the Paṭṭhānapāli. It contains the short enumeration of the 24 conditions, the Paccayuddeso, which is succeeded by the longer descriptive Paccayaniddeso. Though Paccayaniddeso is translated as ‘analytical specification of the condition’, one should not expect that a clear and easily comprehensible explanation is provided. The text rather articulates ‘the means by which’ all respective conditions activate other phenomena (paccayuppannadhammā) to arise as conditioning state (paccayadhamma). These are, in general, described in abstract terminology such as consciousness element (viññāṇadhātu), mind element (manodhātu), aggregates (khandhā), or primary elements (mahābhūtā).