I was reading Ven. Ledi Sayadaw’s “The Manual of the Excellent Man” book.
There on page 22 under the “Seven Aspects of Materiality to be Perceived” he has said that:
“The Abhidhamma method, however, offers a profound and exhaustive analytical treatment of all aspects of the Dhamma, with no particular reference to the practice for insight development. The latter method is actually meant for the Noble Ones to sharpen their analytical knowledge (paṭisambhidā-ñāṇa). It is not suitable as insight Training for the ordinary person because it is too subtle. For example, those who have small boats should only ply the river for their livelihood and should not venture out to the deep ocean. Only if they have ocean-going vessels should they make an ocean voyage. -A Manual of the Excellent Man”
How should one understand this? I do like Abhidhamma, and the venerable is a big expert on it…
Maybe the venerable means that one cannot see all those extremely momentary cittas, bhavanga and such for insight development.
It is good to understand that there is only one way- the path of satipatthana, that of seeing the nature of the present moment.
Some people see Abhidhamma like a theoretical subject, they don’t understand it is right here. And I think this is what Ledi is referring to.
The suttas and Abhidhamma agree in all aspects but if one only studies the words without seeing the actual nature of dhammas then this is a limited benefit.
Even worse are those who think they are experiencing ultimate truth without any real basis. As Ledi writes:
As for the exact nature, i.e., the swiftness, of mental phenomena, the understanding of which is the domain of the wisdom of the All-knowing Buddha, one has to accept the authority of the scriptures. Any talk about contemplating the three characteristics of mental phenomena is mere humbug. It is never based on practice, but only on hearsay from the scriptures. If someone were to try it, it would be a far cry from insight.
I agree. They both teach those dhammas that should fully understood, those dhammas that should be given up, those dhammas that should be developed and one dhamma that should be realised.