# Physics and Buddhism: 4 elements and rupa kalāpa

**URL:** <https://classicaltheravada.org/t/physics-and-buddhism-4-elements-and-rupa-kalapa/1056>\
**Category:** Lounge\
**Created:** [December 17, 2023, 3:40pm UTC](https://classicaltheravada.org/t/physics-and-buddhism-4-elements-and-rupa-kalapa/1056 "2023-12-17T15:40:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 45

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**Author:** ![RobertK](https://classicaltheravada.org/user_avatar/classicaltheravada.org/robertk/32/1498_2.png) [@RobertK](https://classicaltheravada.org/u/RobertK)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2025, 2:46am UTC](https://classicaltheravada.org/t/physics-and-buddhism-4-elements-and-rupa-kalapa/1056/45 "2025-01-17T02:46:45Z")

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> [@Brunobm](#):
>
> I believe the more “mental” aspect of the kalapas (color, taste, smell, and nutriment) arises from the activity of the sense bases. Thus, they are not intrinsic qualities of the objects themselves but qualities resulting from the interaction between the being and the object.

Thank you for this theorizing Brunobm. It is all wrong however.

Matter always arises in groups of kalapas , which has at least 8 inseperable (avinibhoga) rupas. And this is entirely independent of any interaction with the ‘being’.

Thus what we call a cup for example is actually billions or trillions of kalapas. And this is true whether there is seeing or touching or any ‘interaction’ at all.  
Thus the coffee cup I am looking at on my desk, even when I go out of the room, is still actually a mass of kalapas , and by utu (heat) they keep rearising.

see also this.

> [@Why believe in Kalapas?](https://classicaltheravada.org/t/why-believe-in-kalapas/1132/1):
>
> The Pa Auk system teaches kalapas. So I guess the Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw thinks the Buddha believed in the existence of kalapas? Yet Wikipedia says that the concept of kalapa is very late: Kalapas are not mentioned in the earliest Buddhists texts, such as the Tripitaka, but only in the Abhidhammattha-sangaha, an Abhidhamma commentary dated to the 11th or 12th century, and as such not part of common Theravada doctrine. So why should we believe that the Buddha taught the concept of kalapa…

and this easy to read book:

> **[The-Buddhist-Teaching-on-Physical-Phenomena.pdf](https://abhidhamma.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/The-Buddhist-Teaching-on-Physical-Phenomena.pdf)**
>
> 261.71 KB

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