Exploring the Path - Pāli Course

Kiṃ nu sattoti paccesi,¹ māra diṭṭhigataṃ nu te;
Suddhasaṅkhārapuñjoyaṃ,² nayidha sattupalabbhati.³
Yathā hi aṅgasambhārā, hoti saddo ratho iti;
Evaṃ khandhesu santesu, hoti sattoti sammuti.^{4 5}

Why do you take ‘a being’ for granted, Māra, isn’t that only your hypothetical notion?
This here is purely a heap of conditioned factors,
Not anything like ‘a being’ can be found!
Just like through an assemblage of various parts, the term ‘chariot’ comes to mind,
So when there is an assemblage of aggregates,
The term ‘being’ is conventionally used.

These verses refer to an occasion when Māra, the Evil One, approached the nun, Vajirā. It is said that on one occasion Vajirā had withdrawn into the Andhavana forest and sat down at the root of a tree to rest during the day’s heat (divāvihāraṃ). Māra then approached her with the intention of distracting her from concentrating by causing fear, trembling and goose bumps.⁶ Māra then requested her to explain how a ‘being’ is created, who would be its maker, from where does a being arise and to where would it cease.⁷

Vajirā replied in the above verses and then added this.

… Dukkhameva hi sambhoti, dukkhaṃ tiṭṭhati veti ca;

Nāññatra dukkhā sambhoti, nāññaṃ dukkhā nirujjhatī’ti.

… Only suffering it is that comes to be, it is suffering that stands and disappears,

Nothing but suffering comes to exist, nothing but suffering comes to cease.

Then Māra realized that ‘the Bhikkhuni Vajirā knows me’⁸ then disappeared immediately, grief-stricken and depressed.⁹

On request, ETP has decided to add a succinct summary and Introduction to what is called the ‘Higher Teaching’ or Abhidhamma. It is especially intended for course participants of the 10-day Vipassana courses of S.N. Goenka, who often wonder what the morning chanting on day 5 (the Tikapaṭṭhāna short recitation of the Paccayuddeso and the Paccayaniddeso) is all about. What actually is the relation and the difference to the long Tikapaṭṭhāna recitation played in other courses by S.N. Goenka?

To help answer this, the following lessons will provide an introduction to the general context of the Abhidhamma before some notes are shared about those recitations.¹⁰

Bhikkhuni Vajirā’s reply opens this Introduction because she uses and depicts Abhidhamma terminology. While Māra addresses Vajirā in the terminology that is employed in the Sutta Piṭaka, where satto as a description for ‘being’ seems to be colloquial and logical, her reply using the term suddhasaṅkhārapuñjoya (purely a heap of conditioned factors) seems more technical and less easily comprehensible. Because much of Abhidhamma terminology articulates abstract content it can generally be difficult to understand since it is an extremely technical, complex and profound analysis of the Buddha’s subtle explanation of the universe. It elucidates on laws regarding the qualities and principles of mind and matter, animate and inanimate phenomena that are void of ‘self’, of ‘soul’, of ‘substance’, of ‘I’, of ‘person’ and of ‘being’. Abhidhamma, in its profundity and intricacy, can only be elucidated through the omniscience of a fully Enlightened Buddha.

The purpose of all the teachings of the Buddha is to guide his audience towards liberation. Being a perfect teacher, he used different explanations in respect to the intellectual capacity of his audience. For example, in the Sutta Piṭaka he uses easy-to-understand wording, known in Pāli as suttanta bhājanīya. Here the Dhamma is taught in customary terms (vohāravacana) with descriptions and references to worldly incidents, persons, entities such as trees, animals and common objects along with similes, simple examples and comparisons expressing conventional reality (sammutisacca).¹¹ Thus Māra, in his address to Vajirā, makes use of such conceptual or conventional reality by using the words ‘being’, ‘man’ or ‘woman’.

In the Abhidhamma, however, the teaching is more thorough, penetrating and describes in minute details mental and physical phenomena in its ultimate reality (paramatthasacca). The mechanisms of the reality of mind and matter is dissected and broken down to the smallest observable processes. When such conventional reality as ‘being’, ‘man’ or ‘woman’ is scrutinized, it is found that they do not possess any definitive reality but consist of an accumulation of ever-changing factors and ongoing mental and material processes. All detailed explanation and analysis are based on classifications and principles of abstract realities that elucidate the entire universe via abstract concepts, i.e., these concepts do not have any physical or concrete existence (abhidhamma bhājanīya).

Therefore, for most meditators the terminology of the Paṭiccasamuppāda, even though abstract, seems to some extent intelligible. The sutta-styled exposition of cause and effect, as expounded in the Paṭiccasamuppāda, uses terms that are generally comprehensible to a practitioner of meditation. One tries to understand, for example, saṅkhārā and experience or recognize the connection between vedanā, the craving towards certain kinds of sensations and aversion towards others (taṇhā) and the resulting attachment (upādāna). By objective, remote observation one is enabled to work on the removal of the overcoming unwholesome inner forces and thus realize, by one’s own experience, the path towards liberation.

But when comparing one’s conventional comprehension with Abhidhamma terms in the Paṭṭhānamātikā (e.g., root condition, predominance condition, proximity condition, contiguity condition, absence condition, disappearance condition, non-disappearance condition, etc.) everything sounds less perceivable or even a bit bizarre! Nonetheless, meditators and followers of the path with deeper insight in meditation will appreciate the analytical descriptions in the abhidhamma bhājanīya as a kind of road map, away from the common conventional realities, towards the ultimate truths with a more detailed, abstract comprehension in line with their deeper experiences. Its purpose is to help realize liberation through insight.¹² But it must be emphasised that studying the Abhidhamma should be based on proper comprehension realised through experience by following the Buddha’s teaching. When doing so, beneficial results may occur reinforcing one on the path, otherwise, such studies may turn into a mere intellectual and philosophical pursuit.

It should be noted that due to technical considerations not all the lessons will follow the same presentational order used thus far in this Pāli program. For example, this lesson provides an arrangement of essential Abhidhamma terminology in a side-by-side, Pāli-English layout only, leaving out the dedicated Pāli and English-only sections.

May the reader benefit from this synopsis of the theory of Abhidhamma, and not be led off track, away from his or her practice. After all, the main focus of this Exploring the Path Pāli program is to provide inspiration through pariyatti to rouse practice and insight: paṭipatti and paṭivedha!¹³