Paṭṭhāna in Daily Life - Abhidhamma.com

225 Pages·2011·1.11 MB·English

PAṬṬHĀNA IN DAILY LIFE
AN INTRODUCTION TO
THE LAW OF CONDITIONALITY
U Hla Myint
2010

Paṭṭhāna In Daily Life

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ..................................................................9
Preface ................................................................11
Introduction ................................................................15
Hetu-paccayo Root condition .......................................49
Ārammaṇa-paccayo Fascination .............................................63
(Sense-object) condition
Adhipati-paccayo Predominance condition ..........................75
(sahajāta, ārammaṇa)
Anantara-paccayo Continuity condition .................................93
Samanantara-paccayo Contiguity condition ...............................111
Sahajāta-paccayo Co-nascence condition ..........................113
Aññamañña-paccayo Mutuality condition.................................126
Nissaya-paccayo Dependence condition ...........................127
(sahajāta, purejāta)
Upanissaya-paccayo Strong-dependence condition................129
(ārammaṇa, anantara, pakatupa)
Purejāta-paccayo Pre-nascence condition ........................146
(vatthu, ārammaṇa)
Pacchājāta-paccayo Post-nascence condition .......................152
Āsevana-paccayo Repetition condition ...............................156
Kamma-paccayo Kamma condition ..................................159
(sahajāta, nānakkhaṇika)
Vipāka-paccayo Resultant condition ................................175
Āhāra-paccayo Nutriment condition ..............................176
(sahajāta, kabaḷīkāra)

Indriya-paccayo Faculty condition ...................................179
(sahajāta, rūpajīvita, vatthu-purejāta)
Jhāna-paccayo Jhāna condition .....................................183
Magga-paccayo Path condition ........................................188
Sampayutta-paccayo Association condition .............................198
Vippayutta-paccayo Dissociation condition ...........................200
(sahajāta, pacchājāta, vatthupurejāta)
Atthi-paccayo Presence condition ................................209
(sahajāta, ārammaṇa, vatthu-purejāta)
Avigata-paccayo Non-disappearance condition ................209
Natthi-paccayo Absence condition .................................211
Vigata-paccayo Disappearance condition .......................211
Conclusion ..............................................................214

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The founding members of Tathagata Meditation
Center (TMC) used to study the Buddha’s teachings
with Late Venerable Sayadaw Sīlānanda. Among the
lectures they have learnt from him, “the Dependent
Origination” was published this year 2010. In this lecture,
Sayadaw occasionally referred to Paṭṭhāna, the law of
conditionality. Undoubtedly, he would have wished to
teach them the Paṭṭhāna, too. Unfortunately, however,
he passed away before this wish was fulfilled.
With dedication to their beloved teacher, TMC asked
me in 2008 to write a book on Paṭṭhana for general
readers. I felt greatly honored by this assignment. If
this book meets its objective and serves as a grain of
sand to slowly begin building up your broad knowledge
of Abhidhamma, that will bring me great happiness for
which I can never fully thank all the TMC members who
supported this project. I cannot even express how much
I owe to my Paṭṭhana teachers including U Dhammika-
bhivamsa (known as “Thamanay Kyaw” by pen-name),
U Kusala (Kyout See) and U Vijayā-laṅkāra with whom
I studied Paṭṭhāna about three decades ago in Maha-
gandhayon Pali Institute, Upper Burma. Above all else, I
must express my immeasurable gratitude to Venerable U
Panditābhivamsa, the abbot of Panditarama Meditation
Centers, under his guidance I studied English in Burma
and England on top of good training in Vipassanā
meditation.

Last but not least, I would like to thank Mr. Luyen
Pham, Mr. Son Tu, Mr. Kenneth Morris and Ms Barbara
Janus, Mr. Steven Armstrong, Mr. Jake Davis, all of
whom helped make sure everything went well with this
book’s publication.

With much metta and gratitude,
U Hla Myint
0
PREFACE
The Buddha’s teaching is classified into three
subjects known as Three Baskets (ti-piṭaka): Vinaya
(monastic code), Suttanta (doctrinal teaching) and
Abhidhamma (higher teaching). By the very name
Abhidhamma, it shows that it was held in high esteem
and honored as the higher teaching and more profound
than the other two.
The Abhidhamma has seven books:
Dhammasanganī, Vibhanga, Dhātu-kathā, Kathā-vatthu,
Paggala-paññatti, Yamaka and Paṭṭhāna. Among them,
the Paṭṭhāna, consisting of five voluminous sections
which all together have 2,640 pages in the Burmese
edition, is regarded as the deepest and broadest. The
material covered by this book “Paṭṭhāna in Daily Life” is
found in just the first ten pages of this great book. So,
you can imagine how much further we would need to
go for a comprehensive understanding of the Paṭṭhāna.
However, this book is intended to give readers a taste
of the Paṭṭhāna, like taking a drop of salty water out of
the mighty ocean.
This book is designed to help you understand
the Paṭṭhāna conditions in daily life, but attempts are
made to keep all its contents in harmony with the
authentic texts. Pāḷi references are given in this book
just for those who wish to refer to the texts. For general
readers, however, these can be skipped. The basic
Abhidhamma introduced here will be greatly helpful
for your understanding of the Paṭṭhāna. On top of this,

a rightful faith in the possibility of rebirth would be a
fundamental requirement to be able to appreciate the
Abhidhamma as well as all the other teachings of the
Buddha. This is because they are ultimately all linked to
the notion of rebirth in one way or the other.
May you be well, happy and peaceful!
U Hla Myint


Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato
SammÈsambuddhassa