If you don’t even believe in the Buddha, why the hell are you even here?
I don’t’ think the user “philosophy” will be coming back. He was supposed to help me on some project and also expressed an interest in ordaining. I shared this resource with him… but it is good we had this discussion here.
Bhante, is there any resources where I can read the Abhidhamma fully translated into English?
It would be very beneficial for me.
May all beings escape the fish net.
What is the main problem the Abhidhamma came to solve according to the fundamentalists of the Abhidhamma tradition?
The problem is samsara vatta, the beginningless round of birth and death.
And without sufficient understanding of the khandhas, the ayatanas, the dhatus, the truths and dependent origination no insight into this problem, let alone the solution, is possible. As with profound suttas in the Nikayas, the Abhidhamma elucidates and shines a light onto nature, onto life, so that what was once seen as lasting, what was once seen as under control, seen as self, is understood as empty and momentary. Without any core, alien.
Hence the profound Abhidhamma, the amazing product of the great Buddha, is well deserving of the millenia of respect that followers of the Dhamma have given it.
VISUDDHIMAGGA XVI 85
As long as a man is vague about the world,
About its origin, about its ceasing,
About the means that lead to its cessation,
So long he cannot recognize the truths
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Vipassana and Abhidhamma
Vipassana means special or profound seeing. That is, insight into the
true nature of dhammas, realities. These dhammas are analysed and
explained by the Sammasamabuddha in the most careful way in the
Abhidhamma. They are also explained throughout the rest of the
Tipitaka but in a less comprehensive way.
The Buddha’s teaching are sometimes called DhammaVinaya (the
teachings and discipline). And these are recorded in the Tipitaka
(the pali canon). Ti means three and so it is divided into 1) Vinaya
(rules for monks and nuns). 2)Suttanta - individual discourses to
various people on diverse topics and 3) Abhidhamma.
People have different accumulations and hence there are differences
as to which aspects of the DhammaVinaya are most appealing. However,
even one who devotes most time to suttanta or vinaya will have to
know much about the khandas, the ayatanas(sense fields), and the
dhatus(elements) , the different conditions; as these are, as the
visuddhimagga says “the soil in which understanding grows”. These are
all found in the suttanta and even the vinaya . But it is
only in the Abhidhamma where they are elucidated in full detail. The
Abhidhamma details all that the realities that we experience in daily
life as well as those that we aspire to. Understanding Abhidhamma is
synonymous with with understanding life, with vipassana . (By
understanding I mean not as an academic understands but as direct and
deep understanding of whatever appears at the 6doors.)
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