Practical Abhidhamma

Dear friends and colleagues,

We all know that the Abhidhamma was a sermon given in Tusita deva plane. When we read the actual teachings from the Tripitaka, the content is rather boring.

What we need as global citizens is a way to make Abhidhamma understandable for the "common man."

I was fortunate enough to have attended the "Thingyo" classes given by two learned Abhidhamma scholars many years ago when I was working for the Myanmar Foreign Ministry. One of the lecturers, if my memory serves me well is U Ant Maung, who later became Director-General of the Department for Promotion and Propagation of the Sasana.

What I have understood is that there are four ultimate realities.

1. Seit
2. Setatheik
3. Rupa
4. Nibanna

In Pali they are called:
1. Cetam
2. Cetesitam
3. Rupan
4. Nibbanam

The practical application of Abhidhamma in daily life follows the teachings of Buddha which urges us to "purify our minds" and also to do "concentration meditation" which is called "samahta bhavana". There are two types of meditation. One is "samahta bhavana" and the other is "vipassana bhavana".

Most Buddhists and meditation practitioners know that much. This is nothing new or profound.

What is interesting is how we apply our knowledge of Abhidhamma to lead happy, healthy and productive lives.

There is one part of the Abhidhamma which deals with the "Cause and Effect". The scholarly term for this is "the 24 Causal relations." In Pali it is called Paticcasammudpada. Out of this teaching I wish to take out one principle which can help us in our daily lives.

This is at the beginning of the Pali sentence called "Hetu".

There are six hetus. Now "hetus" are what is known as the "root conditions".


To understand this concept we have to imagine a tree with various roots. The health and growth of the tree depends upon the health and growth of the roots.

What are the Six Hetus or "Six root conditions"?

They are:

1. Lawba (greed)
2. Dawtha (anger)
3. Mawha (ignorance)
4. Alawba (absence of greed) the opposite is "charity"
5. Adawtha (absence of anger) the opposite is "loving-kindness"
6. Amawha (absence of ignorance) the opposite is "knowledge"

In order to use this knowledge for guidance in our daily lives we have to do meditation on how to reduce "anger", "greed" and "ignorance".

If we do meditation on "loving-kindness" we have already taken care of "anger" that lurks within our minds. Since we are normal human beings we all have the emotions of "anger" and "greed". The concept of "ignorance" is a little tricky to explain. When we talk about "ignorance", the other person will surely ask us, "ignorance of what?"

In my understanding, at the highest level is meant the "ignorance of the four noble truths."

For practical purposes, we need to understand that the more we do "insight meditation", which is the close study of "how our mind works and the mind-body connection". If we know how to meditate on how our mind works we can gradully learn how to control the negative aspects of our thoughts.

In my opnion, doing meditation is something like playing tennis. You need lots and lots of practice. The more practice you have the better. To purify the mind is not that easy. Try closing your eyes and try stopping your thoughts. You will find that there is a "constant chatter" going on in the mind. It is as though a "thousand emails" are being sent to your inbox. Not that easy to find out which ones to read and which ones to delete. It takes time, right. So there you go.

Now to summarise.

What is the easiest way to use the knowlege of the Abhidhamma for practical living.

The answer: do meditation on your thoughts and purify your thoughts as much as possible, whenever youo can.

Have a nice day!!

Two mind books I wish to recommend

Dear colleagues and friends,

I wish to recommend two mind books that you will find very useful in the study of how the mind works. Do not think that the study of Abhidhamma is only the study of the human mind. No, it is not. It comes from the teachings of the Buddha and he was talking about all the beings in this universe and all other universes. He was talking about not only this galaxy (the milky way) but other galaxies as well.

How he did this was very simple. He classified the beings into 31 planes of existence. See below: -

1. Four lower abodes
2. Human plane
3. Six planes of devas (lower celestial beings)
4. Twenty planes of Brahmas (higher celestial beings).

Now about the two books.

1. Train your Mind, change your Brain (Sharon Begley)
Publisher: Ballentine books, New York

2. Can't remember what I forgot (Sue Halpern)
Publisher: Harmony books, New York.

I got the first book "Train your Mind, change your Brain as a birthday present from my dear wife in 2007 and was fascinated by its contents ever since. For one thing Sharon Begley writes very well. She is clear and very descriptive. It is not boring to read her book as she tells this subject like a story. It talks about a groundbreaking collaboration between neurosicence and Buddhism. The thing that interests me is to see how modern science is gradually finding out, through practical experiences in the laboratories what had been discovered by Gautama Buddha (that is for this world cycle) and all other past Buddhas that came before him, too numerous to count like the grains of sand on a beach. The Buddhas did not need any equiptments or laboratories. They had the best equiptment in the world, the human mind and this was enough to unravel how the mind works and how the mental processes occur and how to gain ultimate wisdom doing vipassana meditation. The Buddhas were able to travel to all the planes of celestial beings and many times, the devas and the Brahmas came down to earth to listen to the sermons given by Lord Buddha.

In the first book, the scientists were trying to prove that there was "plasticity" of the brain. This means that the circuits of the human brain can be changed by meditation and other stimuli. The other important thing that they studied in detail, in collaboration with the Dalai Lama was that meditation can change the way the human mind thinks. This has tremendous implications. This means that meditation and not medication is the way to help people who are having depressions, addictions or people who have harmful thoughts.

One of the most popular meditation teachers of our times, Mr. Goenka even conducted meditation classes in prisons with great success. He was able to make the inmates think of more positive thoughts as opposed to thoughts that are harmful to themselves and society.

Kyaw Myaing

The Abhidhamma Sutta

A lot of people talk about the "Abhidhamma sutta" in a very casual way and most people are frightened to hear even the word "abhidhamma". They think it is hard to grasp and boring to read.

However, in actual fact, I have found the study of Abhidhamma to be one of the most fascinating subjects of study for me. I never had the opportunity to study "psychology" in an academic setting, i.e. I never had the chance to go to a university and study "psychology". Therefore, I decided to do the next best thing; I bought a book from the "dummies series" and got a book called "Psychology for Dummies".

Here are the main books that form the collection of subjects for the "Abhidhamma Sutta"

1. Dhammasangani ("Enumeration of Phenomena").
2. Vibhanga ("The Book of Treatises").
3. Dhatukatha ("Discussion with Reference to the Elements").
4. Puggalapaññatti ("Description of Individuals").
5. Kathavatthu ("Points of Controversy").
6. Yamaka ("The Book of Pairs").
7. Patthana ("The Book of Relations").

I will deal with each of these books at a later date.

Ref: Access to Insight website (www.accesstoinsight.org)

Note: For those who are new to the study of Buddhism in general and Theravada Buddhism in particular, this website called "Access to Insight" is a wonderful reference source containing many writings by Buddhist monks and lay scholars. I have found it to be very useful in my study of Buddhism in the English language.

A sermon fit for the devas - the Abhidhamma sutta (mind, consciousness, matter and nivrana)

Do you know where the Abhidhamma sutta was delivered? It was delivered in Tusita deva plane (loka or world) for the benefi 0f the male deva (who used to be the mother of Prince Siddarhta).

The mother of Prince Siddarhta (Maya Devi, and wife of King Subdodana) passed away seven days after giving birth to him. After this Maya Devi became a male deva in Tusita deva plane.

Mind, Consciousness, Matter and Nivarna

So what is Abhidhamma about? That is what many of my friends, young and old ask me. To give you the authentic answer from the teachings of Theravada Buddhism, I would certainly have to answer in Pali.

Pali, by the way is an ancient language of India. (that was used during the time of Gautama Buddha. Another language used during that time was Sanskrit.)

In the book called "Abhidhamma Sanghaha" it is written thus:

1. Seitam
2. Cetesitam
3. Rupan
4. Nibbanam

In plain Burmese it translates as:

1. Seit
2. Seitatheik
3. Yoke
4. Nibban

According to the traditional Buddhist scriptures, "Seit" or "Mind" means the ability to know. It also means the function "to know".

For example, a stone does not have the ability "to know" but a man or an animal like a dog has the ability "to know" because both have "Seit" or "Mind".

What is Abhidhamma

Abhidhamma is a high sounding word and in Myanmar, most teachers have made this subject more difficult than it should be. True, this sermon was given to the devas in the deva plane. Devas are celestial beings. The christian equivalent for the word devas would be angels.

Anyway, the reason I became interested in Abhidhamma is because it taught me many things about how the human mind works. It taught be about the mind-body connection (to use a phase used by Deepak Chopra).

The essence of Abhidhamma is about Mind and Matter.

As a young boy when I was in high school, I was interested in the study of Physics. I used to memorize the definition for physics: "physics is the study of matter and the effects of energy on matter."

Well in Abhidhamma, we get to study more about the mind and more about matter.

The Buddha explained about how the mind works not only in the human plane but in all planes of existence, that is, all the 31 planes of existence.

So if you are interested to know more about how your mind works, you have come to the right place.

Welcome. Let the journey begin.

Km

Mangala Pyi - the concept

I thought about this concept as I was reading a book about the Mangala sutta by Sayagyi U Kyaw Htut (he was editor-in-chief of the Board of Myanmar Translation of the Sixth International Buddhist Synod Pali Texts).

The name of the book is "A Guide to Mangala Sutta". This book was translated by Daw Mya Tin (wife of U Ba Htay, who was at one time Chairman of the Elections Commission). Daw Mya Tin served as Head of the History Department at the Institute of Education.

In the preface of that book on page xi it was written as follows:

“ Thus within this narrow compass of eleven short stanzas, the Buddha had condensed all moral virtues into thirty-eight rules or modes of conduct. If these Mangala rules are obeyed or adhered to, one can become a good son, a good parent, a good citizen, a good administrator or even an ideal head of state. These Managla rules are therefore very important in the making of a nation of good citizens, and in the building of an ideal State, or a Mangala Country.”

From this name Mangala Country, I thought it would be a good idea to promote the idea of establishing a "Managla Pyi" in Burma/Myanmar. I use the name Burma because that was the name of the country when we got our independence. It is only for the sake of historical correctness and not for any political reason.

By calling Myanmar a Mangala Pyi we can avoid getting into the political arguments. In a blog that is devoted to the Study of Abhidhamma, it is wise to concentrate on Abhidhamma and nothing else.

The point I am trying to make in the short blog is to say that it will be beneficial for all Buddhists in our country to follow the teachings of the Buddha and study the Mangala Sutta as well as the Abhidhamma pitaka.

This I believe will lay a firm foundation for the establishment of a "Managla Pyi" in Myanmar.