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https://archive.org/details/guidetotipitaka029042mbp
Guide To Tipitaka
by Sayagyi U Ko Lay

Publication date 2001/00/00
Topics Guide To Tipitaka, Sayagyi U Ko Lay, Selangor Buddhist Vipassana Meditation Society, LANGUAGE. LINGUISTICS. LITERATURE
Publisher Selangor Buddhist Vipassana Meditation Society , Selangor , Malaysia
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Language English
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A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma

The Abhidhammattha Sangaha of Acariya Anuruddha

general editor

Bhikkhu Bodhi

pali text originally edited and translated by

Mahathera Narada

© 1995

Introduction

by U Rewata Dhamma and Bhikkhu Bodhi

The nucleus of the present book is a medieval compendium of Buddhist philosophy entitled the Abhidhammattha Sangaha.
This work is ascribed to Acariya Anuruddha, a Buddhist savant about
whom so little is known that even his country of origin and the exact
century in which he lived remain in question. Nevertheless, despite the
personal obscurity that surrounds the author, his little manual has
become one of the most important and influential textbooks of Theravada
Buddhism. In nine short chapters occupying about fifty pages in print,
the author provides a masterly summary of that abstruse body of Buddhist
doctrine called the Abhidhamma. Such is his skill in capturing the
essentials of that system, and in arranging them in a format suitable
for easy comprehension, that his work has become the standard primer for
Abhidhamma studies throughout the Theravada Buddhist countries of South
and Southeast Asia. In these countries, particularly in Burma where the
study of Abhidhamma is pursued most assiduously, the Abhidhammattha Sangaha is regarded as the indispensable key to unlock this great treasure-store of Buddhist wisdom.

The Abhidhamma

At the heart of the Abhidhamma philosophy is the Abhidhamma Pitaka,
one of the divisions of the Pali canon recognized by Theravada Buddhism
as the authoritative recension of the Buddha’s teachings. This canon was
compiled at the three great Buddhist councils held in India in the
early centuries following the Buddha’s demise: the first, at Rajagaha,
convened three months after the Buddha’s Parinibbana by five hundred
senior monks under the leadership of the Elder Mahakassapa; the second,
at Vesali, a hundred years later; and the third, at Pataliputta, two
hundred years later. The canon that emerged from these councils,
preserved in the Middle Indian language now called Pali, is known as the
Tipitaka, the three “baskets” or collections of the teachings. The
first collection, the Vinaya Pitaka, is the book of discipline,
containing the rules of conduct for the bhikkhus and bhikkhunis — the
monks and nuns — and the regulations governing the Sangha, the monastic
order. The Sutta Pitaka, the second collection, brings together the
Buddha’s discourses spoken by him on various occasions during his active
ministry of forty-five years. And the third collection is the
Abhidhamma Pitaka, the “basket” of the Buddha’s “higher” or “special”
doctrine.

This third great division of the Pali canon bears a distinctly
different character from the other two divisions. Whereas the Suttas and
Vinaya serve an obvious practical purpose, namely, to proclaim a
clear-cut message of deliverance and to lay down a method of personal
training, the Abhidhamma Pitaka presents the appearance of an abstract
and highly technical systemization of the doctrine. The collection
consists of seven books: the Dhammasangani, the Vibhanga, the Dhatukatha, the Puggalapaññatti, the Kathavatthu, the Yamaka, and the Patthana.
Unlike the Suttas, these are not records of discourses and discussions
occurring in real-life settings; they are, rather, full-blown treatises
in which the principles of the doctrine have been methodically
organized, minutely defined, and meticulously tabulated and classified.
Though they were no doubt originally composed and transmitted orally and
only written down later, with the rest of the canon in the first
century B.C., they exhibit the qualities of structured thought and
rigorous consistency more typical of written documents.

In the Theravada tradition the Abhidhamma Pitaka is held in the
highest esteem, revered as the crown jewel of the Buddhist scriptures.
As examples of this high regard, in Sri Lanka King Kassapa V (tenth
century A.C.) had the whole Abhidhamma Pitaka inscribed on gold plates
and the first book set in gems, while another king, Vijayabahu (eleventh
century) used to study the Dhammasangani each morning before
taking up his royal duties and composed a translation of it into
Sinhala. On a cursory reading, however, this veneration given to the
Abhidhamma seems difficult to understand. The texts appear to be merely a
scholastic exercise in manipulating sets of doctrinal terms, ponderous
and tediously repetitive.

The reason the Abhidhamma Pitaka is so deeply revered only becomes
clear as a result of thorough study and profound reflection, undertaken
in the conviction that these ancient books have something significant to
communicate. When one approaches the Abhidhamma treatises in such a
spirit and gains some insight into their wide implications and organic
unity, one will find that they are attempting nothing less than to
articulate a comprehensive vision of the totality of experienced
reality, a vision marked by extensiveness of range, systematic
completeness, and analytical precision. From the standpoint of Theravada
orthodoxy the system that they expound is not a figment of speculative
thought, not a mosaic put together out of metaphysical hypotheses, but a
disclosure of the true nature of existence as apprehended by a mind
that has penetrated the totality of things both in depth and in the
finest detail. Because it bears this character, the Theravada tradition
regards the Abhidhamma as the most perfect expression possible of the
Buddha’s unimpeded omniscient knowledge (sabbaññuta-ñana). It is
his statement of the way things appear to the mind of a Fully
Enlightened One, ordered in accordance with the two poles of his
teaching: suffering and the cessation of suffering.

The system that the Abhidhamma Pitaka articulates is simultaneously a
philosophy, a psychology, and an ethics, all integrated into the
framework of a program for liberation. The Abhidhamma may be described
as a philosophy because it proposes an ontology, a perspective on the
nature of the real. This perspective has been designated the “dhamma
theory” (dhammavada). Briefly, the dhamma theory maintains that ultimate reality consists of a multiplicity of elementary constituents called dhammas.
The dhammas are not noumena hidden behind phenomena, not “things in
themselves” as opposed to “mere appearances,” but the fundamental
components of actuality. The dhammas fall into two broad classes: the
unconditioned dhamma, which is solely Nibbana, and the conditioned
dhammas, which are the momentary mental and material phenomena that
constitute the process of experience. The familiar world of substantial
objects and enduring persons is, according to the dhamma theory, a
conceptual construct fashioned by the mind out of the raw data provided
by the dhammas. The entities of our everyday frame of reference possess
merely a consensual reality derivative upon the foundational stratum of
the dhammas. It is the dhammas alone that possess ultimate reality:
determinate existence “from their own side” (sarupato) independent of the mind’s conceptual processing of the data.

Such a conception of the nature of the real seems to be already
implicit in the Sutta Pitaka, particularly in the Buddha’s disquisitions
on the aggregates, sense bases, elements, dependent arising, etc., but
it remains there tacitly in the background as the underpinning to the
more pragmatically formulated teachings of the Suttas. Even in the
Abhidhamma Pitaka itself the dhamma theory is not yet expressed as an
explicit philosophical tenet; this comes only later, in the
Commentaries. Nevertheless, though as yet implicit, the theory still
comes into focus in its role as the regulating principle behind the
Abhidhamma’s more evident task, the project of systemization.

This project starts from the premise that to attain the wisdom that
knows things “as they really are,” a sharp wedge must be driven between
those types of entities that possess ontological ultimacy, that is, the
dhammas, and those types of entities that exist only as conceptual
constructs but are mistakenly grasped as ultimately real. Proceeding
from this distinction, the Abhidhamma posits a fixed number of dhammas
as the building blocks of actuality, most of which are drawn from the
Suttas. It then sets out to define all the doctrinal terms used in the
Suttas in ways that reveal their identity with the ontological ultimates
recognized by the system. On the basis of these definitions, it
exhaustively classifies the dhammas into a net of pre-determined
categories and modes of relatedness which highlight their place within
the system’s structure. And since the system is held to be a true
reflection of actuality, this means that the classification pinpoints
the place of each dhamma within the overall structure of actuality.

The Abhidhamma’s attempt to comprehend the nature of reality,
contrary to that of classical science in the West, does not proceed from
the standpoint of a neutral observer looking outwards towards the
external world. The primary concern of the Abhidhamma is to understand
the nature of experience, and thus the reality on which it focuses is
conscious reality, the world as given in experience, comprising both
knowledge and the known in the widest sense. For this reason the
philosophical enterprise of the Abhidhamma shades off into a
phenomenological psychology. To facilitate the understanding of
experienced reality, the Abhidhamma embarks upon an elaborate analysis
of the mind as it presents itself to introspective meditation. It
classifies consciousness into a variety of types, specifies the factors
and functions of each type, correlates them with their objects and
physiological bases, and shows how the different types of consciousness
link up with each other and with material phenomena to constitute the
ongoing process of experience.

This analysis of mind is not motivated by theoretical curiosity but
by the overriding practical aim of the Buddha’s teaching, the attainment
of deliverance from suffering. Since the Buddha traces suffering to our
tainted attitudes — a mental orientation rooted in greed, hatred, and
delusion — the Abhidhamma’s phenomenological psychology also takes on
the character of a psychological ethics, understanding the term “ethics”
not in the narrow sense of a code of morality but as a complete guide
to noble living and mental purification. Accordingly we find that the
Abhidhamma distinguishes states of mind principally on the basis of
ethical criteria: the wholesome and the unwholesome, the beautiful
factors and the defilements. Its schematization of consciousness follows
a hierarchical plan that corresponds to the successive stages of purity
to which the Buddhist disciple attains by practice of the Buddha’s
path. This plan traces the refinement of the mind through the
progression of meditative absorptions, the fine-material-sphere and
immaterial-sphere jhanas, then through the stages of insight and the
wisdom of the supramundane paths and fruits. Finally, it shows the whole
scale of ethical development to culminate in the perfection of purity
attained with the mind’s irreversible emancipation from all defilements.

All three dimensions of the Abhidhamma — the philosophical, the
psychological, and the ethical — derive their final justification from
the cornerstone of the Buddha’s teaching, the program of liberation
announced by the Four Noble Truths. The ontological survey of dhammas
stems from the Buddha’s injunction that the noble truth of suffering,
identified with the world of conditioned phenomena as a whole, must be
fully understood (pariññeyya). The prominence of mental
defilements and requisites of enlightenment in its schemes of
categories, indicative of its psychological and ethical concerns,
connects the Abhidhamma to the second and fourth noble truths, the
origin of suffering and the way leading to its end. And the entire
taxonomy of dhammas elaborated by the system reaches its consummation in
the “unconditioned element” (asankhata dhatu), which is Nibbana, the third noble truth, that of the cessation of suffering.

The Twofold Method

The great Buddhist commentator, Acariya Buddhaghosa, explains the
word “Abhidhamma” as meaning “that which exceeds and is distinguished
from the Dhamma” (dhammatireka-dhammavisesa), the prefix abhi having the sense of preponderance and distinction, and dhamma here signifying the teaching of the Sutta Pitaka.[1]
When the Abhidhamma is said to surpass the teaching of the Suttas, this
is not intended to suggest that the Suttanta teaching is defective in
any degree or that the Abhidhamma proclaims some new revelation of
esoteric doctrine unknown to the Suttas. Both the Suttas and the
Abhidhamma are grounded upon the Buddha’s unique doctrine of the Four
Noble Truths, and all the principles essential to the attainment of
enlightenment are already expounded in the Sutta Pitaka. The difference
between the two in no way concerns fundamentals but is, rather, partly a
matter of scope and partly a matter of method.

As to scope, the Abhidhamma offers a thoroughness and completeness of
treatment that cannot be found in the Sutta Pitaka. Acariya Buddhaghosa
explains that in the Suttas such doctrinal categories as the five
aggregates, the twelve sense bases, the eighteen elements, and so forth,
are classified only partly, while in the Abhidhamma Pitaka they are
classified fully according to different schemes of classification, some
common to the Suttas, others unique to the Abhidhamma.[2] Thus the Abhidhamma has a scope and an intricacy of detail that set it apart from the Sutta Pitaka.

The other major area of difference concerns method. The discourses
contained in the Sutta Pitaka were expounded by the Buddha under diverse
circumstances to listeners with very different capacities for
comprehension. They are primarily pedagogical in intent, set forth in
the way that will be most effective in guiding the listener in the
practice of the teaching and in arriving at a penetration of its truth.
To achieve this end the Buddha freely employs the didactic means
required to make the doctrine intelligible to his listeners. He uses
simile and metaphor; he exhorts, advises, and inspires; he sizes up the
inclinations and aptitudes of his audience and adjusts the presentation
of the teaching so that it will awaken a positive response. For this
reason the Suttanta method of teaching is described as pariyaya-dhammadesana, the figurative or embellished discourse on the Dhamma.

In contrast to the Suttas, the Abhidhamma Pitaka is intended to
divulge as starkly and directly as possible the totalistic system that
underlies the Suttanta expositions and upon which the individual
discourses draw. The Abhidhamma takes no account of the personal
inclinations and cognitive capacities of the listeners; it makes no
concessions to particular pragmatic requirements. It reveals the
architectonics of actuality in an abstract, formalistic manner utterly
devoid of literary embellishments and pedagogical expedients. Thus the
Abhidhamma method is described as the nippariyaya-dhammadesana, the literal or unembellished discourse on the Dhamma.

This difference in technique between the two methods also influences
their respective terminologies. In the Suttas the Buddha regularly makes
use of conventional language (voharavacana) and accepts conventional truth (sammutisacca),
truth expressed in terms of entities that do not possess ontological
ultimacy but can still be legitimately referred to them. Thus in the
Suttas the Buddha speaks of “I” and “you,” of “man” and “woman,” of
living beings, persons, and even self as though they were concrete
realities. The Abhidhamma method of exposition, however, rigorously
restricts itself to terms that are valid from the standpoint of ultimate
truth (paramatthasacca): dhammas, their characteristics, their
functions, and their relations. Thus in the Abhidhamma all such
conceptual entities provisionally accepted in the Suttas for purposes of
meaningful communication are resolved into their ontological ultimates,
into bare mental and material phenomena that are impermanent,
conditioned, and dependently arisen, empty of any abiding self or
substance.

But a qualification is necessary. When a distinction is drawn between
the two methods, this should be understood to be based on what is most
characteristic of each Pitaka and should not be interpreted as an
absolute dichotomy. To some degree the two methods overlap and
interpenetrate. Thus in the Sutta Pitaka we find discourses that employ
the strictly philosophical terminology of aggregates, sense bases,
elements, etc., and thus come within the bounds of the Abhidhamma
method. Again, within the Abhidhamma Pitaka we find sections, even a
whole book (the Puggalapaññatti), that depart from the rigorous
manner of expression and employ conventional terminology, thus coming
within the range of the Suttanta method.

Distinctive Features of the Abhidhamma

Apart from its strict adherence to the philosophical method of
exposition, the Abhidhamma makes a number of other noteworthy
contributions integral to its task of systemization. One is the
employment, in the main books of the Abhidhamma Pitaka, of a matika
— a matrix or schedule of categories — as the blueprint for the entire
edifice. This matrix, which comes at the very beginning of the Dhammasangani
as a preface to the Abhidhamma Pitaka proper, consists of 122 modes of
classification special to the Abhidhamma method. Of these, twenty-two
are triads (tika), sets of three terms into which the fundamental dhammas are to be distributed; the remaining hundred are dyads (duka), sets of two terms used as a basis for classification.[3]
The matrix serves as a kind of grid for sorting out the complex
manifold of experience in accordance with principles determined by the
purposes of the Dhamma. For example, the triads include such sets as
states that are wholesome, unwholesome, indeterminate; states associated
with pleasant feeling, painful feeling, neutral feeling; states that
are kamma results, productive of kamma results, neither; and so forth.
The dyads include such sets as states that are roots, not roots; states
concomitant with roots, not so concomitant; states that are conditioned,
unconditioned; states that are mundane, supramundane; and so forth. By
means of its selection of categories, the matrix embraces the totality
of phenomena, illuminating it from a variety of angles philosophical,
psychological, and ethical in nature.

A second distinguishing feature of the Abhidhamma is the dissection
of the apparently continuous stream of consciousness into a succession
of discrete evanescent cognitive events called cittas, each a
complex unity involving consciousness itself, as the basic awareness of
an object, and a constellation of mental factors (cetasika)
exercising more specialized tasks in the act of cognition. Such a view
of consciousness, at least in outline, can readily be derived from the
Sutta Pitaka’s analysis of experience into the five aggregates, among
which the four mental aggregates are always inseparably conjoined, but
the conception remains there merely suggestive. In the Abhidhamma Pitaka
the suggestion is not simply picked up, but is expanded into an
extraordinarily detailed and coherent picture of the functioning of
consciousness both in its microscopic immediacy and in its extended
continuity from life to life.

A third contribution arises from the urge to establish order among
the welter of technical terms making up the currency of Buddhist
discourse. In defining each of the dhammas, the Abhidhamma texts collate
long lists of synonyms drawn mostly from the Suttas. This method of
definition shows how a single dhamma may enter under different names
into different sets of categories. For example, among the defilements,
the mental factor of greed (lobha) may be found as the taint of
sensual desire, the taint of (attachment to) existence, the bodily knot
of covetousness, clinging to sensual pleasures, the hindrance of sensual
desire, etc.; among the requisites of enlightenment, the mental factor
of wisdom (pañña) may be found as the faculty and power of
wisdom, the enlightenment factor of investigation of states, the path
factor of right view, etc. In establishing these correspondences, the
Abhidhamma helps to exhibit the interconnections between doctrinal terms
that might not be apparent from the Suttas themselves. In the process
it also provides a precision-made tool for interpreting the Buddha’s
discourses.

The Abhidhamma conception of consciousness further results in a new
primary scheme for classifying the ultimate constituents of existence, a
scheme which eventually, in the later Abhidhamma literature, takes
precedence over the schemes inherited from the Suttas such as the
aggregates, sense bases, and elements. In the Abhidhamma Pitaka the
latter categories still loom large, but the view of mind as consisting
of momentary concurrences of consciousness and its concomitants leads to
a fourfold method of classification more congenial to the system. This
is the division of actuality into the four ultimate realities (paramattha): consciousness, mental factors, material phenomena, and Nibbana (citta, cetasika, rupa, nibbana), the first three comprising conditioned reality and the last the unconditioned element.

The last novel feature of the Abhidhamma method to be noted here — contributed by the final book of the Pitaka, the Patthana
— is a set of twenty-four conditional relations laid down for the
purpose of showing how the ultimate realities are welded into orderly
processes. This scheme of conditions supplies the necessary complement
to the analytical approach that dominates the earlier books of the
Abhidhamma. The method of analysis proceeds by dissecting apparent
wholes into their component parts, thereby exposing their voidness of
any indivisible core that might qualify as self or substance. The
synthetic method plots the conditional relations of the bare phenomena
obtained by analysis to show that they are not isolated self-contained
units but nodes in a vast multi-layered web of inter-related,
inter-dependent events. Taken in conjunction, the analytical method of
the earlier treatises of the Abhidhamma Pitaka and the synthetic method
of the Patthana establish the essential unity of the twin philosophical principles of Buddhism, non-self or egolessness (anatta) and dependent arising or conditionality (paticca samuppada).
Thus the foundation of the Abhidhamma methodology remains in perfect
harmony with the insights that lie at the heart of the entire Dhamma.

The Origins of the Abhidhamma

Although modern critical scholarship attempts to explain the formation of the Abhidhamma by a gradual evolutionary process,[4] Theravada orthodoxy assigns its genesis to the Buddha himself. According to the Great Commentary (maha-atthakatha)
quoted by Acariya Buddhaghosa, “What is known as Abhidhamma is not the
province nor the sphere of a disciple; it is the province, the sphere of
the Buddhas.”[5]
The commentarial tradition holds, moreover, that it was not merely the
spirit of the Abhidhamma, but the letter as well, that was already
realized and expounded by the Buddha during his lifetime.

The Atthasalini relates that in the fourth week after the
Enlightenment, while the Blessed One was still dwelling in the vicinity
of the Bodhi Tree, he sat in a jewel house (ratanaghara) in the
northwest direction. This jewel house was not literally a house made of
precious stones, but was the place where he contemplated the seven books
of the Abhidhamma Pitaka. He contemplated their contents in turn,
beginning with the Dhammasangani, but while investigating the first six books his body did not emit rays. However, upon coming to the Patthana,
when “he began to contemplate the twenty-four universal conditional
relations of root, object, and so on, his omniscience certainly found
its opportunity therein. For as the great fish Timiratipingala finds
room only in the great ocean 84,000 yojanas in depth, so his omniscience
truly finds room only in the Great Book. Rays of six colors — indigo,
golden, red, white, tawny, and dazzling — issued from the Teacher’s
body, as he was contemplating the subtle and abstruse Dhamma by his
omniscience which had found such opportunity.”[6]

Theravada orthodoxy thus maintains that the Abhidhamma Pitaka is
authentic Word of the Buddha, in this respect differing from an early
rival school, the Sarvastivadins. This school also had an Abhidhamma
Pitaka consisting of seven books, considerably different in detail from
the Theravada treatises. According to the Sarvastivadins, the books of
the Abhidhamma Pitaka were composed by Buddhist disciples, several being
attributed to authors who appeared generations after the Buddha. The
Theravada school, however, holds that the Blessed One himself expounded
the books of the Abhidhamma, except for the detailed refutation of
deviant views in the Kathavatthu, which was the work of the Elder Moggaliputta Tissa during the reign of Emperor Asoka.

The Pali Commentaries, apparently drawing upon an old oral tradition,
maintain that the Buddha expounded the Abhidhamma, not in the human
world to his human disciples, but to the assembly of devas or gods in
the Tavatimsa heaven. According to this tradition, just prior to his
seventh annual rains retreat the Blessed One ascended to the Tavatimsa
heaven and there, seated on the Pandukambala stone at the foot of the
Paricchattaka tree, for the three months of the rains he taught the
Abhidhamma to the devas who had assembled from the ten thousand
world-systems. He made the chief recipient of the teaching his mother,
Mahamaya-devi, who had been reborn as a deva. The reason the Buddha
taught the Abhidhamma in the deva world rather than in the human realm,
it is said, is because in order to give a complete picture of the
Abhidhamma it has to be expounded from the beginning to the end to the
same audience in a single session. Since the full exposition of the
Abhidhamma requires three months, only devas and Brahmas could receive
it in unbroken continuity, for they alone are capable of remaining in
one posture for such a length of time.

However, each day, to sustain his body, the Buddha would descend to
the human world to go on almsround in the northern region of Uttarakuru.
After collecting almsfood he went to the shore of Anotatta Lake to
partake of his meal. The Elder Sariputta, the General of the Dhamma,
would meet the Buddha there and receive a synopsis of the teaching given
that day in the deva world: “Then to him the Teacher gave the method,
saying, ‘Sariputta, so much doctrine has been shown.’ Thus the giving of
the method was to the chief disciple, who was endowed with analytical
knowledge, as though the Buddha stood on the edge of the shore and
pointed out the ocean with his open hand. To the Elder also the doctrine
taught by the Blessed One in hundreds and thousands of methods became
very clear.”[7]

Having learned the Dhamma taught him by the Blessed One, Sariputta in
turn taught it to his own circle of 500 pupils, and thus the textual
recension of the Abhidhamma Pitaka was established. To the Venerable
Sariputta is ascribed the textual order of the Abhidhamma treatises as
well as the numerical series in the Patthana. Perhaps we should see in these admissions of the Atthasalini
an implicit acknowledgement that while the philosophical vision of the
Abhidhamma and its basic architecture originate from the Buddha, the
actual working out of the details, and perhaps even the prototypes of
the texts themselves, are to be ascribed to the illustrious Chief
Disciple and his entourage of students. In other early Buddhist schools,
too, the Abhidhamma is closely connected with the Venerable Sariputta,
who in some traditions is regarded as the literal author of Abhidhamma
treatises.[8]

The Seven Books

A brief outline of the contents of the seven canonical Abhidhamma
books will provide some insight into the plethora of textual material to
be condensed and summarized by the Abhidhammattha Sangaha. The first book, the Dhammasangani,
is the fountainhead of the entire system. The title may be translated
“Enumeration of Phenomena,” and the work does in fact undertake to
compile an exhaustive catalog of the ultimate constituents of existence.

Opening with the matika, the schedule of categories which
serves as the framework for the whole Abhidhamma, the text proper is
divided into four chapters. The first, “States of Consciousness,” takes
up about half of the book and unfolds as an analysis of the first triad
in the matika, that of the wholesome, the unwholesome, and the
indeterminate. To supply that analysis, the text enumerates 121 types of
consciousness classified by way of their ethical quality.[9]
Each type of consciousness is in turn dissected into its concomitant
mental factors, which are individually defined in full. The second
chapter, “On Matter,” continues the inquiry into the ethically
indeterminate by enumerating and classifying the different types of
material phenomena. The third chapter, called “The Summary,” offers
concise explanations of all the terms in the Abhidhamma matrix and the
Suttanta matrix as well. Finally, a concluding “Synopsis” provides a
more condensed explanation of the Abhidhamma matrix but omits the
Suttanta matrix.

The Vibhanga, the “Book of Analysis,” consists of eighteen
chapters, each a self-contained dissertation, dealing in turn with the
following: aggregates, sense bases, elements, truths, faculties,
dependent arising, foundations of mindfulness, supreme efforts, means to
accomplishment, factors of enlightenment, the eightfold path, jhanas,
illimitables, training rules, analytical knowledges, kinds of knowledge,
minor points (a numerical inventory of defilements), and “the heart of
the doctrine” (dhammahadaya), a psycho-cosmic topography of the Buddhist universe. Most of the chapters in the Vibhanga,
though not all, involve three sub-sections: an analysis according to
the methodology of the Suttas; an analysis according to the methodology
of the Abhidhamma proper; and an interrogation section, which applies
the categories of the matrix to the subject under investigation.

The Dhatukatha, the “Discourse on Elements,” is written
entirely in catechism form. It discusses all phenomena with reference to
the three schemata of aggregates, sense bases, and elements, seeking to
determine whether, and to what extent, they are included or not
included in them, and whether they are associated with them or
dissociated from them.

The Puggalapaññatti, “Concepts of Individuals,” is the one
book of the Abhidhamma Pitaka that is more akin to the method of the
Suttas than to the Abhidhamma proper. The work begins with a general
enumeration of types of concepts, and this suggests that it was
originally intended as a supplement to the other books in order to take
account of the conceptual realities excluded by the strict application
of the Abhidhamma method. The bulk of the work provides formal
definitions of different types of individuals. It has ten chapters: the
first deals with single types of individuals; the second with pairs; the
third with groups of three, etc.

The Kathavatthu, “Points of Controversy,” is a polemical
treatise ascribed to the Elder Moggaliputta Tissa. He is said to have
compiled it during the time of Emperor Asoka, 218 years after the
Buddha’s Parinibbana, in order to refute the heterodox opinions of the
Buddhist schools outside the Theravadin fold. The Commentaries defend
its inclusion in the Canon by holding that the Buddha himself,
foreseeing the errors that would arise, laid down the outline of
rebuttal, which Moggaliputta Tissa merely filled in according to the
Master’s intention.

The Yamaka, the “Book of Pairs,” has the purpose of resolving
ambiguities and defining the precise usage of technical terms. It is so
called owing to its method of treatment, which throughout employs the
dual grouping of a question and its converse formulation. For instance,
the first pair of questions in the first chapter runs thus: “Are all
wholesome phenomena wholesome roots? And are all wholesome roots
wholesome phenomena?” The book contains ten chapters: roots, aggregates,
sense bases, elements, truths, formations, latent dispositions,
consciousness, phenomena, and faculties.

The Patthana, the “Book of Conditional Relations,” is probably
the most important work of the Abhidhamma Pitaka and thus is
traditionally designated the “Great Treatise” (mahapakarana).
Gigantic in extent as well as in substance, the book comprises five
volumes totalling 2500 pages in the Burmese-script Sixth Council
edition. The purpose of the Patthana is to apply its scheme of
twenty-four conditional relations to all the phenomena incorporated in
the Abhidhamma matrix. The main body of the work has four great
divisions: origination according to the positive method, according to
the negative method, according to the positive-negative method, and
according to the negative-positive method. Each of these in turn has six
sub-divisions: origination of triads, of dyads, of dyads and triads
combined, of triads and dyads combined, of triads and triads combined,
and of dyads and dyads combined. Within this pattern of twenty-four
sections, the twenty-four modes of conditionality are applied in due
order to all the phenomena of existence in all their conceivable
permutations. Despite its dry and tabular format, even from a “profane”
humanistic viewpoint the Patthana can easily qualify as one of
the truly monumental products of the human mind, astounding in its
breadth of vision, its rigorous consistency, and its painstaking
attention to detail. To Theravada orthodoxy, it is the most eloquent
testimony to the Buddha’s unimpeded knowledge of omniscience.

The Commentaries

The books of the Abhidhamma Pitaka have inspired a voluminous mass of
exegetical literature composed in order to fill out, by way of
explanation and exemplification, the scaffoldings erected by the
canonical texts. The most important works of this class are the
authorized commentaries of Acariya Buddhaghosa. These are three in
number: the Atthasalini, “The Expositor,” the commentary to the Dhammasangani; the Sammohavinodani, “The Dispeller of Delusion,” the commentary to the Vibhanga; and the Pañcappakarana Atthakatha, the combined commentary to the other five treatises. To this same stratum of literature also belongs the Visuddhimagga,
“The Path of Purification,” also composed by Buddhaghosa. Although this
last work is primarily an encyclopedic guide to meditation, its
chapters on “the soil of understanding” (XIV-XVII) lay out the theory to
be mastered prior to developing insight and thus constitute in effect a
compact dissertation on Abhidhamma. Each of the commentaries in turn
has its subcommentary (mulatika), by an elder of Sri Lanka named Acariya Ananda, and these in turn each have a sub-subcommentary (anutika), by Ananda’s pupil Dhammapala (who is to be distinguished from the great Acariya Dhammapala, author of the tikas to Buddhaghosa’s works).

When the authorship of the Commentaries is ascribed to Acariya
Buddhaghosa, it should not be supposed that they are in any way original
compositions, or even original attempts to interpret traditional
material. They are, rather, carefully edited versions of the vast body
of accumulated exegetical material that Buddhaghosa found at the
Mahavihara in Anuradhapura. This material must have preceded the great
commentator by centuries, representing the collective efforts of
generations of erudite Buddhist teachers to elucidate the meaning of the
canonical Abhidhamma. While it is tempting to try to discern evidence
of historical development in the Commentaries over and beyond the ideas
embedded in the Abhidhamma Pitaka, it is risky to push this line too
far, for a great deal of the canonical Abhidhamma seems to require the
Commentaries to contribute the unifying context in which the individual
elements hang together as parts of a systematic whole and without which
they lose important dimensions of meaning. It is thus not unreasonable
to assume that a substantial portion of the commentarial apparatus
originated in close proximity to the canonical Abhidhamma and was
transmitted concurrently with the latter, though lacking the stamp of
finality it was open to modification and amplification in a way that the
canonical texts were not.

Bearing this in mind, we might briefly note a few of the Abhidhammic
conceptions that are characteristic of the Commentaries but either
unknown or recessive in the Abhidhamma Pitaka itself. One is the
detailed account of the cognitive process (cittavithi). While
this conception seems to be tacitly recognized in the canonical books,
it now comes to be drawn out for use as an explanatory tool in its own
right. The functions of the cittas, the different types of consciousness, are specified, and in time the cittas themselves come to be designated by way of their functions. The term khana, “moment,” replaces the canonical samaya,
“occasion,” as the basic unit for delimiting the occurrence of events,
and the duration of a material phenomenon is determined to be seventeen
moments of mental phenomena. The division of a moment into three
sub-moments — arising, presence, and dissolution — also seems to be new
to the Commentaries.[10] The organization of material phenomena into groups (kalapa),
though implied by the distinction between the primary elements of
matter and derived matter, is first spelled out in the Commentaries, as
is the specification of the heart-base (hadayavatthu) as the material basis for mind element and mind-consciousness element.

The Commentaries introduce many (though not all) of the categories
for classifying kamma, and work out the detailed correlations between
kamma and its results. They also close off the total number of mental
factors (cetasika). The phrase in the Dhammasangani, “or
whatever other (unmentioned) conditionally arisen immaterial phenomena
there are on that occasion,” apparently envisages an open-ended universe
of mental factors, which the Commentaries delimit by specifying the
“or-whatever states” (yevapanaka dhamma). Again, the Commentaries
consummate the dhamma theory by supplying the formal definition of
dhammas as “things which bear their own intrinsic nature” (attano sabhavam dharenti ti dhamma).
The task of defining specific dhammas is finally rounded off by the
extensive employment of the fourfold defining device of characteristic,
function, manifestation, and proximate cause, a device derived from a
pair of old exegetical texts, the Petakopadesa and the Nettipakarana.

The Abhidhammattha Sangaha

As the Abhidhamma system, already massive in its canonical version,
grew in volume and complexity, it must have become increasingly unwieldy
for purposes of study and comprehension. Thus at a certain stage in the
evolution of Theravada Buddhist thought the need must have become felt
for concise summaries of the Abhidhamma as a whole in order to provide
the novice student of the subject with a clear picture of its main
outlines — faithfully and thoroughly, yet without an unmanageable mass
of detail.

To meet this need there began to appear, perhaps as early as the
fifth century and continuing well through the twelfth, short manuals or
compendia of the Abhidhamma. In Burma these are called let-than or “little-finger manuals,” of which there are nine:

1. Abhidhammattha Sangaha, by Acariya Anuruddha;
2. Namarupa-pariccheda, by the same;
3. Paramattha-vinicchaya, by the same (?);
4. Abhidhammavatara, by Acariya Buddhadatta (a senior contemporary of Buddhaghosa);
5. Ruparupa-vibhaga, by the same;
6. Sacca-sankhepa, by Bhadanta Dhammapala (probably Sri Lankan; different from the great subcommentator);
7. Moha-vicchedani, by Bhadanta Kassapa (South Indian or Sri Lankan);
8. Khema-pakarana, by Bhadanta Khema (Sri Lankan);
9. Namacara-dipaka, by Bhadanta Saddhamma Jotipala (Burman).

Among these, the work that has dominated Abhidhamma studies from
about the twelfth century to the present day is the first mentioned, the
Abhidhammattha Sangaha, “The Compendium of Things contained in
the Abhidhamma.” Its popularity may be accounted for by its remarkable
balance between concision and comprehensiveness. Within its short scope
all the essentials of the Abhidhamma are briefly and carefully
summarized. Although the book’s manner of treatment is extremely terse
even to the point of obscurity when read alone, when studied under a
qualified teacher or with the aid of an explanatory guide, it leads the
student confidently through the winding maze of the system to a clear
perception of its entire structure. For this reason throughout the
Theravada Buddhist world the Abhidhammattha Sangaha is always
used as the first textbook in Abhidhamma studies. In Buddhist
monasteries, especially in Burma, novices and young bhikkhus are
required to learn the Sangaha by heart before they are permitted to study the books of the Abhidhamma Pitaka and its Commentaries.

Detailed information about the author of the manual, Acariya
Anuruddha, is virtually non-existent. He is regarded as the author of
two other manuals, cited above, and it is believed in Buddhist countries
that he wrote altogether nine compendia, of which only these three have
survived. The Paramattha-vinicchaya is written in an elegant
style of Pali and attains a high standard of literary excellence.
According to the colophon, its author was born in Kaveri in the state of
Kañcipura (Conjeevaram) in South India. Acariya Buddhadatta and Acariya
Buddhaghosa are also said to have resided in the same area, and the
subcommentator Acariya Dhammapala was probably a native of the region.
There is evidence that for several centuries Kañcipura had been an
important center of Theravada Buddhism from which learned bhikkhus went
to Sri Lanka for further study.

It is not known exactly when Acariya Anuruddha lived and wrote his
manuals. An old monastic tradition regards him as having been a fellow
student of Acariya Buddhadatta under the same teacher, which would place
him in the fifth century. According to this tradition, the two elders
wrote their respective books, the Abhidhammattha Sangaha and the Abhidhammavatara,
as gifts of gratitude to their teacher, who remarked: “Buddhadatta has
filled a room with all kinds of treasure and locked the door, while
Anuruddha has also filled a room with treasure but left the door open.”[11]
Modern scholars, however, do not endorse this tradition, maintaining on
the basis of the style and content of Anuruddha’s work that he could
not have lived earlier than the eighth century, more probably between
the tenth and early twelfth centuries.[12]

In the colophon to the Abhidhammattha Sangaha Acariya
Anuruddha states that he wrote the manual at the Mulasoma Monastery,
which all exegetical traditions place in Sri Lanka. There are several
ways to reconcile this fact with the concluding stanzas of the Paramattha-vinicchaya,
which state that he was born in Kañcipura. One hypothesis is that he
was of South Indian descent but came to Sri Lanka, where he wrote the Sangaha.
Another, advanced by G.P. Malalasekera, holds that he was a native of
Sri Lanka who spent time at Kañcipura (which, however, passes over his
statement that he was born in Kañcipura). Still a third
hypothesis, proposed by Ven. A.P. Buddhadatta Mahathera, asserts that
there were two different monks named Anuruddha, one in Sri Lanka who was
the author of the Abhidhammattha Sangaha, another in Kañcipura who wrote the Paramattha-vinicchaya.[13]

Commentaries on the Sangaha

Owing to its extreme concision, the Abhidhammattha Sangaha
cannot be easily understood without explanation. Therefore to elucidate
its terse and pithy synopsis of the Abhidhamma philosophy, a great
number of tikas or commentaries have been written upon it. In
fact, this work has probably stimulated more commentaries than any other
Pali text, written not only in the Pali language but also in Burmese,
Sinhala, Thai, etc. Since the fifteenth century Burma has been the
international center of Abhidhamma studies, and therefore we find many
commentaries written on it by Burmese scholars both in Pali and in
Burmese. Commentaries on the Sangaha in Pali alone number nineteen, of which the following are the most important:

1. Abhidhammatthasangaha-Tika, also known as the Porana-Tika, “the Old Commentary.” This is a very small tika written in Sri Lanka in the twelfth century by an elder named Acariya Navavimalabuddhi.
2. Abhidhammatthavibhavini-Tika, or in brief, the Vibhavini, written by Acariya Sumangalasami, pupil of the eminent Sri Lankan elder Sariputta Mahasami, also in the twelfth century. This tika quickly superceded the Old Commentary and is generally considered the most profound and reliable exegetical work on the Sangaha. In Burma this work is known as tika-gyaw,
   “the Famous Commentary.” The author is greatly respected for his
   erudition and mastery of the Abhidhamma. He relies heavily on older
   authorities such as the Abhidhamma-Anutika and the Visuddhimagga-Mahatika (also known as the Paramatthamanjusa). Although Ledi Sayadaw (see below) criticized the Vibhavini extensively in his own commentary on the Sangaha,
   its popularity has not diminished but indeed has even increased, and
   several Burmese scholars have risen to defend it against Ledi Sayadaw’s
   criticisms.
3. Sankhepa-vannana, written in the sixteenth century by
   Bhadanta Saddhamma Jotipala, also known as Chapada Mahathera, a Burmese
   monk who visited Sri Lanka during the reign of Parakramabahu VI of Kotte
   (fifteenth century).[14]
4. Paramatthadipani-Tika, “The Elucidation of the Ultimate
   Meaning,” by Ledi Sayadaw. Ledi Sayadaw of Burma (1846-1923) was one of
   the greatest scholar-monks and meditation masters of the Theravada
   tradition in recent times. He was the author of over seventy manuals on
   different aspects of Theravada Buddhism, including philosophy, ethics,
   meditation practice, and Pali grammar. His tika created a sensation in the field of Abhidhamma studies because he pointed out 325 places in the esteemed Vibhavini-tika
   where he alleged that errors and misinterpretations had occurred,
   though his criticisms also set off a reaction in defense of the older
   work.
5. Ankura-Tika, by Vimala Sayadaw. This tika was written fifteen years after the publication of the Paramatthadipani and supports the commonly accepted opinions of the Vibhavini against Ledi Sayadaw’s criticisms.
6. Navanita-Tika, by the Indian scholar Dhammananda Kosambi, published originally in devanagari
   script in 1933. The title of this work means literally “The Butter
   Commentary,” and it is so called probably because it explains the Sangaha in a smooth and simple manner, avoiding philosophical controversy.

Outline of the Sangaha

The Abhidhammattha Sangaha contains nine chapters. It opens by
enumerating the four ultimate realities — consciousness, mental
factors, matter, and Nibbana. The detailed analysis of these is the
project set for its first six chapters. Chapter I is the Compendium of
Consciousness, which defines and classifies the 89 and 121 cittas or types of consciousness. In scope this first chapter covers the same territory as the States of Consciousness chapter of the Dhammasangani, but it differs in approach. The canonical work begins with an analysis of the first triad in the matika,
and therefore initially classifies consciousness on the basis of the
three ethical qualities of wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate;
then within those categories it subdivides consciousness on the basis of
plane into the categories of sense sphere, fine-material sphere,
immaterial sphere, and supramundane. The Sangaha, on the other hand, not being bound to the matika, first divides consciousness on the basis of plane, and then subdivides it on the basis of ethical quality.

The second chapter, the Compendium of Mental Factors, first enumerates the fifty-two cetasikas
or concomitants of consciousness, divided into four classes:
universals, occasionals, unwholesome factors, and beautiful factors.
Thereafter the factors are investigated by two complimentary methods:
first, the method of association (sampayoganaya), which takes the
mental factors as the unit of inquiry and elicits the types of
consciousness with which they are individually associated; and second,
the method of inclusion or combination (sangahanaya), which takes
the types of consciousness as the unit of inquiry and elicits the
mental factors that enter into the constitution of each. This chapter
again draws principally upon the first chapter of the Dhammasangani.

The third chapter, entitled Compendium of the Miscellaneous,
classifies the types of consciousness along with their factors with
respect to six categories: root (hetu), feeling (vedana), function (kicca), door (dvara), object (arammana), and base (vatthu).

The first three chapters are concerned principally with the structure
of consciousness, both internally and in relation to external
variables. In contrast, the next two chapters deal with the dynamics of
consciousness, that is, with its modes of occurrence. According to the
Abhidhamma, consciousness occurs in two distinct but intertwining modes —
as active process and as passive flow. Chapter IV explores the nature
of the “cognitive process,” Chapter V the passive “process-freed” flow,
which it prefaces with a survey of the traditional Buddhist cosmology.
The exposition here is largely based upon the Abhidhamma Commentaries.
Chapter VI, Compendium of Matter, turns from the mental realm to the
material world. Based primarily on the second chapter of the Dhammasangani,
it enumerates the types of material phenomena, classifies them in
various ways, and explains their modes of origination. It also
introduces the commentarial notion of material groups, which it treats
in detail, and describes the occurrence of material processes in the
different realms of existence. This chapter concludes with a short
section on the fourth ultimate reality, Nibbana, the only unconditioned
element in the system.

With the sixth chapter, Acariya Anuruddha has completed his
analytical exposition of the four ultimate realities, but there remain
several important subjects which must be explained to give a complete
picture of the Abhidhamma. These are taken up in the last three
chapters. Chapter VII, the Compendium of Categories, arranges the
ultimate realities into a variety of categorical schemes that fall under
four broad headings: a compendium of defilements; a compendium of mixed
categories, which include items of different ethical qualities; a
compendium of the requisites of enlightenment; and a compendium of the
whole, an all-inclusive survey of the Abhidhamma ontology. This chapter
leans heavily upon the Vibhanga, and to some extent upon the Dhammasangani.

Chapter VIII, the Compendium of Conditionality, is introduced to
include the Abhidhamma teaching on the inter-relatedness of physical and
mental phenomena, thereby complementing the analytical treatment of the
ultimate realities with a synthetical treatment laying bare their
functional correlations. The exposition summarily presents two
alternative approaches to conditionality found in the Pali canon. One is
the method of dependent arising, prominent in the Suttas and analyzed
from both Suttanta and Abhidhamma angles in the Vibhanga (VI). This method examines conditionality in terms of the cause-and-result pattern that maintains bondage to samsara, the cycle of birth and death. The other is the method of the Patthana, with its twenty-four conditional relations. This chapter concludes with a brief account of concepts (paññatti), thereby drawing in the Puggalapaññatti, at least by implication.

The ninth and final chapter of the Sangaha is concerned, not
with theory, but with practice. This is the Compendium of Meditation
Subjects. This chapter functions as a kind of summary of the Visuddhimagga.
It concisely surveys all the methods of meditation exhaustively
explained in the latter work, and it sets forth condensed accounts of
the stages of progress in both systems of meditation, concentration and
insight. Like the masterwork it summarizes, it concludes with an account
of the four types of enlightened individuals and the attainments of
fruition and cessation. This arrangement of the Abhidhammattha Sangaha
perhaps serves to underscore the ultimate soteriological intent of the
Abhidhamma. All the theoretical analysis of mind and matter finally
converges upon the practice of meditation, and the practice culminates
in the attainment of the supreme goal of Buddhism, the liberation of the
mind by non-clinging.

Notes

1.

Asl. 2; Expos., p. 3.

2.

Asl. 2-3; Expos., pp. 3-4.

3.

The Dhammasangani also includes a Suttanta matrix consisting
of forty-two dyads taken from the Suttas. However, this is ancillary to
the Abhidhamma proper, and serves more as an appendix for providing
succinct definitions of key Suttanta terms. Moreover, the definitions
themselves are not framed in terms of Abhidhamma categories and the
Suttanta matrix is not employed in any subsequent books of the
Abhidhamma Pitaka.

4.

See, for example, the following: A.K. Warder, Indian Buddhism, 2nd rev. ed. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1980), pp. 218-24; Fumimaro Watanabe, Philosophy and its Development in the Nikayas and Abhidhamma (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983), pp. 18-67; and the article “Abhidharma Literature” by Kogen Mizuno in Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, Fasc. 1 (Govt. of Ceylon, 1961).

5.

Asl. 410; Expos., p. 519

6.

Asl. 13; Expos., pp. 16-17

7.

Asl. 16; Expos., p. 20

8.

The first book of the Sarvastivadin Abhidharma, the Sangitiparyaya, is ascribed to Sariputta by Chinese sources (but not by Sanskrit and Tibetan sources), while the second book, the Dharmaskandha,
is ascribed to him by Sanskrit and Tibetan sources (but not by Chinese
sources). The Chinese canon also contains a work entitled the Shariputra Abhidharma-Shastra, the school of which is not known.

9.

These are reduced to the familiar eighty-nine cittas by grouping
together the five cittas into which each path and fruition consciousness
is divided by association with each of the five jhanas.

10.

The Yamaka, in its chapter “Citta-yamaka,” uses the term khana to refer to the subdivision of a moment and also introduces the uppada-khana and bhanga-khana,
the sub-moments of arising and dissolution. However, the threefold
scheme of sub-moments seems to appear first in the Commentaries.

11.

Ven. A. Devananda Adhikarana Nayaka Thero, in Preface to Paramattha-vinicchaya and Paramattha-vibhavini-vyakhya (Colombo: Vidya Sagara Press, 1926), p. iii.

12.

G.P. Malalasekera, The Pali Literature of Ceylon (Colombo: M.D. Gunasena, repr. 1958), pp. 168-70. Malalasekera points out that James Gray, in his edition of Buddhaghosuppatti,
gives a chronological list of saintly and learned men of Southern
India, taken from the Talaing records, and there we find Anuruddha
mentioned after authors who are supposed to have lived later than the
seventh or eighth century. Since Bhadanta Sariputta Mahasami compiled a
Sinhala paraphrase of the Abhidhammattha Sangaha during the reign of Parakrama-Bahu the Great (1164-97), this places Anuruddha earlier than the middle of the twelfth century.

13.

See the article “Anuruddha (5)” in Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, Fasc. 4 (Govt. of Ceylon, 1965). Ven Buddhadatta’s view is also accepted by Warder, Indian Buddhism, pp. 533-34.

14.

This author is commonly confused with another Burmese monk called
Chapada who came to Sri Lanka during the twelfth century and studied
under Bhadanta Sariputta. The case for two Chapadas is cogently argued
by Ven. A.P. Buddhadatta, Corrections of Geiger’s Mahavamsa, Etc. (Ambalangoda: Ananda Book Co., 1957), pp. 198-209.

Publisher’s note

The Buddhist Publication Society
is an approved charity dedicated to making known the Teaching of the
Buddha, which has a vital message for people of all creeds.

Founded in 1958, the BPS has published a wide variety of books and
booklets covering a great range of topics. Its publications include
accurate annotated translations of the Buddha’s discourses, standard
reference works, as well as original contemporary expositions of
Buddhist thought and practice. These works present Buddhism as it truly
is — a dynamic force which has influenced receptive minds for the past
2500 years and is still as relevant today as it was when it first arose.

Buddhist Publication Society
P.O. Box 61
54, Sangharaja Mawatha
Kandy, Sri Lanka

©1993 Buddhist Publication Society.

You may copy, reformat, reprint, republish, and redistribute this work
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etc. available free of charge and, in the case of reprinting,
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from this source document; and (3) you include the full text of this
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restrictions.
Transcribed from the print edition in 1995 under the auspices of the
DharmaNet Dharma Book Transcription Project, with the kind permission of
the Buddhist Publication Society. Last revised for Access to Insight
on 30 November 2013.

How to cite this document (a suggested
style): “A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma: The Abhidhammattha
Sangaha of Acariya Anuruddha”, general editor Bhikkhu Bodhi, pali text
originally edited and translated by Mahathera Narada. Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 30 November 2013, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/abhiman.html .

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not! Most of our participants are not Buddhist. We always have a wide
range of people of many different faiths (and of no faith) on our
courses. We explain the context in which these particular  meditation
practices developed but our aim is to help people to learn to meditate,
in a clear and systematic way, to see if it is useful in their lives -
whatever their existing beliefs.

Dhamma Essay:
Supreme Efforts by Ayya Khema

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to know - to shape - to liberate

Site Copyright © 2018, Vipassana Fellowship Ltd.     [Terms of Service & Privacy Policy]

http://www.vipassana.org/course/
Vipassana Fellowship Meditation Course

An established online course in Mindfulness Meditation as found in the Serenity and Insight traditions of early Buddhism.

Please join us for one of our 10 week courses:

June 2018 (10 week course: June 16th - August 24th)
September 2018 (10 week course: September 29th - December 7th) - Registration now available.
January 2019 (10 week course)
Vipassana
Fellowship’s online meditation courses have been offered since 1997 and
have proven helpful to meditators in many countries around the world.
The main text is based on a tried and tested format and serves as a
practical introduction to samatha (tranquility) and vipassana (insight)
techniques from the Theravada tradition of Buddhism. Intended primarily
for beginners, the 10 week course is also suitable for experienced
meditators who wish to explore different aspects of the tradition. The
emphasis is on building a sustainable and balanced meditation practice
that is compatible with lay life. The course is led by Andrew Quernmore,
a meditation teacher for over 20 years and with a personal meditation
practice of more than 35 years. Andrew trained with teachers in Sri
Lanka and in England and has taught meditation in London colleges and at
retreats in the UK, Europe and Asia. The course is delivered wholly
online in our Course Campus.

Course Outline
Frequently Asked Questions
Application Form
Testimonials
Already enrolled? Log-in here
Parisa - Our support scheme for previous participants
Comments from participants

Participants in our earlier course wrote:

“What
a wonderful experience this has been. The course was so well organized,
easily accessible, affordable, systematic, and comprehensive. I will
always be grateful for this experience in my journey.” L, USA

“I found the course immensely useful, accessible and extremely thought-provoking.” - A, UK

“I
didn’t finish everything, but what I was able to experience was
profound. Thank you so much for the tremendous wealth of thinking and
peace contained within your course.” - N, USA

“I found it very
helpful and well structured. It helped me establish a daily practice
throughout the duration and to learn a lot” - I, Argentina

“When I
applied to join the course, I was struggling in my practice and had
lost heart. I can’t sufficiently express my appreciation and gratitude
for the wonderful resource you offer. The content was immediately
engaging, and was throughout delivered with clarity and thoughtful care.
Perhaps I can best express feedback in terms of how differently things
feel having completed the course. The words that pop up are refreshment,
reinvigorated, revival; joyful reconnection and commitment. Thank you.”
- E, UK

“Before joining this course I was doing meditation but
not with such discipline and without any structure. This course showed
me many beautiful aspects of meditation which I have read before but not
experienced. My sincere thanks to you and all people working for this
online course. This is great help to people who cannot go physically to
Ashrams to attend and practice.” S, India

“I greatly enjoyed it! And found it to be a great introduction to various meditation techniques.” - M, Hong Kong

“I
very much appreciated the structure of the course and the exercises,
which made it easy to integrate them into normal everyday life. Not
being in a retreat but living in normal circumstances while practicing
the exercises has enabled me to more and more notice phenomena arising
in particular situations and I indeed started to learn and observe how
suffering is created in everyday life situations and what suffering
feels like. (A bit like ‘training on the job.’) Also I noticed insights
arising, literally out of nowhere.” - A, Germany

“am very happy
with the offered course, and Andrew’s use of personal perspective really
helped me understand things better. Although I’ve previously used
Vipassana meditation, this course really brought it together for me.” J,
USA

“Meditations of Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Appreciative
Joy, Equanimity etc. will no doubt help to maintain an emotional balance
in the midst of discouraging vicissitudes of life. All in all the
package was complete, precise and well crafted for the development of
mind. Thank you, with your help I began the journey. And hope, will
continue till the end.” J, India

“Truly memorable experience. Am
determined more than ever to continue my practice and perpetual
exploration. Thanks for taking us through this journey.” G, India

“I
enjoyed very much the January meditation course. Although I’ve done a
few of those 10 day courses, this online course taught me new techniques
that I find helpful. I also enjoyed the readings and found Andrew’s
style of writing to be very pleasing to read. He doesn’t shove the text
down one’s throat. Instead, he imparts the information in a way which is
easy to read and leaves the reader feeling at ease - as though this is
really doable if only one approaches it with a relaxed and calm
attitude. Thanks Andrew! I hope we meet someday!” - A, USA

Recent comments:

“This course has been very helpful to me in establishing a daily practice.” - D, USA

“I have learned much and my meditation practice has benefitted greatly…” - C, Australia

“I
would like to thank you for your well structured, informative and
personal course, it helped me for 3 months in a great way and left me
determine to continue meditation practice…” - T, Qatar

“Wonderful
course. Like a guided stroll through a wondrous rainforest. Rough
terrain and stormy weather were dealt with gently but profoundly. Beauty
was to be rejoiced in. Student discussion was fun and educative. Both
my meditation practise and my Buddhism grew exponentially. Thank you
Andrew and all participants.” -S, Australia

“I enjoyed your course. I meditate each morning…” - A, USA

“Thank you very much for the Vipassana course! … I kept up, learned, and benefitted in what feels like a major way.” - M, USA

“Impermanence!
I do not like endings. Thank you so much for offering this meditation
course to the world. I was so happy to find it.” - S, Canada

“Hi,
I have just completed the course. It was fantastic, life altering. Feel
very sad that it is finished. I have now established a daily meditation
practice and will try to find a group in Sydney to further my dhamma
practice. Thank you, it really has been a remarkable experience. I will
join the Parisa and stay in touch with this organization. I have NO
complaints only gratitude. Thank you.” - K, Australia

“As we near
the end of the course I just want to say ‘thank you’ for your work on
it and share some of my thinking and experience at thsi point. Ive found
the different aproaches to meditation interesting and useful and have
appreciated your focus on practicalities. The frequently asked questions
have helped to avoid my inundating you with questions, as many people
have clearly walked the path before asking them! … I am happy that it
is a practical philosophy for living an ethical life, I like the
emphasis on acting skillfully, feel that individual responsibility for
ones actions (rather than relying on redemption) makes sense … Thank
you for a very accessible path! - J, UK

Earlier comments

http://www.vipassana.org/course/app.php
The Meditation Course

Application Details

Our
next available course will begin in September 2018 and registration is
now open. To ensure a place, early application is advisable. The course
runs from September 29th - December 7th, 2018.

Subscription Fees For New Course Participants

The
subscription rate for our current course is US $140. This brings 10
weeks’ tuition via Vipassana Fellowship’s Online Course Campus, personal
support for your practice (by e-mail and online discussion) from the
course teacher and includes specially recorded audio guided meditations
and chants.

Please note that anyone in genuine financial
difficulty may contact us before applying to discuss paying by
instalments over a longer term or, when necessary, a reduced
subscription fee.

Homelands Places

Our FREE subscription offer for South Asia

If
you were born and currently live in one of the traditional homelands of
early Theravada Buddhism we are able to offer a limited number of
places on each online course free of charge. This scheme applies to
those native to - and permanently resident in - India, Sri Lanka,
Thailand, Nepal, Burma, Pakistan, Cambodia and Laos. You must also be
able to access the course daily from your home country. Homelands places
are always in high demand and it is advisable to apply as soon as
possible. The special Homelands form for our September course will be
available here on August 29th. Please do not use the standard
application form below for Homelands places.

Subscriptions For Previous Participants

Concessionary rates available to all previous participants

If
you have participated in any of our earlier online courses you are
welcome to join us for the new session at a substantial discount: the
standard version for US $80 including the downloadable audio material.
Note: Our Parisa scheme is an alternative way of subscribing that
provides ongoing support, access to future courses and new monthly
material.

Registration

If you would like to register for
the forthcoming course, you will need to complete our online application
and pay the subscription to secure a place. Once we have received your
form and payment we will normally write to you within 7 days to confirm
your place.

Completion of our application form

We need to
know a little about you if we are to be able to support you during the
course. We’ll ask you for your contact details and also that you tell us
something about your experience and reason for wanting to take the
course. This provides the opportunity, if you wish, to let the course
leader know of any issues that may need to be taken into account during
the 10 weeks we will be together. Payment can be securely made through
Stripe using most Credit or Debit cards.

Please ensure you have
read the Course Description and Frequently Asked Questions. You may also
find it useful to read the Terms and Conditions that govern the use of
this site, our software, and which include our privacy and refund
policies for your protection.

Apply now for our September 2018 ten week course.
Click here to use our course.org secure server.

 
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