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!!