Quick Insights in Abhidhamma

I would like to share some quick insights for the learners. They are not in order, but provide insights to clear up some problems in learning. I’ll hope to append more if I could have time. If you also have this kind of stuff, feel free to share it here.

  • Own nature of a dhamma is not owned to it. Own nature is owned to the causes of it.

  • It is not that a dhamma has a characteristic. The characteristic of a dhamma is equal to the dhamma itself. (lakkhana=body)

  • There is nothing (real or unreal) which is not an object of mind.

  • There is nothing (real or unreal) which is not a cause.

  • There is no conditioned dhamma which is not an effect.

  • Nothing arises fortuitously without a cause.

  • Nothing arises from a single cause.

  • Nothing arises as a single effect.

  • Bhanga is “ceasing there itself without moving to another locus”.

  • Uppada is arising of another dhamma. (completely new different dhamma).

  • No rupa can move at least a bit. They are vanished in the same place they are born.

  • What we see as motion is “the arising of momentary rupas in adjacent locations”.

  • Wind = “cause of the arising of momentary rupas in adjacent locations” (desantaruppatti-hetu).

  • Water can not be seen, heard, smelled, tasted or felt. Water can be known only by the mind.

  • Cohesion of fire flame is water.

  • What bears a ship in the sea is earth of water.

  • Time and space are not realities, but mere concepts.

  • Nevertheless, delimitation is a reality. (pariccheda rupa/ akasa dhatu/ space element )

  • It is wrong to say that space is unconditioned.

  • It is wrong to say that anusaya ( latent tendency) is different from pariyutthana (rising up).

  • Dhammāyatana (Faculty of Dhamma) is not Dhammārammana (Mental object).

  • Dhammadhātu (Element of Dhamma) is not Dhammārammana (Mental object).

  • Dhammārammana = Neyya = Sabbe Dhamma = Everything

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Can you recommend a text which discusses this in more detail?

Ākāsakathā - Kathāvatthu Atthakathā:

460-462.Idāni ākāsakathā nāma hoti. Tattha tividho ākāso – paricchedākāso, kasiṇugghāṭimākāso, ajaṭākāso. “Tucchākāso”tipi tasseva nāmaṃ. Tesu paricchedākāso saṅkhato, itare dve paññattimattā. Yesaṃ pana “Duvidhopi yasmā saṅkhato na hoti, tasmā asaṅkhato”ti laddhi, seyyathāpi uttarāpathakānaṃ mahisāsakānañca; te sandhāya ākāso ti pucchā sakavādissa, paṭiññā itarassa.

Below is a quick and rough translation done by me:

This is named Akasakatha.
There are three kinds of akasa(space), namely,
delimiting-space, kasina-nimitta-removing space, boundless-space.
Empty space is also a name for it.

Among those, delimiting-space is conditioned, remaining two are mere concepts.

This question “akaso’ti” by ‘sakavadin’ and the answer by the other one,
are for the people like uttarāpathaka and mahisāsaka,
who hold the view that
“because the remaining two are not conditioned, they are unconditioned.”

For a better translation see PTS Debates Commentary by BC Law
( Controversy about Space - 114page).
http://www.discoveringbuddha.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/PTS-Debates-Commentary-BC-Law-1940.pdf

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Could anyone before the Exalted One find out that “Time and Space” are concepts?

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