Process of Consciousness and Matter - Abhidhamma.com

INTRODUCTION
This book is intended for all serious students of the Abhidhamma.
It serves as supplement to Bhikku Bodhi’s book A Comprehensive
Manual of Abhidhamma, and treats various important aspects in more
detail - in particular the process of consciousness.
All Buddhist teachings, including all the multitude of different
schools and approaches, have the same basic aim - to attain liberation.
In Buddhism liberation means becoming free from the limited
boundaries and the suffering that characterise our samsaric existence.
The Buddha taught that we can only realise this liberation by means of
our own efforts, directed towards a deep understanding of ourselves
and the world around us. We will not realise such an understanding
simply by being “handed it on a plate” by someone else, however
exalted or even divine that person or being is.
Buddhist teachings may be regarded as having two main strands:
conventional teachings and ultimate teachings. The main repository of
the Buddha’s conventional teachings is the Sutta Pitaka. In these
suttas most of the teachings are directed towards ethics, and explain
how people caught up in samsara can live their lives in a kinder and
more wholesome way. The Buddha knew that many, even most,
human beings will not achieve liberation immediately. What they
must therefore do is to try and move gradually towards liberation.
Depending on their past kamma and their present effort, they may
realise liberation in this life, or it may be in their next life, or in some
future life.
In the “ultimate” teachings of the Buddha however, as presented
in the Abhidhamma Pitaka, we are provided with another perspective.
The Abhidhamma talks in a more abstract way than does the Sutta
Pitaka. The teachings in the Abhidhamma (which means teachings
that are “special” or “supra mundane”) define the universe in terms of
nāma rūpa, i.e. mental and material phenomena. The aim of the
Abhidhamma is to lead us towards a deep understanding of the true
nature of ourselves and the world around us. In order to attain final
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