Works frequently cited have been identified by the following abbreviations:
| A | Aṅguttara Nikāya |
| Abhi-s | Abhidhammattha-saṅgaha (in CMA) |
| Asl | Atthasālinī (Comy to Dhs) |
| BPS | Buddhist Publication Society |
| CMA | Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma |
| Comy | Commentary |
| Dhs | Dhammasaṅgaṇī |
| DhsMṭ | Dhammasaṅgaṇī Mūlaṭīkā (Burmese-script Chaṭṭhasaṅgāyana ed.) |
| DN | Dīgha Nikāya |
| MA | Majjhima Aṭṭhakathā (Comy to MN) |
| MN | Majjhima Nikāya |
| Mil | Milindapañha |
| Netti | Nettippakaraṇa |
| Paṭis | Paṭisambhidāmagga |
| PTS | Pali Text Society |
| SN | Saṁyutta Nikāya |
| Skt | Sanskrit |
| Vibh | Vibhaṅga |
| VibhA | Vibhaṅga Aṭṭhakathā (Comy to Vibh= Sammoha-vinodanī) |
| VibhMṭ | Vibhaṅga Mūlaṭīkā (Burmese-script Chaṭṭhasaṅgāyana ed.) |
| Vism | Visuddhimagga |
1. Erich Frauwallner, Studies in Abhidharma Literature and the Origins of Buddhist Philosophical Systems (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1995). For the sake of simplicity, throughout this introduction I use the Pāli form “Abhidhamma” except when referring to the titles of works that include the Sanskrit form “Abhidharma.”
2. On the three Abhidhamma systems, see Frauwallner, Studies in Abhidharma Literature, chap. 2–4, and Kogen Mizuno, “Abhidharma Literature,” in Encyclopaedia of Buddhism (Government of Ceylon, 1961), Fascicule A–Aca, pp. 64–80.
3. Asl 13–17, 31–32.
4. On the use of the word abhidhamma in the Sutta Piṭaka, see Fumimaro Watanabe, Philosophy and Its Development in the Nikāyas and Abhidhamma (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983), pp. 25–36.
5. On the role of the mātikās in the genesis of the Abhidhamma, see Frauwallner, Studies in Abhidharma Literature, pp. 3–11; Watanabe, Philosophy and Its Development, pp. 36–67; and A. K. Warder, introduction to Mohavicchedanī (London: PTS, 1961), pp. ix–xxvii. See too Rupert Gethin, “The Mātikās: Memorization, Mindfulness, and the List,” in Janet Gyatso, ed., In the Mirror of Memory: Reflections on Mindfulness and Remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1992), pp. 156–64.
6. For a detailed account, see Y. Karunadasa, The Dhamma Theory: Philosophical Cornerstone of the Abhidhamma. Wheel No. 412/413 (Kandy: BPS, 1996).
7. On the importance of the time factor, in the present book see particularly pp. 28-30, 89-92, 104-114.
8. Asl 13, 32, 35.
9. Bertrand Russell, Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy (Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company, 1914), p. 51.
10. Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the Modern World (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1926), pp. 64, 227.
11. Mil 87.
12. Āryadeva, Catuḥśataka, v. 191.
13. Asl 15–17. The text says that he taught the Abhidhamma in the heavenly world especially for the benefit of his mother, Queen Mahāmāyā, who had been reborn as a deity in the Tu˝ita heaven.
14. Guide through the Abhidhamma Piṭaka, p. 12.
15. The title of the first book of the Abhidhamma, Dhammasaṅgaṇī, has been rendered by Ven. Nyanatiloka as “Enumeration of Phenomena.”
16. The sense-sphere realm (kāmadhātu), the form (or fine-material) realm (rūpadhātu), and the formless (or immaterial) realm (arūpadhātu). (Ed.)
17. Mrs. Rhys Davids has collected over fifty negative characterizations of Nibbāna in Appendix II to A Buddhist Manual of Psychological Ethics, p. 342.
18. See the description of the first type of wholesome consciousness, p. 31.
19. At Asl 61 the opposite view is called “the great conceit” or “the great delusion” (abhimāna).
20. It is to be regretted that here the statements of Vibh are (as is so often the case in the Abhidhamma) rather laconic and only partly elucidated in VibhA. It will require patient scrutiny and reflection until at least the most important implications of that text will be clearly understood.
21. (1)–(3) are dealt with in Vism chapter 18, (4) in chapter 19, and (5) in chapter 20. (Ed.)
22. MA IV 88.
23. Otto Rosenberg, Die Probleme der buddhistischen Philosophie (Heidelberg: Harrassowitz, 1924).
24. Sogen Yamakami, Systems of Buddhistic Thought (Calcutta: University of Calcutta Press, 1912), p. 100.
25. See Th. Stcherbatsky, The Conception of Buddhist Nirvāṇa (Leningrad: Office of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1927).
26. Na ca so na ca añño. See Mil 40–41.
27. Asl 63–64. The derivation of citta (= mind, both Pāli and Skt) from cittatā (based on Skt citra, “variegated”) is, of course, only a play on words for a didactic purpose and is not meant to be taken literally.
28. Sense-contact, feeling, perception, and volition are four of the seven mental factors called, in the later Abhidhamma manuals, sabbacittasādhāraṇa, i.e., factors common to all consciousness. See note 40 below.
29. SN II 246–47: Cakkhu-viññāṇaṁ… cakkhu-samphasso… cakkhusamphassajā vedanā… rūpa-saññā… rūpa-sañcetanā.
30. MN III 25: Ye ca pathamajjhāne dhammā: vitakko ca vicāro ca pīti ca sukhañ ca cittekaggatā ca; phasso vedanā saññā cetanā cittaṁ chando adhimokkho viriyaṁ sati upekkhā manasikāro—tyāssa dhammā anupada-vavatthitā honti .
31. Asl 16, 32, 410.
32. See Appendix 1: The Authenticity of the Anupada Sutta.
33. The variant phassa-pañcaka is preferable, as phassa-pañcamaka means “having sense-contact as the fifth,” while phassa is always enumerated first.
34. Netti 15. The Nettippakaraṇa is available in a translation by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, under the title The Guide (London: PTS, 1962).
35. The former is at MA I 249, the latter at MA I 276.
36. E.g., at Vism 589 and Abhi-s (= CMA 77–81). See note 33.
37. The word “jhāna” is used here strictly to represent the meditative absorptions. But since, in the Abhidhamma compounds jhānaṅga and jhāna-paccaya, “jhāna” is being used in a special sense to signify any state of intense absorption, whether meditative or otherwise, these expressions are rendered “factors of absorption” and “absorption condition” respectively. (Ed.)
38. VibhA 23: “A state of consciousness produces corporeal phenomena only when it is not defective in regard to factors” (cittaṁ aṅgato aparihīnaṁ yeva rūpaṁ samuṭṭhāpeti). VibhMṭ 18: “ In regard to factors means in regard to the factors of absorption; for it is the factors of absorption which, together with the consciousness, produce corporeal phenomena” (aṅgato’ti jhānaṅgato; jhānaṅgāni hi cittena saha rūpasamuṭṭāpakāni). Corporeal processes produced by consciousness (citta-samuṭṭhāna) include bodily and vocal intimation (kāya-, vacī-viññatti), the external expressions of intention.
39. VibhMṭ 18.
40. Sabbacittasādhāraṇa. The seven are contact, feeling, perception, volition, attention, one-pointedness, and vitality.
41. For details, see Vism 384–406.
42. Asl 119: Adhimokkhalakkhaṇe indaṭṭhaṁ kāretī ti saddhindriyaṁ.
43. Vism 492: Adhipaccasaṅkhātena issariyaṭṭhena.
44. VibhA 127: Paṭipakkhābhibhavana.
45. See Paṭis II 21–22.
46. Paṭis II 209. See too Vism 402, 404, 405; SN V 282–84.
47. See the title and contents of a book by an eminent practical psychologist, F. Matthias Alexander, Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual (London: Methuen, 1923).
48. See SN V 158.
49. We shall use the expression “good consciousness” as a rendering of sobhanacitta, a later Abhidhamma term coined in order to include not only kammically wholesome (kusala) consciousness but also the strong consciousness resulting from wholesome kamma (kusala-vipāka) and the functional “good action” of an arahant (kriya-javana). See CMA 45–46.
50. See AN III 375; Vism 129–30.
51. See AN I 51, whence the name of this group is derived. See too the beautiful exposition of these two qualities at Asl 125–27.
52. The commentarial explanation is at Asl 130–31, to which I shall often refer. Further clarification is provided at DhsMṭ 97.
53. To understand this figurative expression, it may be noted that one of the connotations of kusala, “wholesome,” given in Asl is ārogya, i.e., (mental and moral) health.
54. The commentary to this text explains the “luminous mind” as the subconscious life-continuum (bhavaṅga), which is “naturally luminous” in that it is never tainted by defilements. The defilements arise only in the active thought process, not in the subliminal flow of consciousness.
55. The two are distinguished in that the one who makes calm the vehicle first attains one of the jhānas (or access concentration) and then develops insight meditation with this as a basis, while the one who makes insight the vehicle does not develop concentration to the level of deep absorption but begins directly with contemplation of the changing processes of body and mind. See Vism 587–88. (Ed.)
56. The seven are agitation (present in all unwholesome states), envy, avarice, rigidity, sloth, doubt, and conceit.
57. See Vism 462–72; CMA 76–90.
58. See Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, trans., The Discourse on Right View: The Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta and Its Commentary. Wheel No. 377/379 (Kandy: BPS, 1991).
59. They are usually defined by a register of ten terms. In the case of mental onepointedness in the first wholesome state of consciousness, the definition at Dhs§11 runs thus: “Mental stability, composure, steadfastness, nonwandering, nondistractedness, an unwandering mind, calm, the faculty of concentration, the power of concentration, right concentration—this is the one-pointedness of mind present at that time” (yā tasmiṁ samaye cittassa ṭhiti saṇṭhiti avaṭṭhiti avisāhāro avikkhepo avisāhatamānasatā samatho samādhindriyaṁ samādhibalaṁ sammā-samādhi—ayaṁ tasmiṁ samaye cittass’ekaggatā hoti). (Ed.)
60. The numbers of the types of consciousness correspond to those used by Nyanatiloka Thera in his “Table of the Five Khandhas” in his Buddhist Dictionary and Guide through the Abhidhamma Piṭaka. The types of consciousness, or citta, are defined by their roles in the process of cognition. The following brief, partly oversimplified account of the cognitive process should help to clarify these roles: In the case of a process through one of the physical sense faculties (the eye, etc.), when an object impinges on the sense organ a citta arises adverting to the object (no. 70). This is followed by the sense consciousness (eyeconsciousness, etc.), a single citta that has the function simply of perceiving the bare sense object (seeing, etc.). The five types of sense consciousness are the results either of wholesome kamma (34–38) or of unwholesome kamma (50–54); hence there are ten cittas that can arise in this position. The sense consciousness is immediately followed by a citta that receives the impression of the object; this citta, again, is the result either of wholesome kamma (39) or of unwholesome kamma (55). Next comes a citta that investigates the object. This is threefold: when the object is exceptionally pleasant it is a wholesome-resultant associated with joy (40); when the object is pleasant-neutral it is a wholesome-resultant associated with neutral feeling (41); when the object is unpleasant-neutral it is an unwholesome-resultant associated with neutral feeling (42). Next arises a “functional” citta (neither kammically active nor kamma-resultant) that determines or defines the object (71). This is followed by a series of kammically potent cittas called javana, in which an originative response is made to the object; the javana cittas (of fifty-five types) generate either wholesome or unwholesome kamma, except in the case of the arahant, whose javana process is not kammically determinate but functional (kiriya-javana). In certain cases the javanas are followed by two cittas that register the object. The function of registration may be performed by cittas 40, 41, 56 as well as by others not shown in the present table (certain types of cittas being capable of performing more than a single function). In a “mind-door process,” i.e., a conceptual or reflective thought process, the first active citta to arise is the mind-door adverting citta (71, in a role different from determining). This is followed by the javana phase, then by registration. The three types of investigating consciousness (40, 41, 56) also function as the “connecting thread” of subliminal consciousness arising at the moment of conception (paṭisandhi, “relinking”), persisting as the subliminal life-continuum (bhavaṅga), and “signing off” at the end of the life span as the death consciousness (cuticitta). No. 72 is a weak type of javana consciousness that arises in an arahant when he smiles about sensory phenomena. The doubting consciousness (32) is another type of javana citta, a weak type because of its inability to take a firm stand. For details, see CMA 40–45, 122–29. (Ed.)
61. Russell, Our Knowledge of the External World, p. 117.
62. Asl 58: Taṁ taṁ upādāya paññatto kālo vohāramattako…. So pan’esa sabhāvato avijjamānattā paññattimattako evā ti veditabbo.
63. Asl 112. This holds good also of the bhavaṅga, the life-continuum. The word aṅga in the compound bhavaṅga is usually explained in the commentaries by kāraṇa, “cause”; accordingly the entire term would mean literally “cause (or condition) of (continued) existence.” But we would suggest that aṅga may here have the alternative meaning of “link” as well, and consequently bhavaṅga would signify “link of existence.”
64. William James, The Principles of Psychology (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1890), p. 639.
65. Leaving aside the preceding moment during which the object existed without being perceived, which properly does not belong to the process itself.
66. See, e.g., the well-known passage in the Itivuttaka (no. 27): “Just as the light of the stars is in its intensity not the sixteenth part of the light of the moon, likewise all those meritorious actions forming the basis (of rebirth) are, in their value, not the sixteenth part of love, the liberation of heart.”
67. VibhA 25: Rūpaṁ garupariṇāmaṁ dandhanirodhaṁ, arūpaṁ lahupariṇāmaṁ khippanirodhaṁ.
68. This is an allusion to the Abhidhamma conception of the four causes of corporeal phenomena; see CMA 246–52.
69. On the positive side, definite determination of the future holds for those who reach the four stages of awakening: the stream-enterer is assured of reaching final liberation after at most seven more births, none below the human level, the oncereturner of one more birth in the sensuous realm, the nonreturner of rebirth in the form realm, and the arahant of never again taking any birth. On the negative side, those who commit the “five heinous crimes” (parricide, matricide, etc.) or adopt a morally pernicious wrong view are bound to take rebirth in the realms of misery.
70. Similarly, the sutta continues, “It is” is the appropriate designation for present things, not “It has been” or “It will be”; and “It will be” is the appropriate designation for future things, not “It has been” or “It is.”
71. This discussion is based on Asl 420 and the parallel passage at Vism 431.
72. At Asl 66 and the parallel passage at Vism 687.
73. See also p. 90, where the importance of the factor of potentiality has been dealt with in another context.
74. A Buddhist Manual of Psychological Ethics, pp. vii–ix.
75. Paṭis Comy: “Perception means taking up the appearance of a thing” (ākāragāhikā saññā). Note that the Latin word per-cipere, from which the English “perceive” is derived, means literally “to seize or take up thoroughly,” the prefix per corresponding to the Pāli saṁ in sañ-jānana-saññā.
76. See Aung, Compendium of Philosophy, pp. 32 ff.; CMA 163–66. The perceptual “phases” distinguished in these works are elaborations by later Abhidhamma scholars and are not found in the older texts.